No April Fool This Year

It is the Real Thing.  Yes, we had a real winter  freezing cold, ice and sleet, and lots of velvety blankety snow (which the garden loves) and ergo… now we are having a Real Spring and it is divine.  Those heartwarming and tempting sprigs and sprouts are not 3 or 5 weeks early, they are deliberate and insistently pushing their way up in their normal cycle..so each arrival is more anticipated and therefore…much more special.  This Easter weekend is the perfect ushering in of the real thing…

 

BLOOMING  BONANZA

This issue of Dirtier was meant to arrive in your in-boxes before Easter, but such were the Wonder Full busy days of recent weeks…in and out of Church, oohing and aahing over the precious images of early spring…that I hope you will have a moment to savor them on this very first April day…

First anemone appeared on March 3^rd, but the rest of them are taking their time, as they should.  Right now there is still only this one…which is odd but endearing.

Right now that same persistent one is looking a little worse for wear 

but still hanging on.

 

Snowdrops are especially loveable when there is a patch of snow and so fulfilling to watch the patches flourish… my one $18 ‘S. Arnott’ planted 2 years ago is now 4…I couldn’t be happier…

The cyclamen now has several flowers.

This crocus is called C. vernus ‘Flower Record’  it is big and blowsy
and early to bloom

More refined is Cricus tommasinianus  ‘Ruby Giant’, though it is neither gem-red or very big… 

Well, here is a comparison…

The smaller sweetheart is Crocus chrysanthus ‘Ladykiller’… which is quite
a poignant name with which to have caressed this tender little beauty.

Most all my bulbs are from Brent and Becky's Bulbs, John Scheepers/van Engelen
and the wonderful Odyssey…

 

The Iris reticulata have already been around for a few weeks.

This one blooms a little later and is noticeably larger and it is a gorgeous shade of really heady rich red wine…not to be confused with the purples and blues at all, though they all look great together. This one ‘J.S. Dijt’ –

Whoever he was he had very good taste…

Popping up unexpectedly from within the heather is especially divine.

 But perhaps, everyone’s favorite remains the sweet Iris histrioidies
‘Katherine Hodjkin’.  She must have been a pretty girl.

Read this entire issue of DiRTIER Here!

 

Style is Growing in the Garden

Style is Growing in the Garden

Pick up a copy of The East Hampton Press to read about
Style in the Garden or Read it Here!

If you are looking for Stylish Garden Accessories, 

visit us at The Best @ Dianne B.

The Best Garden Tool Belt

And for Stylish Garden Design, visit Dianne B Gardens.

Follow us on Twitter at dianneb4.

Friend us on Facebook.

Spring is in the Air!

It is still cold on the East End but the sun is out today.

Are you gearing up for the gardening season?

Do you need some help designing a unique, stylish garden?

Visit Dianne B Gardens and give Dianne a call....

Dianne B Gardens

Do you have a Dianne B Best Peeping Stick?

This is the perfect tool for admiring hellebores or any
low-hanging bloom without getting down on the damp ground.  

Be the envy of your friends and order yours today!

Dianne B in the Wall Street Journal

The Wall Street Journal likes Gardening with Style ~ 

Read all about it HERE!

You can purchase Dianne's Garden Tool Belt HERE!

No Winter Doldrums @ Dianne B

As a Garden lover,  it doesn’t take too very much to excite me:

These promising green shoots fill me with joy, 

not quite sure if galanthus or little iris or early daffodils or 

what…but who cares? 

  The reason I plant  more bulbs each year is to be in for those

scintillating little surprises.

The hold-your-breathiness of the first spotting of a thick

old patch of snowdrops.

The colors of these Leucothoe ‘Rainbow’ leaves are only this good

in the harshest of conditions.

Hellebores pushing through the ice make me happy.

BUT  the Most Exciting Treasure of the 2013 season

( so far, of course)

Is the tiny, but unbelievably exhilarating blooming of  cyclamen coum.

This is the first time I have gotten actual blooms in oh so many tries…

So hooray for  Edelweiss Pernennials…

Excerpted from DIRTIER: Volume 45.

Read it in its entirety Here.

Traceries

TRACERIES

When snow-laden, the brown old gnarly lifeless branches

make such pretty patterns, but without snow and few signs

of spring, well…they certainly lose their appeal.

But this peaceful Buddha seems to strike the right chord

whether snow-laden or moss-choked.

Excerpted from DIRTIER: Volume 32

HIMALAYAN PINE WHINE....UH OH

HIMALAYAN PINE WHINE .... UH OH

Oh dear……I suppose it is better to know than not to know.

When I tucked this soft, graceful, droopy tree into what seemed

 a perfect spot next to the new screened-in porch, never --- not ever ---

did I dream that it had the potential to reach 150 feet. …

It was so soft and small when we brought it home

from the great annual

Horticultural Alliance of the Hamptons Plant Sale.

The cones have not yet reached 10 inches as they are expected, but what is this?  8 inches already???

Only bought 5 years ago and already topping the cupola!

Let the gardener beware...

My feelings are best described by a favorite quote from Gloria Steinem that happened onto one of Stephanie Brody-Lederman’s treasured collage calendars…

“The truth will set you free but first it will piss you off.”

Excerpted from DIRTIER: Volume 32.

READ IT HERE!

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