Spring Color Abounds

Today was another lovely day with plenty of sunshine and blue skies. We did get some rain over the weekend but are continuing to run irrigation in some of our garden spaces that have lots of thirsty trees and other woody plants. Plenty of spring color out there today. To the left is 'Miss Honeybee' magnolia which is thought to be one of the best yellow bloomers because of its deep yellow coloration as opposed to some of those that are a creamy yellow. It didn't take much of a walk to encounter interesting plants in every garden space. Below are the blooms of wild hyacinth or quamash (Camassia leichtlinii 'Blue Danube') that is a bulb native to the Pacific Northwest. Planted in fall, these bulbs (fist sized) should be placed in damper soils to really thrive. Years ago we planted thousands of camassia around the gardens and they've done well in those areas that get supplemental irrigation. In drier areas, they are long gone...

To the left is the Canadian or wild columbine (Aquilegia canadensis) that always catches my eye in the spring garden. I am truly a columbine fan and this is one of my favorites. We let it self-seed and thrive.

Lots of help today with staff and volunteers. Marv and Terry did a nice job putting up all 27 of the daisies and also worked on rototilling and some odds and ends. Little Jerry continues to work on his new path and had some help from his grandson, Hunter. Larry ran errands, fixed some equipment and mowed while Marianne did her normal routine while working with Janice on some plant sale preparations. I've been busy getting ready for my absence and am coordinating some plant deliveries in advance. Dr. Gredler was here mowing and spraying some weeds in our turf. Maury picked up flats for our plant sale and ran other errands as well. Dick P., Dick H., Big John and Rollie continued working on the new fence installation while Gary, Pat, Del and Bob C. did a nice job mulching the east end of the gardens. Ron B., Bill and Ron W. worked on assembling our plant sale tables and the carpenters (sans Dave T.) assembled some cabinets and worked on some other tasks. Bill O. came in later to help water the yard. Shirley and Mary did a nice job weeding in the gazebo garden and we saw Geesje at break as well. We also saw Barb, Polly, Mary and Dave over as well. Nice shots below of the foliage of barrenwort (Epimedium x rubrum), blooms of the Carolina silverbell (Halesia tetraptera) and silvery foliage of the 'Ghost' fern, which is a hybrid between the lady fern (Athyrium filix-femina) and the Japanese painted fern (Athyrium niponicum var. pictum).