English

I think of April, May and June as the English season in New York gardens. In the cool sunny days early flowers like violas, pansies, ranunculus, primrose and alyssum bloom in dizzy profusion. These, combined with flowering shrubs and roses, are our opportunity to have an "English garden" that will soften the heart of a minimalist -- if he admits it or not.

So go for it. Plant window boxes with violas and alyssum. (I took this picture last month in Pacific Grove, California, where they have English weather year round.) Time is short, only a couple of months before hot weather comes. Then the cool season flowers flag and it's on to tropicals that the English envy us for.

Besides, you can't plant impatiens yet. It's pansies or nothing.

gloves

Having finished a bit of yardwork on this warm, glorious day, I want to plug a product called Invisible Glove. It's an ointment of soap and glycerin that you rub on your hands and let it dry before you work. Dirt and grime then wash off easily. I originally got it for housepainting, but it's a great gardening product.

Even with Invisible Glove, you should wear work gloves too. But there are some jobs, like planting little violas from pony packs, that are easier without gloves.

I got my tube at the hardware store for $3.99. It's lasted for 2 years.

witchhazel

I saw witchhazel blooming in Gramercy Square today, right on schedule, but still a surprise. It's one of the nicest things about the end of winter. The way the petals curl back around the calyx reminds me snowdrops, which are also in bloom now.
The variety they grown there is deep yellow, 'Arnolds Promise,' I think. There are several esteemed varieties, ranging from pale yellow ('Pallida') through a nice deep rusty orange ('Jelena'). All of them are nice large shrubs with good foliage and fall color.
The only fault of the witchhazels is that they tend to hold onto their dead leaves, which spoils the display of winter flowers. It's a nuisance to have to pull dead leaves from a deciduous tree.
Witchhazels are fragrant, sometimes freely so. I can't help myself from picking a flower, inspecting it closely, and keeping it in my pocket. Warmth seems to bring out the scent.
The illustration is by Charles Rennie Mackintosh, the great Scottish architect and decorator.

in like a lion

Yesterday I did the late winter cleanup: cut back the grasses, cut down the sedums, pruned and trained the roses. I cut the clematis down to a foot tall -- I just didn't feel like fiddling around with the brittle stems, and I don't mind if it blooms a little later.

And then I woke to a real snowstorm. Excellent. As I watched I thought how rare it is to see bright unadulterated white. In the same way that hardly anything is as purely blue as a blue sky hardly anything is as purely white as snow.