One of the many things I love about going to Ladew Topiary Gardens is that the blooming season out in Monkton is at least 10 days behind our garden here in Roland Park.

Chasing spring is something I love to do. And this year, with so many cool days, spring on the East Coast has been gloriously long.

Last week I had a meeting at Ladew. I cannot go there for any reason without running through some of the gardens. As is true everywhere in Baltimore this spring, the tulips seemed particularly large and radiant. It’s a good year for tulips.

While the daffodils in our garden were long gone, they still grew among the tulips and throughout the gardens at Ladew.

Even on a gallop through the gardens, the plantings and the meticulous maintenance always inspire. A unique shade of maroon pansies caught my eye around the small fountain in the Berry garden. Read More →

Happy Birthday, Guilford

I am not a big fan of crowds, but I will go on the Maryland House and Garden Pilgrimage, which kicks off the centennial celebration of Guilford, on Sunday, April 28. With houses never before open to the public on tour, I am sure the turnout will be a record-breaker. A good thing too, as a portion of the proceeds will benefit Guilford’s famous Sherwood Gardens.

The gardens should be radiant. Ninety-degree days earlier in the month pushed the bulbs along. Now cool temperatures the past two weeks have kept most blooms fresh, with later varieties just opening. The weather gods seem to have known that having the gardens near their peak in late April would be a perfect kick-off to a centennial celebration.

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Two days before a heat wave hit the east coast and gave Baltimore the highest temperature in the country at 96 degrees, I was in New York. In a turtleneck, fleece and quilted jacket I visited the New York Botanical Garden as part of my sister’s birthday weekend. On a chilly tram ride we toured some of the garden’s 250 acres and enjoyed an overview of the varied terrain and many gardens within the garden founded in 1891.

Only scilla, daffodils, pansies and early cherry trees bloomed outdoors.

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Cool Spring temperatures are bringing the gradual appearance of color. Color seems to emerge from the ground up, beginning with white snowdrops. Next come the crocuses, chionodoxa (glory of the snow) and blue flowers on vinca, the delicate ground cover many use after tearing out English ivy. Read More →

When I raised the shade this morning, snow had covered the ancient boxwoods over night. A limb of the hemlock that towers above the house drooped in front of my second story window. Out another window the lane, as alleys are called in Roland Park, looked wintrier than it had all winter. Daffodils on the bank across the street drooped their buttery heads over splayed foliage.

Before breakfast I went out back to brush snow from the early-blooming, Okame cherry tree. One limb was so weighted down that it looked as if it might snap.

The pairs of new boxwoods by the garden paths stood sentry in puffy white caps. The birdbath looked like a dish of marshmallow ice cream. Purple crocuses and primroses radiant last week were buried this morning. Only some blue flowers on the vinca showed and the backs of a few hellebores, most of which were buried.

Red berries on the aucuba bushes looked more like Christmas than Maryland Day. Such is March in a Baltimore garden.

Happy 125th birthday, Rawlings Conservatory. Your full name is a mouthful: The Howard Peters Rawlings Conservatory & Botanic Gardens of Baltimore! It’s almost as long as your distinguished history.

Far more than 125 panes of glass adorn your Victorian majesty. You are the second oldest “glass palace” in America. You are the last of five that once graced Baltimore’s well-known parks. Quite a distinction. Read More →

This past weekend the second Celebration of Art at Cylburn Arboretum began. The weather cooperated too. Paintings depicting various aspects of the arboretum were surrounded during daytime events by sunny, autumnal views around the Vollmer Center. Read More →

Gardens at hospitals soften the experience for patients and staff. The gardens around the Johns Hopkins Hospital are as impressive as the size of that city within a city.

For various reasons my husband and I have become frequent fliers at the Wilmer Eye Institute there.

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A long overdue trip to see the outstanding George Bellows show at the National Gallery of Art http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/bellowsinfo.shtm also reminded me of how gardens enhance any outing. Read More →