Feeling all gardeny

The Bradford pear trees are blooming this week (at least I think they're Bradford pear trees, but I have been known to misidentify plants), and for once on the first official day of the season it actually seems like said season.  Just in time for all this, there's a new book from the University of Virginia Press: Historic Virginia Gardens: Preservation Work of the Garden Club of Virginia, 1975-2007, by Margaret Page Bemiss.  It has lovely shiny photographs by Roger Foley, excellent and interesting text, and it also smells very good.

On a related note, Historic Garden Week is coming up in just a couple weeks: April 18-25, with several lectures/tours at Monticello on the 18th.