Monday, April 13, 2009

Chilly And Overcast

Nice shot of more hellebores (Helleborus orientalis) above. We have some great clumps out there and of course only our earliest of visitors gets to enjoy the blooms. These are truly, long-lived, stalwart perennials for our gardens. With a chance of rain today, everyone is out working before we get the rain (which is much needed). We haven't had much for April showers yet and while we've been happy about our flood levels going down, we sure could use a good soaker out in the gardens. Our earliest blooming plants continue to add color almost daily although the end of the month and early May will really bring on a "flush". Nice miniature daffodils in our alpine garden can be seen below.
Marv and Terry are out hauling containers and filling them with soil. We normally would have a spring display in most of our containers but due to budget restrictions, we'll skip spring and plant them up for the summer display in a month or so. The guys are custom mixing our soil blend for the containers and we'll have them all ready to go in short order. Larry is working on odds and ends while Janice and Marianne are out, continuing to tidy up in various garden areas. The ladies have done a nice job and Janice will continue to work on moss establishment in our fern garden while Marianne starts our cutting display this week. Our display table includes a map and many vases for fresh samples. Marianne has an eye for arranging and comes up with some nice samples to help guide visitors to what's in bloom or of interest that time of the year. Jerry is out looking for some projects and continues to heal prior to his return. The Grumpies are here today with Ron, Bill, Gary and Charlie all working on composting around our hort center beds (see picture to the left) while Maury, Bob T., Terry T. and Dick H. work on hauling off our excess metal and wood junk that has accumulated around our facility. We like to tidy up every spring are are hoping to give away and/or recycle most of what we're getting rid of. Bob A., Del, Urban and Rose are all working on painting our new plant sale tables while Dave, Jim and Vern are working on carpentry projects or playing tic-tac-toe (see below). What a great crew. Admissions implementation starts this Wednesday so we'll have to be ready for the challenges that this shift will create for everyone. I think we've prepared well although there will undoubtably be challenges along the road (the road to financial security here too!).


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