A Gloomy Start and Sunny Ending

This morning was extremely foggy (see above) but the gardens still had an interesting beauty. The fog held on until after 10 am but we were rewarded with clear blue skies and a mild day. Colors became quite vivid as evidenced by the brighter red fall color of the 'Bloodgood' Japanese maple (Acer palmatum) seen to the left in the Japanese garden. To the lower right are some sugar maples (Acer saccharum) in the foggy woodland walk garden. Fall color is quite variable for sugar maples.

Janice and Marianne (volunteering today) worked on lights testing and repair this morning which is a daily chore this time of year. Janice went on to decorate obelisks out in the gardens while Larry continued to test and sort our larger displays from the garage. Vern came in for a bit and we saw Dr. Yahr before he left for Arizona. Dr. Gredler was out collecting, mowing, shredding leaves out in the gardens and we were fortunate to have Bill for more debris clean-up. We become more dependent on volunteers for fall clean-up as the garden staff gets absorbed in getting the lights show up during the milder weeks of October and early November.

Unfortunately we don't see many visitors this time of year although there is still plenty to look at out in the gardens. There were a couple people meandering around but we wont see many souls in November. The premise of the original Holiday Lights Show (Winter Wonderland Walk) was to bring in visitors during the winter to enjoy the garden. Of course, this event is also a vital fundraiser that is dependent on sponsorships and attendance. We've never had a perfect December for this event with 2" of light snow and evening temperatures around 25 degrees F. We usually have some rain or -20 degrees F windchill. I hope we avoid the extremes this year! Nice shot below of the leathery fall leaves of the chinkapin oak (Quercus muehlenbergii) near our woodland walk. This adaptabile oak was named Urban Tree of the Year by the Society of Municipal Arborists. Fall color ranges from yellow to orange to this leathery brown. Looks good to me. The bottom photo is of my "ride" this time of year....