The guys have just about finished with “phase 1” of the Display Garden redesign. Gail and I really didn’t know how they were going to deal with a tricky grading issue in the last bed (the last new bed for this season – more later!) and only got half a clue of what they were up to when they started delivering stones. They worked out a way to terrace the slope with sizable stones dug out the deep elsewhere on the property, gave us perfectly spaced steps for working within the bed and created a mini megalithic structure just for the fun of it. Gail and I have been hoarding plants for the day we can finally plant the bed and even though we thought we were exhausted and creatively drained — we’re not! It’s like getting a blank canvas and new paints and finding that the muse was just waiting at the easel. Our new baby bed should start to take shape with volunteers’ help by the end of the week. It’ll just need a name…

Gail started the greenhouse exodus on Tuesday – the container bed is starting to take shape. Every year is new and different even with the same plants. One of my favorite things is finding transformation in repotting a world-weary specimen and finding new companions for it in the container garden.

The roses are coming! — the roses are coming! Here are a couple of new ones — it’s too early to tell if they’re going to be all around winners but they’re ahead right now! Rosa ‘Fourth of July’ is a climber and particularly perfect for Bristol, RI (home of the oldest 4th of July parade in the country). And Rosa ‘Champlain’ is a gorgeous red-red.

And a not quite new favorite: Rosa mutabilis is a delicate color shifter. It’s marginally hardy here but our 3 roses have taken moves and cold winters in stride.

A couple more photo worthies today: The Allium bulgaricum and Amsonia hubrectii in the North Garden horseshoe and a pair of frogs chilling out by the big pond this morning. (It was chilly!)