A Spring Explosion

Above is a nice shot of our observation platform this morning. With weather looking so favorable this week, our volunteers were out in force and turns around every path revealed botanical treasures peaking out here and there (see emerging peonies below and to the left). We are just finishing up our cutting back of ornamental grasses which is quite timely as our "cold season" grasses like feather reed grass (Calamagrostis), fescue (Festuca), blue oat grass (Helictotrichon), etc. are actively growing (preferring cooler seasonal temperatures for active growth) and can be damaged or set back with too late of a haircut, The "warm season" grasses like Japanese silver grass (Miscanthus), switchgrass (Panicum), Indian grass (Sorghastrum) wont even emerge for awhile (preferring warmer soil and air temperatures for active growth) but it's time to tidy up regardless. When selecting and purchasing ornamental perennial grasses, knowing whether they are a cool or warm season grass will help dictate their preferred division time and maintenance. Urban and Bob C. continued on the grasses today while Charlie did a nice job tidying up with Del and Dick K. on paths and other surfaces. Marv and Terry did a nice job muscling out our largest containers in the garden while both Little Jerry and Larry worked on myriad projects as they arose. Jerry removed our burlap winter protection from select specimens in the Japanese garden and we were happy with how everything looked. Larry started the morning at 6:15 by unloading 900 bags of compost (with our end loader of course) and we're ready for the bagged compost sale starting this weekend (9am-noon). The carpenters continued their work and started to mount our first five "Petal Your Way Thru Garden" projects (see to the right). Dick H. worked on repairing our compressor and other odd jobs. Dr. Gredler did some mowing and turf work in select lawns. Ron W. and Big John drew the short straws today and shoveled many cubic yards of soil away from our 'Dialogue' sculpture sitting area that needs some new brick work. They get an extra gold star for their efforts. Marianne and Jenny worked on labels today and we also saw Janice, Polly, Dave, Bev, Chuck, Lois and many others over at the horticulture center as well. The Janesville Parks Department burned our prairie this morning and most of it caught fairly well.

See below for some neat flowers that while lacking the pizzaz of some of the showier spring blooms, are surely harbingers of spring as well. Below are the male catkins of the European filbert (Corylus avellana) dangling downwards (the female flower is inconspicuous). The top picture is the golden filbert 'Aurea' (not that you can tell yet!) and the lower picture is from the contorted filbert 'Contorta' which is quite consipicuous and evidently all contorted filberts originated from one plant found in an English hedgerow in the mid 1800s. Filberts are members of the birch family (Betulaceae) along with alders, hornbeams and hop-hornbeams. We don't expect nuts anytime soon but do enjoy these hardy deciduous plants in the garden.