The past few days have been all about the rain.  Torrential downpours.  Wind, thunder-unsettled weather.  I don’t know how many inches of rain in all-but I think it was a lot.  In the past week we have had 24 degrees overnight, and 88 degrees during the day.  In my neighborhood-three phone poles blown over. Frost, hail and drought, wild temperature fluctuations-and now the big rains.  All of April was too cold and wet to work out.  I cannot remember a year when my landscape crews could not get out until late April.  This is no news- any gardening effort is subject to and influenced by the weather.

I  do not think I have ever seen rain fall so hard and so fast-as I did 2 days ago. The shop property is sandy, which we top dressed with gravel.  Standing water at my place- unprecedented.  I have my own perfect storm going on.  Several landscape installations which could not be finished in April are due-now.  The planting of the annuals and containers-due now.  Some earlier plantings have frost damage.  This is more excitement than I would ask for, but every year has its challenges and troubles.

I was not really unhappy about the rain.  Our spring has been very dry. Every plant that wakes up come spring is programmed to grow.  That growing requires moisture.  The trees especially needed a big drink.  My hydrangeas came out of dormancy reluctantly.  Our spring came slow-the dry weather played a big part in that.  I am so happy for the rain-even though it is late.

The torrent of rain meant that all of the plants at the shop were fine-no one needed to drag a hose.  What a relief.  Water from the sky is life sustaining water.  Our plants loved the rain.  Water from the hose is a temporary fix in dry times.  I cannot really explain what I mean by this, but water from the sky is better water than the water from the hose.   Rainy days-I love them.  Rain from the sky makes plants grow and thrive.  The days that I have to drag the hose-a chore day.  Automatic irrigation needs a gardening person in charge.  Automatic irrigation on auto can kill trees, shrubs, perennials and annuals.  Supervise your irrigation system!

I cannot speak to the science of the effects of spring rain.  I only have my instincts.  In my opinion, every plant bathed in late spring rain seems energized.

My own property-vividly green.  The grass looks like fur. Thick and vigorous. The yews are covered with a layer of lime green new growth.  Every plant looks energized, and juicy.

Lush life-this describes my idea of late spring in just two words.  Given the heavy rains, all of my plants are putting on weight and substance in a beautiful way.  The lime green color of new growth is why I love that lime color in any plant.  Fresh and new. The dwarf spruce and hellebores in the above picture will turn towards emerald green, later in the spring.  The Sum and Substance hostas that retain their lime green color all season long- how I value that memory of spring.

Another month, another day, another time of year, this picture would look so much different. This level of lush speaks to late spring.  Though I am so busy with work, I try to take the time to enjoy this moment.  The bad weather aside, there is so much to appreciate this time of year. In my garden the voices are fresh.  A new season has begun.  The intense flush of growth from the trees to the roses and perennials-so exciting. This photograph of my garden does not really express how beautiful it was to see it in person.  Last year at this time, my roses were struggling to emerge from an extended and killing late April frost.  Needless to say, I did not have much in the way of roses last year.  Today, every rose is loaded with buds.  Loaded with promise.  I have not written about this, but the lilacs in my neighborhood have been spectacular this spring.  I would venture to say-the best ever.  What I see makes me long to grow them.  But in fact every spring season favors some plants over others.  My advice?  Grow lots of plants.  One or several of them will surely handle whatever the weather has to dish out.  If you do not grow any roses-I would encourage you to try them.  n early June, they will hold your heart.  They smell good.  They will encourage you to garden on.

I had a surprise visit today from Michelle Gervais- an editor of Fine Gardening Magazine.  With only 12 hours notice, she wanted to see the shop, and tour my garden.  She was so kind-giving me next to no notice of her visit.  I really had no time to prepare for her, even if I had had notice.  This is a very busy time of year.  I would have fretted about every square inch-if I had known in advance that she was planning to visit.  She limited my stress.  Do you read her blog?  It is great!   My garden-she saw it, without any editing or cleanup.  I think it looked fine.  The drenching rains did more to endow and enrich the appearance of my garden than any gesture I could have made.  The heavy rains are making my working life tough-but how the plants love it.

strawberries and phlox

espaliered apples

spring pots

dogwoods and azaleas

spring basket

tulips

spruces and hellebores

bok choy

late tulip

new hosta leaves

Our weather forecast called for 27 to 33 degrees overnight Sunday.  The prediction for 33 degrees is for downtown Detroit-my yard is 30 miles due north.  I must have stared at the Accuweather frost zone map for at least 15 minutes.  It appears that my yard is in the center of a frost warning zone spanning 11 states.  The chances of a hard freeze overnight look incredibly good.  I shouldn’t be surprised.  May in Michigan is spring-not summer.

If you are an experienced gardener in the midwest, you know that frost is possible until the end of May.  The most reliable table for determining frost dates comes from NOAA-our national weather service.  You can check their frost tables for many cities in all the 50 states here:   National Climatic Data Center   Their date shows that Detroit Has a 90% chance of a frost on or prior to April 21.  A 50% chance of a frost on or prior to May 10.  And a 10% chance of frost on or prior to May 28.  The fact that I live 30 miles north of Detroit, in a much less densely built area than Detroit, tells me those frost figures may be a little optimistic.  Growers that I know with farming roots tell me that they do not rule out the chance of frost until the date of the May full moon-which is May 25 this year.

At 6 am this morning, it was 30 degrees-this constitutes a freeze.  Cold tolerant spring flowers, such as pansies, violas, ornamental cabbage, spikes, annual phlox, osteospermum, spinach, chives, peas, and alyssum are not bothered by this.  The blossoms on fruit trees and ornamental flowering trees, new soft perennial growth and the like can be damaged, but not killed by this.  Very cold sensitive annual and vegetable plants can be severely damaged, disfigured, or killed by a 30 degree night.  I did mist my pear tree, which is in flower, and my delphiniums which have shot up in the last 2 weeks.  I felt everything else could handle the chill.

What I do not have in my yard, or at my shop are very cold sensitive plants.  Basil, coleus, lantana, begonias, New Guinea impatiens, bananas, mandevillea, bean vines, caladiums-tropical plants cannot taking freezing weather.  Ditto for tomatoes and beans, and a slew of other vegetables and herbs.  Yesterday we had several mini-hail and snow showers.  Even assuming that the late spring temperatures are sufficiently high that plants won’t die, there can be lingering effects from planting too early.

The air temperature is not nearly so significant as the soil temperature.  If you put your finger in the soil, and that soil is cold, you can be sure that a tropical plant that is native to Florida or South America is not going to be happy being planted.  I believe that cold soil can stunt plants such that they take weeks to recover.  Or they never really recover and prosper at all.  I see this too early planting most often in commercial locations-flat after flat of fibrous begonias planted in early May that look like they are shivering.  These plants actually seem to get smaller, the leaf color paler.  They will at best languish until the soil warms up.  At worst, they don’t really grow much, and give up growing early.  However I have seen houses with pots full of summer flowering annuals on the front porch recently.

I understand that irrepressible optimism that fuels every gardener.  But in this case, planting early in hopes of getting a jump on the summer season can actually put those plants behind.  I do not usually plant my pots at home until the first week of June-sometimes later. I may plant earlier, but I have to be convinced that the night temperatures are consistently going to stay above 50.  The forecast tonight-39 degrees.  Better that the tropical plants have the benefit of a warm and sunny greenhouse for a while longer.  Our very cold spring means that many of the summer plants are really small still.  An annual plant that has not put on much growth yet is even more likely to suffer from cold weather.

There are benefits to waiting to plant for summer until the soil has warmed.  You can focus on enjoying the tulips, pansies, and the lily of the valley.  The flowering crabs and the apple trees blooming.  The redbuds, the hellebores, the moss phlox and the wildflowers.  Give the spring season its due.  If your yard does not have much in the way of spring bloom, you could consider adding some things-no need to starve yourself.  The need to see something flowering after a long winter is a real need. There are ways to satisfy that need in a successful way. I plant a lot of summer containers and annual gardens every year.  Those that get planted when the time is right take off quickly, and grow well.

spring basket

apple tree

parsley, pansies and alyssum

crab apple

spring container planting

redbud

swiss chard, pansies and alyssum

tulips

in the pink

galvanized trough

May blooming

lavender

redbuds