Spring is here and it’s moving fast. 

Y’all this is not a drill! I couldn’t believe my eyes when I walked through Spring Blooms presented by Wild Birds Unlimited just before writing this (on Wednesday, April 2, 2025). The progress between yesterday morning, when I took photographs for this update, and today makes me equal parts excited and nervous that the season seems to be passing by in a blink. 

Annuals waiting to be planted near Garden Terrace. April 1, 2025. 

Late last week we got our final shipment of spring annuals, and the race is on to get plants in the ground. There have been planting parties of staff and loyal volunteers tiptoeing through the tulips (literally!) all week. A Newfields horticulture team member will lay out the design for the bed and everyone else will come through with a wave of garden knives, leaving displays packed with color. 

Magnolia × soulangeana 

Garden Terrace is a hot spot right now thanks to James Brown, the horticulturist. You’ll find our earliest and most abundant display of tulips out there already. Yup. You heard me right. WE HAVE TULIPS. I told you this isn’t a drill! I wouldn’t lie to you about these things. We’ve had the loveliest magnolia week, but it is coming to an end. Try not to look too closely at the big saucer magnolia (Magnolia × soulangeana), it’s starting to get some brown spots and have some petals drop, but from a distance it is still truly stunning.  

Planter near Lilly House. 

The tulips will have their time in the spotlight. I promise. But right now, we are in peak daffodil and hyacinth days. There are more types of daffodils than you could ever desire. I walked up the steps near the Rapp Family Ravine Garden and Lilly House and was almost knocked over by the sweet perfume from Patty Schneider, our senior horticulturist's, early-season daff and hyacinth display in front of the house. Other hyacinth hot spots include Hosta Curve planting just past Woodstock Bridge, which was designed by Helen Morlock, our lead seasonal gardener. 

Horticulture Society Overlook Garden on April 1, 2025. 

In the Horticulture Society Overlook Garden, you’ll find Senior Horticulturist Katie Booth has some molten, fiery, burn your eyeballs moments going on. Her daffodils have vivid orange trumpets and are underplanted with smokey red and yellow pansies and fragrant, cool color hyacinths. It’s hot. I’m here for it. She does a fun thing with the hyacinths from her display, as well. When they’ve served their time for any Spring Blooms presented by Wild Birds Unlimited display, they get transplanted behind the main display space. To me, it feels like the ocean splashing onto the lava, creating an explosion of color.  

‘Beech Circles’ daffodils 

And of course, it wouldn’t be spring as a plant recorder if I weren’t trying to parse apart the difference between many types of daffodils to label and write about them accurately. Curator of Herbaceous Plants and Seasonal Garden Design, Irvin Etienne, has four different types of daffodils in the circle beds outside of the Efroymson Family Entrance Pavilion. All of them have yellow petals and an orange trumpet. This is the kind of cruelty I put up with from him. His designs are worth it though. I’ve got to give it to him that the combination creates some lovely, subtle depth. But I’ve got my eye on his bulb orders for next year. Fool me once…

‘Winter Waltz’ daffodil 

If nothing else this week, take a stroll around the fountain in Richard D. Wood Formal Garden to enjoy Horticulturist Leah Coughlin’s geometric bulb planting. The tight lines in repetitions create bouquet-like clusters of beautiful blooms, one taking up the mantle as another fades. My favorites this week are the ‘Winter Waltz’ daffodil and the blue-eyed rose-tulip (Tulipa humilis ‘Alba Coerulea Oculata’). I know I certainly waltzed around that circle a few times enjoying everything she offered. 

It wouldn’t be spring if I didn’t take a moment to appreciate our flowering trees and shrubs. The backdrop of The Garden is starting to glow with a hazy purple–a sure sign that redbuds (Cercis canadensis cultivars) are soon to bloom. We’re also about to enjoy the one shining moment that our flowering-almond (Prunus triloba ‘Multiplex’) gives us every year.  

Madeline F. Elder Greenhouse 

And don’t fret the weather this week. If it’s pouring buckets and you’re worried about your umbrella blowing away, this might be the perfect opportunity for you to enjoy the plant displays in the IMA Galleries, Lilly House, and Madeline F. Elder Greenhouse. The team is working tirelessly making magic happen everywhere at Newfields. 

Cross your fingers for the cool down the weather folks are promising next week. I want this season’s magic to last just a little bit longer. 

Until Next Week, 

Jaime Frye