On a hunt for my missing camera this morning (“have you seen it?!”, I asked the birds. “To weetle weetle weetle”, said the birds.), I cruised through the Bosquet past nearly done daffs and wide-eyed Trillium (thinking I would take a picture, if only…) to the North Garden. Gail and I spent yesterday afternoon in the horseshoe beds finishing up with our perennial re-location project. We have taken out extra burly Phlox ‘David’s and a couple of daylilies here and there and some Amsonia orientalis (aka Rhazya orientalis) which nearly killed me (the taproot on that thing!… the runners!…) to give breathing space to the wanted clumps and make ample room for our rotations of annuals for more color-no-waiting. As my lucky stars would have it (thank you lucky stars!) my camera was high and dry, despite the fog and forecast rain, on the fountain steps exactly where I don’t remember leaving it. (phew!) So I was able to, then and there, take this foggy morning picture. Tulips are ‘Creme Upstar’ and ‘Burgundy’ – looking actually more like red (which I think suits the garden very well).

Yesterday, while some of the volunteers worked near the Enclosed Garden and some worked out at the entrance gate (Ellie asked “Are we being punished for something?”), others of us started planting out our new “dry shade” bed under the Sophora by the Moongate. We borrowed giant Hosta ‘Sum and Substance’ from the Display Garden along with Hakonechloa, Kirengeshoma and Rabdosia. The only picture I have so far of the bed is of Brunnera macrophylla cheek to cheek with its doppelganger Forget-me-not (Myosotis sylvatica). A point in favor of the Brunnera is that the foliage keeps on keeping on long after the flowers have gone. After tea more of us helped Ellie tackle the entrance gate – it’s looking so much better!

Today the pond, which is front and central to the Display Garden redesign, will be de-scummed. A local expert, Barney Webster from Nelumbo Water Gardens will clean it out and has generously offered to donate some plants (Lotus, maybe?!). I’m sure our resident frog will much prefer clean water and lovely plants to his current scuz-cloud basking platform!