Monday, May 4, 2009

Almost At Full Speed!

Don't miss the peaking of the magnolias! Above is a shot of 'Alexandrina' saucer magnolia (Magnolia x soulangiana) that I took up at Longenecker Gardens at the UW-Arboretum in Madison, WI. My wife, younger daughter and I went up there Saturday and the magnolias were amazing! We usually go every year around Mother's Day to catch the crabapple collection and lilacs (significant collections of both at Longenecker) but finally caught the magnolias this year. See below for a close-up of the variety above and appreciate the beauty of these blooms. The nightmare for a magnolia is hard frost when they start to open their buds. Glad we missed that!
Another great Grumpy turnout and major productivity. Most of the guys spread shredded bark mulch around our daylily collection. This past Saturday, we had our daylily division workday and had over 50 volunteers turnout to create over 2,500 divisions (see below). We were happy to have the donor of the collection (and daylily expert), Bill Potter, show up and help out. We replanted a small portion of the original variety and now have them mulched. The Grumpies also hauled compost, wood chips, accomplished carpentry tasks and in general, everyone worked wonderfully. Rollie, Dick H., Dick P, Bob T. Charlie, Maury, Bill, Ed, Bob A., Bob M., Jim D., Vern, Dr. Yahr, Dr. Gredler, Ron W. all contributed to what I feel was one of our best Grumpy days ever. Larry ran the endloader all morning loading up materials while Terry and Marv worked on replacing soil in various areas and tidying up some beds with an air edge and compost. Marianne did a nice job on the cutting display and tidied in various areas. Janice planted close to 100 perennials in the English cottage garden (foxglove, hollyhock, delphinium, etc.) and will be working on her moss island that was decimated by wildlife. I did odds and ends and was able to spray some herbicide as we're hoping to avert the impending flush of weeds! See below for the double-flowering plum (Prunus triloba) in full bloom at Rotary Gardens.



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