Another sign of an early spring: the Box Stores are flowering three weeks early

Look at that! It's impressive and somewhat frightening that they are able so easily to jump almost a month ahead of schedule. I actually bought three one-gallon Ericas.

Telly and I did a little under canopy adjustment today

One of the least attended to relationships in most gardens is the interface between the lowest branches of the canopy and the "floor" of the garden. For the last two years I've tried to address this aspect of the garden. Over time, those low branches grow sometimes down into large shrubs or understory trees creating awkward situations. Othertimes their growth just produces too much shade so that the groundlevel plants either under perform or stretch unnaturally away from the canopy towards the light.

Today Telly and I removed a number of White Pine branches that were dipping into a lovely line of Lindera obtusiloba. We selectively removed some of the lower limbs of the old Cedars in China Valley that were stressing some old Joseph Rock tree peonies. And we did some redemptive pruning of Staphylea bumalda rosea and a few Fraxinus.