Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Mental Rejuvenation

Nice shot of bloodleaf (Iresine hybrida 'Blazin' Rose') above. We have this in the gardens but this shot was taken at Bill and Mary's garden. They will be on our Home Garden Tour on July 25th. This plant can take partial shade and really adds some foliage color. That pink veination is exceptional. There is also a green leaf, chartreuse-veined version of this called 'Blazin' Lime'. The image to the left is one of our borders taken care of by Don and Pearl. They do a wonderful job and note the repetition of orange on the obelisks and with the plume celosia (Celosia plumosa 'Fresh Look Orange'). This border will just look better as the summer progresses.

The day has been cool and what started as an overcast morning became a steady drizzle that has continued thru the day. The amount of precipitation thus far isn't a lot but it is a nice soaking rain. I hope it does this all night to be honest but we could use daily highs of 85 degrees F to keep things moving along. It's 70 degrees F as I type! Ugh.

We had Cindy and Kay weeding today and saw Mary H. out in her area as well. The rain chased everyone away with the exception of Dr. Gredler who is regraveling our lot behind the horticulture center. Marv, Marianne, Terry and Little Jerry have all been out weeding, watering, etc. and we decided to stop watering recently to let Mother Nature have a crack at it. We're hoping to have another great work day this Saturday and as our wonderful volunteers immerse themselves in purslane weeding, I'll be at Rocky Mountain National Park. Looking forward to the mental break but it looks to be an exhaustive amount of driving. Regardless, I hope to see some other gardens and know that ours is left in good hands. I am really pumped about this new ornamental millet (Pennisetum sp. 'Jade Princess') to the right. Note the already famous 'Purple Majesty' millet (Pennisetum glaucum) behind it. Not sure how tall 'Jade Princess' will ultimately get but I am loving the illumination from this plant and look forward to the inflorescences. Note the dried bloom remnants of the tumbleweed onion (Allium schubertii) below in our color rooms. We haven't had a lot of these fall-planted bulbs survive in the gardens but those that have, bloom with flower umbels that are 15-18" in diameter and still look good in to mid-summer as they dry. Now that's flower architecture!


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