A Nice Sunday Off

Aside from typing this blog tonite, which my wife considers work, I put in about 15 minutes of time today at Rotary Gardens when I turned on some automated irrigation to wet down the front of the building. We put in a lot of petunias on Saturday in front of the visitor's center so I wanted to get them some extra water today. As I type, we have lightning, thunder and imminent storms. I always hope for a nice soaker with 2" of precipitation over 8 hours or so. Tonite may be fast and furious but we'll take what we get (as if we have a choice!).

We have thousands of ornamental onions (Allium) in bloom right now at the gardens. What you see is related to common garden onions, chives, shallots, etc. Years ago we "fall planted" (October) about 50,000 of these "puff balls on a stick" for spring color. These are species/varieties that go dormant shortly after blooming although there are many alliums that grow throughout the year and bloom in summer or as late as October (Allium thunbergii 'Ozawa'). The picture above is of Allium 'Purple Sensation' which is the best value for the taller alliums. Look for it from your local garden center in September or from a reputable mail-order source (Van Engelen and Brent & Beckys Bulbs are good). We've planted over 20,000 of these and love their late May/early June contribution in the garden. Some gardeners leave them up as they dry for an architectural statement. I've even seen them spray painted for extended color thru the summer! We cut them to the ground as soon as the color of their flower "sphere" (umbel) fades. Watch out for the sap from cut stems as it will permanently stain your clothes! Although the foliage of these alliums is starting to yellow and look ragged as they bloom, perennial neighbors can obscure this foliage until its time to cut it down. The Allium above (picture taken this past Sat.) will be cut down in three weeks and overplanted with annuals. These are perennials although we're also starting to see some seedlings near the mother plants, whereas we never used to in the past. Global warming!?


Gold in the landscape is so beautiful this time of year. One of may favorite hostas (St. Elmo's Fire') is below. Note the white edge on the golden leaves. This one is a real beacon when first emerging from the soil. Below that image is the golden Norway maple (Acer platanoides 'Princeton Gold'). This tree looks this color thru the year although it might lose some of the real vividness by mid-summer. However, unlike other gold leaved woody plants, it never looks sickly and is a real eye catcher from a distance. Norway maples have some issues but 'Princeton Gold' is worth its weight...get it?