Cherry Blossom Festival at Branch Brook Park

One of nature's fireworks show's is at Branch Brook Park in Newark.
This was my fisrt year that I went, and I'm sorry that I missed all of the others. The cherry trees are at their peak this weekend. You owe it to yourself to see them. It may be a bit crowded, but its worth it!

If you don't want to drive, you can do what I did. I took the train to Newark Penn, and then took the short light rail ride to the branch brook park exit. For those that have concerns, the Newark Subway was clean, and safe. When you exit the subway, head to the left of the Tennis Court. Branch Brook Park is huge, but the majority of the cherries are to the right. How many trees? I didn't count them, but they just added several thousand trees to this established collection last year.

New Arrival - Wonderful Ground Cover

 

Creeping phlox, commonly called Mountain Pinks can provide beautiful color in the spring perennial garden. Masses of dainty flowers in white, pink, red or lavender provide a stunning display from early to mid spring. The rich evergreen needlelike foliage forms low growing dense mats, excellent for edging, cascading over walls, or as a ground cover. Mountain pinks thrive in full sun and grow to about 6 inches tall. They have a spreading habit of growth and can cover an area three times their original width. The variety pictured is called Phlox subulata 'Fort Hill'. It has deep pinkish-rose flowers. Once established, Mountain pinks are extremely drought tolerant and low maintenance.

Ornamental grass pruning

I spent a bit of time in my garden this weekend. My Miscanthus 'Morning Light' was looking quite messy. I generally like to leave my grass through the winter, but by now its leaning and ready for a trimming. It's time to get out those shears and prune your ornamental grasses.

By pruning your grass now, you are only cutting last years growth. If you wait too long, you the grass will have started to grow, and you'll be cutting new growth along with the old growth.

I generally use a hand pruner. I like to use a Felco #2 as my pruner of choice. Start from one side of the grass grabbing a handful of stems and cut as close to the ground as you can. This will take about 10 minutes for a fairly decent size grass. It couldn't hurt to wear a pair of gloves since the edges of a grass can be sharp.