Garden Surprises

This week my oak leaf hydrangeas have started to bloom. The showy white flowers are fragrant and huge. As pretty as they are in early summer, the color and beauty continue to be interesting through all four seasons. In late summer and early fall, the blooms will turn a pinkish brown. They look as dreamy as a sepia tone photograph. When the weather turns cold, they lose their leaves and the bark starts to exfoliate in a pleasing texture. In early spring, they begin to leaf out and grow taller with bigger leaves at the top, creating a little canopy of shade.

This week also brought out a hungry baby bunny. The little ball of fur was undeterred in its pursuit of grass to nibble on. Thankfully, it hadn't found the hostas yet!


One recent summer, a roaming band of wild bunnies went wild in the hosta beds. They ate everything they could reach and successfully consumed every single hosta. A gardening friend suggested I sprinkle red pepper flakes to deter the cottontails the next time. The following summer, a sly red fox chased the bunnies away. So far, we haven't seen too many surprise garden visitors.

Forcing Paperwhites

After a busy week away from this address, it's good to be back and getting ready for the holiday season. The first week of December I started forcing several narcissus bulbs. In a re-purposed glass ice bucket, partly filled with black polished stones, three bulbs were nestled snugly to fit. The bucket was filled with water to the top of the stones and the very bottom of the bulbs. The bucket was stashed in the unheated storage room. A small amount of water was added every day to keep the water level just reaching the bottom of the bulbs.

Within four days of cool, dark isolation, roots started to appear. The stalks started to grow and by day six the ice bucket, now, holiday planter was brought upstairs into the natural light. Each day the bulbs have grown above and below the water line. It's a fascinating process, and one I have marveled over each year at this time.

With luck, the fragrant flowers will open by Christmas, adding their beautiful simplicity to this address. When they start growing taller and seem ready to tip, I'll add a small stake and tie them together with a ribbon. A gardening friend recommends adding vodka to the water to slow the growth in height and keep them standing straighter. Vodka apparently affects plants and mammals differently.

Try forcing paperwhites as a gift to yourself or a friend. Bulbs make good gifts too, if you're still looking for a perfect gift for the perfect friend who has everything!