The ‘Ice Follies’ – the first of our daffodils to show their faces have already started to fade. They’re not fading away just yet but the bright yellow trumpet they were born with is a creamy white now, signifying their end. We wouldn’t want them to stick around. Just imagine if we had daffodils lasting the summer – it would be so very wrong. Their colors only belong to spring, never summer – at least not in quite the same way. We might wish in theory for plants that bloom for months on end but when we have them we generally stop noticing them after the first few weeks. We move on because the season moves on and so the world turns.

By and by, the daffodils will go by and we’ll be ready for them to go because something else will come into bloom and capture our hearts and all our attention. (That said, in case you’re planning a visit, the daffs will still be outstanding for our opening weekend and if the weather cooperates, they’ll be a stunning sight well into the next week or so.)

The rain and then the heat of the last few days has more things blooming at once than the steady succession we’re used to. We do have to look quickly lest we miss any of the show. Every day something is opening up and another something is fading away. The confectionery pink petals of the Magnolia x loebneri ‘Leonard Messel’ might start to fall apart now but the Water Garden cherries (Prunus x yedoensis ‘Akebono’) are just starting to open. Some things, like bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis) in the Rock Garden are short lived anyway – I feel so lucky whenever I get to see them in bloom. But maybe everything will slow down a little now that temperatures are dropping back into the normal range. Regardless of the speed of spring, my advice is to seize the day with both eyes.

What spring changes are you focused on?