Perpetual Drizzle

It has not stopped drizzling all day. I'm glad for the soaking rain as it will be good for our woody plants to satiate their thirst before the ground freezes. However, we didn't get out in the gardens at all today. Marv, Terry, Janice and Dr. Gredler (seen above) worked on preparing and repairing our lights for the upcoming Holiday Lights show. This certainly wasn't a lost day as these tasks were vital regardless of the weather. We'll continue to wrap more obelisks with lights as seen to the left as these elements, while important during the growing season, also accomplish double duty as design elements for the lights show. I was off most of yesterday but the weather was also not real friendly for getting out in to the gardens although Suzy toughed it out and hopefully has dried out by now. I caught up on budget preparations for next year and other desk work. Many maples are peaking now. To the right is one of the Freeman maples (Acer x freemanii) at the Horticulture Center which combines the quick growth of the silver maple (Acer saccharinum) with the harder wood and beautiful fall color of the red maple (Acer rubrum). These are tough trees but are becoming fairly common. It will be nice to have two days off in a row and perhaps I can dodge the drizzle and get some of my own home gardening done this weekend. Nice shot below of the 'Bloodgood' Japanese maple (Acer palmatum) in fall. The maroon summer leaves get a more vivid reddish fall color and we have three large specimens in our Japanese garden.