Thank goodness for rainy days. Without them, we stay outside and never get around to tidying the potting shed, defrosting the fridge, or keeping up with the paperwork. (Not to mention how happy the gardens are after a good downpour.) I’m grateful too that Betsy worked on the blog last week because aside from the pleasure of seeing Blithewold’s gardens and to-do list through another’s eyes, it opened up my rainy day just enough to get the garden-by-garden plant lists up on line. The lists aren’t 100% accurate — every time I go through them I find another misplaced plant; every time I visit the gardens I see another I forgot to add. But they’re pretty close to right, available for your perusal, and downloadable, which is more than I can say for last year’s lists. You can find them under “plant lists” in the above menu or by clicking here. If they raise any questions, please feel free to ask in the comments or send me an email (kgreen at blithewold dot org).

moon gate view

To celebrate, I thought I’d share this year’s Rose Garden groupings as they are this very minute. To keep things interesting, we change this garden’s inventory of bulbs, annuals, biennials, and tender perennials every year, and make annual additions and subtractions as needed to the roses, perennials, and other shrubs. Of course the garden changes day after day too with the roses coming in and out of bloom, and a succession of biennials waxing and waning. This year we edited the Japanese anemone (Anemone tomentosa ‘Robustissima’) and anise hyssop (Agastache ‘Blue Fortune’), and removed the Agastache mexicana Acapulco Salmon & Pink altogether. We added eleven sweet new roses, and went for bling with the annuals and tender perennials, choosing deep “jewel” tones of garnet, ruby, and amethyst, banded by shiny silvers. If I may toot Gail, Betsy, the volunteers’ and my own horn, general consensus has been that it’s stunning. (Click here for the list. Click on thumbnails below to scroll through larger images.)

Do you have a garden or area in your garden that you switch up every year? Do you maintain an inventory of your plants too?