The Annual Spring Cold

No posts for awhile as I've been nursing my annual spring cold. I'm glad I was healthy enough on Saturday to present at our annual spring symposium. We had a great turnout and the entire event seemed very well-received. Judy talked about vegetables, Ann about edible/medicinal weeds, Roy about his favorite plants and I did my top 10 lists of various plant categories. Roy brought peonies for everyone and the nasty weather held off until well after the end of the program. Mike M. did a nice job as usual orchestrating this event.

The beautiful shot of crocuses (by Dale S.) was taken in his yard (Waukesha, WI), not at Rotary Gardens. We have about 10,000 crocus here that should be blooming but there are only a few hundred that have escaped the nibbling attention of various critters. I love crocus but so do many others!

Rainy day today although yesterday included lots of clean-up out in the gardens. The Kangaroo container to the left is a great addition to our equipment inventory as they are collapsible, thereby easy to store, and can hold lots of material. You can't pile too much weight in these but they can hold a nice volume of leaves and other lighter debris. Highly recommended!

The grounds crew started officially yesterday and includes Larry, Marv, Marianne, Terry, Janice, Jerry and Jenny. It's nice to have our veterans back and we're looking forward to a great year. Janice and Jenny are here today doing inside work (signs, plant sale, etc.) while Larry is working on equipment. Urban and Bill have braved the elements and are pruning and cleaning up debris in the rain. Dr. Gredler is resealing some benches and is "chomping at the bit" to get out and start mowing soon!

Neat shot to the right of Helleborus niger in bloom. Note the mud splatters on the pure white blooms (sepals not petals) from our recent rains. It's nice to see these pop up even thru snow. Other hellebores are starting to unfurl flowers as well so keep posted on the progress of these stalwart, long-lived garden perennials.