Sunburn In May (Watch Out!)

It was hot today! 82 degrees F might seem seasonable in July but not early May. The heat is flushing things out earlier than normal and finishing off plants that had already started blooming. It sure was colorful outside though. The shot to the right is of 'Ricki' magnolia. Notice the beautiful flower petals with darker outside and cotton candy pink inner petals. This is one of "the girl" magnolias developed at the U.S. National Arboretum in the mid 1950s. There are eight varieties in this series and they bloom a week or two later than saucer and star magnolias; thereby increasing their chances of avoiding a late frost. They are beautiful and hard not to notice this time of year.

We continue with our daily routine and had some great volunteers (Kay, Geesje and Holly) accomplish a "weeding whirlwind" in our parking lot islands. As nice as the front of our building looks, the islands usually look fairly unkempt. We've lost some enthusiam trying to grow plants out there as it's tough to water and visitors continually trample through those beds. We may need to consider different and/or more simplistic, rugged plantings.

It's interesting that despite being a "free" (admission by donation) garden, some visitors will go thru great lengths to access the gardens to avoid the "guilt trip" of entering our visitor's center and walking by the donation tubes. Today we caught three groups of people climbing over gates and walking thru flower beds to access the garden. They all pretended to be confused but were obviously focused on getting in the gardens one way or another. It's a sad commentary considering that we exist because of donations and a vast majority of visitors don't contribute in any fashion.

Anemone nemerosa down below and a neat larch 'Varied Directions' near our front sign. The larch (Larix) is a deciduous conifer and loses it's needles every fall. What a neat focal point!