I went out after dinner and deadheaded another 217 daffodils, bringing the total snipped to 4,973, with no more than a dozen left. Daffodil season is now basically done, and it’s time for the garden to yield to other stars.

It’s interesting how the twin blizzards affected both the high point and the end of the daffodil season this year. Due to the blanket of snow, sometimes reaching four feet, the daffodils were insulated from winter, and kept warm, and ended up hitting their peak about 10 days earlier than usual. The same thing happened at the end of the season, since we normally have daffodils until May 15, and here it is the 5th and we have only a few left. I’m assuming (and hoping) it all returns to normal next year.

The bamboo, on the other hand, was unaffected by the snow, and began to send up new shoots around the same time it always does.

With daffodil season ending, we’re now at the start of iris season. We already had many iris in the ground, but last year added several hundred more, not all of which will bloom their first year. One of our veterans, though, has just begun its display.

I’ll share the other varieties as they begin to burst.

But iris aren’t the only things exploding in our garden. The rhododendron in front of the house popped over the past few days as well.

The other flowers bringing me pleasure today are the lupins, which never grow as large as I’ve seen them them do in Argentina, but I find them so beautiful I’m made happy by whatever I can get.

I wish you could be here to see it all!