Hostas Reaching Full Potential

June in Maine is an exciting time. The perennials are beginning to bloom and many need to be divided as they have outgrown their proper spots in the garden. Even my latest planted hosta beds are really coming into their own now. Some of the older plants in the newer beds are entering their third year and their size has increased tremendously. The rhododendrons which I have planted in each of the beds are just beginning to bloom and they too have lots of new growth. The bleeding hearts are still in bloom and are just breathtaking,
particularly the Gold Heart. My pine needle mulch is beginning to be thick enough in the newer gardens to help with weed control although some always manage to plant their feet and I methodically try to search them out early in season so they won't invite their friends to join them!

Hostas Emerge, Mother Earth Revels

My beautiful hostas are emerging for yet another season! Some much more timid than others about the chilly nights which still plague us. I love seeing them come up. The brilliant purple coverings of their penis like shafts poke up through the soil as if making love to Mother Nature. The way they unfurl their leaves... the distinctiveness of the way they choose to show themselves in the spring is truly fascinating. These pictures, all taken on the same day, show only a small sampling of how different they can be.

The Much Awaited Spring Returneth

The much awaited spring has finally arrived in all its magnificant splendor at Oak Hill Lodge. Eric and I have cleaned out the last of the gardens. An early snowfall, long before the last of the oak leaves chose to let go their grip from their comfortable branches, trapped them under the winter blanket. The good news is that they are extremely brittle, having weathered a hard Maine winter, so they break into mulch very quickly. The stonewall which runs along the driveway garden was displaced by our snowplow man, but that only gave me the provocation to move it up on the priority list to be rebuilt in my new "large rocks outside, small stones inside" method. Vanessa paid me a huge compliment by saying that she would have thought a landscaper had built the wall! The daffodils are doing just what I hoped. The older clumps have multiplied so that all the "singles" I planted are now good sized clumps of daffodils. I attest to them being just like a "savings account".. the more you plant, the more they multiply. It is wonderful! Eric built me a beautiful arbor for my climbing rose, transplanted from the front of the Lodge garden... It is just what I hoped for. I am hopeful that all of my roses will have survived. I was diligent about mounding the hay around their bases, and they all seem to be showing some green shoots. I am holding off trimming them severely, as I am not sure how much trimming they need. I took them all back by about 1/4 for now an will use the "wait and see" method. The very first buds of the Magnolia opened Mother's Day weekend, as did the first of my tulips. A very nice Mother's Day present indeed. My last big concern is my birches in the Event Field Garden. My four young birches suffered a lot of damage from the early winter ice storm. They were brought right to the ground from the weight of the ice. The largest of them has rebounded quite well, but the other three will need some help. We removed another row of pines from the area behind the lilac hedge hoping to allow more sunlight and more space for them to spring up. The next step will be to cable them to the strong white pines which grow behind them. We will slowly tighten the cables so as to correct their posture. I think most other plants survived unharmed. So far, so good. I have moved a lot of shrubs and perennials which were not in their best spots this spring. These are not called the "Trial and Error Gardens of Oak Hill Lodge" for nothing!

April 16th, 2014 at Oak Hill Lodge

The rainstorm turned to a snowstorm and we awoke to about an inch and a half of the white stuff, without really thinking it was going to happen! We thought it would stick to the western mountains as the coast was supposed to get a pass. Eric was so MAD, not usually this firm about the fact we've had ENOUGH snow and cold temps. The thermometer said 30 degrees at 7:00 a.m. but the weatherman assured us that by noon it would be mid-forties and the snow would live up to its name of "poor man's fertilizer" and be gone. He was pretty accurate except for not taking into consideration the amount of shade our pines produce. Eric was so agitated that he even came up with the idea of the last photo. A little daffodil telling Mother Nature what she thinks of her icy surroundings... a little bending of the leaves was necessary to create the effect!

Easter Bunny Time at Oak Hill Lodge

Ahhhh, we made it! The weather has finally taken a turn, the ground is slowly warming and there are not too many patches of snow left to melt. We turn the lifeblood of the Lodge back on this weekend... later than usual...the water! Then it is "open-season" and we can stay up there any time we feel like it. We will have Easter at the Lodge in just two weeks. I am so glad that Easter came late this year. The daffodils may be up a bit but the hopes I had for full bloom will fall short by a couple of weeks.

Come Spring... I NEED Some Color!

Spring will come slowly to Oak Hill Lodge this year. These pictures were taken March 23, they show that though the sun is warm and has melted away the snow where its glorious rays touch the anxious ground, where it cannot shine there is still a good foot and a half of snow. I wandered the field taking in the warmth of the sun, but closing up my coat collar against the brisk March wind. The snow is so crusty, in many areas I am able to walk atop it. The driveway, where it has been plowed is down to earth, which when we arrived was hard as rock, but within a couple hours, the sun had worked its magic and the very top of the ground had begun to muddy up. Walking by the hosta beds, I spied the very first sign I have found that spring WILL come. A cluster of 3 daffodil shoots were emerging from under the pine needle mulch. What a joyous sight!
I am so glad to see just the slightest promise that this long, cold winter will relent.

Winter of 2014 at the Lodge

It was an exceptional winter in Maine. We had plenty of snow at Christmas and a real "January Thaw" where we lost most of what had fallen. Thank goodness we did as soon after the snow and the cold returned and as I am writing this in late March, we still have plenty of snow cover.... a foot and a half in places where the sun don't shine! The snow is still so beautiful when we have a new storm, but the cold has been so severe this year, that has been what I have minded. Today it was in the single numbers when I got up... breaking records in Portland for the date. The sun feels warm now though and it registered 90 degrees on a 26 degree day in the greenhouse!