Today we took a field trip to the Chicago area and visited the Ball Seed Company Trial Gardens and Chicago Botanic Garden. Some of the evaluations at Ball Seed can be seen above. Susan, Jason and Sam gave us a great tour of the grounds. WOW! is an understatement. I took 350 pictures there in 2 hours. It was just Janice, Larry, Terry and me for this trip. Jerry was back holding down the fort. Marv and Marianne couldn't make it due to a death in the family. Regardless, it was a fun trip but I'm pretty sure I developed heat exhaustion today. I had water but the high humidy and super hot day beat me down quickly. I started getting cold and clammy and had waves of nausea. Aside from all of that, it was a pretty nice day! I have so many great shots of their wonderful display garden. I enjoyed seeing the dwarf goldenrod (
Solidago hybrida 'Sweety' with its light yellow flower sprays and compact height at 14". What a neat place and we caught most of the garden at peak, just 6 days after their big field day. Good timing on our part I would say.
We then traveled over to the Chicago Botanic Garden and were given a great tour by Richard Hawke of the trial gardens that he manages. We saw all sorts of neat plants, including many I had never even heard of before. Richard was a great guide and is so enthusiastic about plants. He showed us the purple coneflower (
Echinacea) collection and described the past efforts of breeding and promoting varieties of
Echinacea by the Chicago Botanic Garden. What a great day! It will take a while to sort my pictures (and re-hydrate), but today was time wells spent!
Today we took a field trip to the Chicago area and visited the Ball Seed Company Trial Gardens and Chicago Botanic Garden. Some of the evaluations at Ball Seed can be seen above. Susan, Jason and Sam gave us a great tour of the grounds. WOW! is an understatement. I took 350 pictures there in 2 hours. It was just Janice, Larry, Terry and me for this trip. Jerry was back holding down the fort. Marv and Marianne couldn't make it due to a death in the family. Regardless, it was a fun trip but I'm pretty sure I developed heat exhaustion today. I had water but the high humidy and super hot day beat me down quickly. I started getting cold and clammy and had waves of nausea. Aside from all of that, it was a pretty nice day! I have so many great shots of their wonderful display garden. I enjoyed seeing the dwarf goldenrod (Solidago hybrida 'Sweety' with its light yellow flower sprays and compact height at 14". What a neat place and we caught most of the garden at peak, just 6 days after their big field day. Good timing on our part I would say.
We then traveled over to the Chicago Botanic Garden and were given a great tour by Richard Hawke of the trial gardens that he manages. We saw all sorts of neat plants, including many I had never even heard of before. Richard was a great guide and is so enthusiastic about plants. He showed us the purple coneflower (Echinacea) collection and described the past efforts of breeding and promoting varieties of Echinacea by the Chicago Botanic Garden. What a great day! It will take a while to sort my pictures (and re-hydrate), but today was time wells spent!
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