Shasta daisies just beginning an obscene display of happiness

Luscious lupine glowing in the late day sun

Pink flax (silene) seems to flower almost forever

Appalachian red redbud going to someone’s house yesterday

It’s still so so so cold, my wood burning stove is on as I write this, most of our new landscaping plants are crammed inside the store, and gardening is limited to rough and durable plants. Some of our perennials have really suffered, but when it warms, they will come back to good health and good looks.

When I was leaving work last night, I looked before I pulled out onto route 25, and the coronavirus coast is clear. At a time when commuting rush hour might stall my departure from work for three to four minutes due to bumper to bumper traffic, there’s not a car in sight.

When this first started, the road looked like this much of the day, but now things are starting up again, an unfortunate sign that people are relaxing their guard against our little single-celled enemy. A bigger enemy are the people who do not wear masks for some inexplicable reason, getting the virus and spreading it all over the place in an absolutely pathetic display of some sort of politics.

The driver of this truck offered me an opinion of his- that the coronavirus was a democratic hoax and blown way out of proportion. He then irresponsibly got into the truck and helped us unload without a face mask with two of my employees.

I shouted into the truck-

”Guys, put your masks on!!! You don’t know where the driver has been, and I saw him sneezing!!!”

They put on their coverings. We all need to protect ourselves, and if a little peer pressure is needed to save lives, so be it. The driver disregards protocol everywhere he goes, gets infected, infects the guys in the truck, who then go into the store by opening the door using the handle. EVERYONE ELSE who pulls on the handle then gets infected. That’s how people die- from the initial maskless irresponsible truck driver.

Clematis shining yesterday as I locked up the store.

Yucca “bright sword” shining yesterday.

Silene ‘catch fly’ from last year’s inventory exploding with happiness on a chilly May afternoon.

There are few plants that look as good as lavender in the light of the setting sun. This one isn’t even flowering yet but one can see when it does, it’s gonna be incredibly beautiful.

A redbud tree I planted about twenty years or more displaying happiness yesterday. Redbuds and dogwoods- native showoffs during the spring expression of happiness.

Zelkova tree in our parking lot absolutely glowing in the setting sun. I’ve had this tree for two decades, and want it at home. It would cost me $10,000 to plant it, though. Machines would need to be rented to man-handle it onto my property and into the hole.

‘Seiryu’ Japanese maple with its cloud layering canopy. Japanese maples are sophisticated statements of finesse.

Pink buckeye foliage is one of the most interesting.

I have not fed this lawn for three years, and it looks good. All lawns look good now, but the hundreds of yards of soil I trucked in and the high quality grass seed equates to a lawn that is mostly self-sufficient. The clover that I have added in addition to what has taken over assists with weed control and fertility.

This is my 100% organic clover lawn. Self-feeding, self-insect control, repressed lawn growth resulting in less mowing. Flowers support dwindling insect populations. More drought durable than turf for a better summer lawn. Out competes weeds so no more disgusting weed killers. Ever.

I killed a portion of my lawn and reseeded it with clover/fescue. The clover popped up immediately and the grass seed is slower. Pretty soon, this section will be fluffy and green, a nice chemical-free biodiverse lawn, a nice trend to be able to promote.

This is the biggest mystery this year- what kind of bird is this? Does anyone know? We kind of narrowed it down to some sort of wren. Carolina wren?

Little fella found, somehow, a crack under our greenhouse door big enough to squeak through. He/she then constructed an intricate and sophisticated nest complete with a walkway to the front door, a four inch wide perfectly circular opening four inches in diameter that is 2/3 the size of a basketball complete with a gnarly roof and sturdy sides and floor and a soft comfortable floor and walls.

If feeding is interrupted by a careless human, the babies know magically what to do- SHUT UP AND DUCK DOWN! Be invisible till the beasts go away. How do they know what to do?
​How do the parents know how to build their nests? These birds do a lot more than most species do to make a nest.

If I’m quiet when I go in this room, I can creep a shot of them in between feedings.

...and if I’m sneaky, I can tap on the roof and pretend to be mommy, inspiring this noisy response. Screaming kids “FEED ME FIRST MOMMY!!!” It’s really loud, and I love it!!! Mankind hasn’t eradicated every other species on the planet (yet). Coronavirus is a warning to humanity:

“stop polluting the planet NOW, and we can recover.”

It’s true. Yesterday I got out of my truck at work, and heard Pavarotti bellowing our an opera solo up in a huge sugar maple above my head. I looked up into the tree to see the third Baltimore oriole I've ever seen. Such a rare event, I felt the reassuring hand of Mother Nature on my soul.

How cool, I talked about it all day.

In the afternoon I was talking to people outside and something caught my eye. I looked up and saw a bald eagle flying alone northbound above route 25. I shouted “HOLY SHIT!” I couldn’t help it, it just came out. I turned around and saw a young child and her mother standing behind me- they heard what I said and I apologized to them and said that I’ve seen five in my life, and couldn’t help it.

​Five total strangers stood there staring up into the sky for a rare event.

A mother and father made this nest inside our store. The nest looks like a pile of gnarly sticks that would wash up on shore or get caught in a stream by a fallen branch, but upon further inspection it is extremely well-designed and intricate. I’ve never ever seen a cave-nest before. It even has a stick path leading up to the opening.

If anyone knows the ID of this bird, please please tell me who it is.

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY! We are open today from 9-4 so you can buy beauty like this for your mom and for yourself. We can also make mulch and top soil deliveries.

We have tons of color and flowers in stock.

WARNING- do not plant veggies or annuals until Thursday. There will be frost between now and Wednesday night. If you plant tomatoes today, you will need to buy them again next week- just too cold this spring.

Iberis (candytuft) flowering in my parking lot. June Beney planted it approximately thirty years ago!!! Twenty got delivered yesterday, half are still in stock. Surround yourself with beauty during CV times. Appreciate mother nature’s bountiful array of flowers- makes you feel good, and staying positive and happy in these times is half of your fight against CV.

Green low drooper is “karmina” perennial geranium thirty years old. The foliage is stunning, and the flowers are even better later in the year. Full sun- full shade. Low and deer-proof!

Pink dogwoods flowering in the bitter cold and wind yesterday morning. My absolute favorite tree.

White birch trees- 40 years old approximately. We have 8’ birch trees in seven gallon pots- five left @$160.

Bluegrass sod- we have the best sod money can buy, and we care for it better than anyone around. $9/piece, ten square feet. $8 each when it is still on the skid when it first arrives, before we put any labor into keeping it happy on the plastic. Lay it down, and you have two year old sod instantly.

I was reading the news this morning and came across this article. I found it interesting, and hope it helps some out there.

When this whole thing started, I heard also that to prepare for total warfare with tRUMP’s Coronavirus (tRUMP owns this epidemic), we as a country needed to stop smoking and lose weight. Those two things, obvious helpful health tips even in non-epidemic days, are as essential to survival these days as they ever were before.

Healthy lungs are more able to withstand attacks by the lethal virus, so tobacco and cannabis smokers...STOP!! If you need tobacco that bad (nothing medicinal at all about tobacco and you know it), try a patch or gum until this passes. Lungs start repairing themselves immediately after each cigarette is finished! Give ‘em a chance, give you a chance.

If cannabis is part of your life for recreation or medicinal purposes, STOP SMOKING IT!!! Edibles.

If you are overweight, this is the time to finally pay attention and do something about it, it could (will?) save your life. Everyone knows how difficult it is to slim down, but this time that effort might just save your life just as much as the all-important and necessary masks.

Wakeman’s White Birch Nursery is not a public service provider. We are not a health service. We aren’t more than a horticultural nursery. This website is SUPPOSED to help our customers navigate horticultural information all in one place......

Try this article, it may contain helpful information for someone out there:

​https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/05/07/opinion/link-between-coronavirus-deaths-those-french-fries/

Nice little gift someone threw out the car window for someone else to pick up. Not nice.