Volunteers and staff alike took to Blithewold’s grounds the past few weeks to plant thousands of spring blooming bulbs. It has been quite the Herculean feat. Already, just about half of the 58,000 bulbs have found their terrestrial homes across the property. Under the guidance of Dan Christina, director of horticulture, we have placed and planted many varieties of daffodils, squill, hyacinths and quamash for a spring display that will truly take your breath away. Here are some photos from our planting days.

One of our planting locations is now the site of a “river” of bulbs in alternating layers and colors. Here are the before, during, and after photos.

In between helping to plant bulbs, Julia, Becca, and I have been working in our display gardens. As we always do in October, we prepare for the soon approaching winter months. We have our own bulbs to plant in the gardens, but this will wait until the temperatures dip a bit colder. I am hoping to do all that we can to avoid feeding the tulips to the squirrels this year.

For now, our collection of container plants have all found their winter homes in the greenhouses. We have dug stock plants of our favorite tender perennials. And soon we will put our lotus collection to rest for the colder months. It is a lot of heavy work in the fall, but the joy these plants bring to all of you (and to us) is worth the labor. 

With a possible frost later this week, I will leave you with my favorite things here at Blithewold in the past weeks. Enjoy the beauty wherever you find it.

*featured image at top is Chrysanthemum ‘October Glory’