Above is a photo of spring disarray. Plants outside to harden off, but still too vulnerable to plant. We are having gray rain now, day after day, and we don’t dare to complain, since it has broken the drought. I feel as though I am living in Seattle.
A dooryard lilac and below, a showy quince.
Below is Euphorbia “Bonfire”. It is in the Dry border. I bought it for its wine dark leaves, but its flowers are startling. I wish it had grape hyacinths growing near it for a touch of blue, but in this garden it blooms alone, since most plants surrounding it are mere clumps, or have yet to break ground.
This would be a plant to consider in a rock garden-
This dank weather is good for transplanting, for cool weather does not strain plants one is trying to establish. I am thinking of the Tall Yellow primrose of waste places and roadsides, Oenothera biennis and the feral Digitalis grandiflora, brought to New England by colonists homesick for their English gardens. I found dozens of the latter in the verge surrounding the tennis courts this spring. The owner had levelled the Tall evil knotweed, and the foxgloves germinated and grew. I have put over a dozen in my sister’s Bow garden. She had two already, bought for ten dollars each at the plant stand at “The Fells” in Sunapee, the once estate of John Hay, Secretary of State for Theodore Roosevelt two years ago.
The primrose has a tap root, but even severed, it perseveres if kept in a pot in the shade and watered. When , after a few weeks to settle down, into the garden it can go. Here it is, below and below that is a tray of collected foxgloves.
The Yellow Foxglove is more persistent than other foxgloves, and may live beyond two years. The primrose is biennial, and seeds itself everywhere. I dug this years plants from the vegetable garden.
Gardening On Granite 