WHAT THEY SAW

More than a hundred enthusiastic people came garden-viewing
on the Garden Conservancy Open Day, Saturday May 12th.

This is what they saw:

The mingling of Japanese Maples Autumn Moon and
Red Moon at their freshest.

The last tulips--this one named Sky High Scarlet--
very fiddle-dee-dee
in the shadiest border

sharing space with shy Arisaema sikokianum, who this season
decided to turn his back on the garden path.

The secret architecture of Allium triquetrum -- so  named
because of the charming little bells rising on a sturdy
three-sided triangular stem.

English bluebells that are really Spanish bluebells, but calling them English bluebells has more resonance--and they are slightly heartier
(and a little less expensive) than Hyacinthoides hispanica 'Excelsior'. If you are a purist, then get Hyacinthoides non - scripta which is commercially grown as Scilla nutans and is most closely akin to the indigenous English bluebell. But I would stick with this...

Allliums ready to pop.
Aren't they sexy...

That caressable makes-you-limp-kneed lavender Tree Peony....one
of many, many blooms on this old tree - well, old for me, brought
from my first garden where it barely produced a flower and
has now flourished in the sun.

Columbines mixing with Fritillaria acopetala under the snowy
whiteness of Japanese maple 'Butterfly' bought at the
Horticultural Alliance of the Hamptons some 3 or 4 years ago.

And lastly - and I suppose most importantly because it was
the absolute People's Choice. Everyone's favorite densely
layered dwarf Japanese maple, I think it is 'Mikawa yatsubusa'
and I acquired it from Lynch's in Southampton in 2007.