An—ti—cipation (channeling Carly Simon)

Since I wrote this, the roses have started to explode, and I have much more color. More on that later.

Even gardeners around here in what some of you may still regard as the frozen tundra of Western New York are surprised when I tell them my garden is still almost exclusively green in early June. They have peonies, irises, poppies, and all those other plants that bloom in late spring.

Whereas I don’t even have a columbine to show yet, though they’re close. There are also impressive candelabra of rose buds, showing thick pink and yellow seams. Oh yeah, the rhodie on the side of the house is in full, and the ones in front are beginning to show a bit of color. Otherwise, it’s a green, green, green world here at GWI.

I love the green, though. Especially the ferns and the emerging foliage plants. The pond perimeter is filling in nicely with frosty lamium, creeping Jenny, painted fern, dicentra (which has been blooming its head off since late April and will continue to do so all summer), columbine, low campanula, and other stuff—very little of it flowering at this point, except the dicentra.

In the sunny bed I have 1 (one) clematis bloom and one (1) Louise Odier. But it’s nice in a way. All is fresh. The real show happens in mid-summer with the lilies and other summer bulbs and annuals, such as elepahnt ear and (hopefully) dahlia.