The Last Day of the Spring Plant Sale (Or Is It?)

Nice shot taken today of Carolina silverbells (Halesia tetraptera) in the shade garden. These flowers were quite conspicuous although not around for very long. This tree is planted as an understory tree in our shade garden and while native to a large portion of the Eastern United States, this specimen has done wonderfully for us over the past 5 years since it was planted. My parents came to the gardens today after picking up my younger daughter and we took a nice tour of the gardens. I, of course, brought my camera to catch the quickly changing garden out there. Perfect weather and the gardens were fairly busy. To the left is a close-up of 'Little Boy Blue' lilac (Syringa vulgaris) that should stay a bit shorter than other French lilacs; most of which are peaking right now.

The plant sale was lightly attended today. We had a steady crowd but it was never overwhelming. We had hoped to be overwhelmed but did make some nice sales nonetheless. When we came in today, the thermometer read 36 degrees F. We had covered our tomatoes and basils with row cover but still noted some very slight frost damage here and there. We sure hope we're out of the "potential frost" worries and can proceed with planting in earnest (starting tomorrow). We still have a nice supply of vegetables, herbs and daylilies and have decided to extend the sale to run next Fri. and Sat. (May 22 and 23) from 9 am until 3 pm. We feel there is value in extending the sale and clearing out more plants. Our purpose in this extension is twofold, we hope to bring in more revenue for this fundraiser and would like to clear out more space for our incoming plant deliveries. It's now crazy time as we have planting scheduled every day and the next four Saturdays are planting days out in the gardens (8am-noon). The tree peonies (Paeonia suffruticosa) are starting to bloom out in the gardens and they are certainly beautiful albeit short-lived in terms of bloom duration. This is one of the few plants that I think is worth planting simply for that narrow 1 week window of bloom. We have hundreds of unidentified tree peonies out in the gardens that were part of a generous donation. We normally don't take "unknowns" but considering the retail value of these, it was worth it. Lots of excitement coming up soon! Nice shot below of the foliage on one of our specialty maples. This is the variegated sycamore maple (Acer pseudoplatanus 'Variegata') with interesting leaves; no two alike! Remember the value of foliage!