As I organized my photos from yesterday's bus tour (in the air conditioning), I was struck by how many photographs were simply of foliage. Above is a neat mountain flax (
Phormium 'Sundowner') seen at the Chicago Botanic Garden (CBG) in a container. This is a good example of an ornamental contribution primarily from foliage. So many of my presentations stress the importance of foliage and while I'm a huge fan of flowers, the merit of foliage, both for color and texture, can't be overlooked. Below is the wooly sage (
Salvia argentea 'Artemis') that has not only the visual appeal of bold, silvery leaves but is a must-have for a tactile, children's or horticulture therapy garden where the soft leaves are engaging as well. Considered a touchy (no pun intended), zone 5 perennial, we plant this salvia as an annual and have never seen the white blooms (no bother anyway).
Knowing that it was just going to get hotter and muggier all day, we hit the ground running this morning. Marv and T
erry worked on plenty of watering, cleaned out a water feature, hauled mulch, pruned and mowed. The guys also put our rock pile on to pallets and moved everything to a better location. Marianne watered, weeded, tidied and did her cutting display among other duties. She did a fantabulous job of organizing our iris photos for the upcoming sale too. Janice mowed, watered and tidied up this morning. She's also getting ready for a gourd display and biodegradable pot display for the upcoming Garden Festival (mentioned further below). Everyone broke a sweat except me as I worked on designing next years containers and am putting together one of our largest orde
rs. I think I got some heat exhaustion yesterday as I had the chills and some nausea thru last night and am finally feeling better. I hope everyone else from our tour is feeling ok! We had Kay weeding in the reception garden and wishing well garden. I had her split her time which was frustrating to her as she likes to complete a project. That reception garden will be target #1 next week as there are lots of late weeds throughout that space. Bill came in to collect leaves and mow and Dr. Gredler ran to the dump and accomplished all of his mowing as well. We also saw Mary W., Big John, Dave T. and his family and Maury and Kay went on a roadtrip to pick up our memorial bricks (much appreciated). To the left is the gorgeous 'Fishnet Stockings' coleus (
Solenostemon scutellarioides) and to the right is the chartreuse elephant ear (
Xanthosoma 'Lime Zinger'). Both of these shots were taken at CBG as were the two below. We're currently growing plenty of annual, maroonish grasses (all
Pennisetum sp.) right now although none are as dark as the variety 'Princess Caroline' (
Pennisetum hybrida) seen below. It is almost black and was developed at the University of Georgia. I'll be getting plenty of this grass for next year! Beneath 'Princess Caroline' is the variegated tapioca (
Manihot esculenta 'Variegata') that is also called cassava and is a very important root crop in tropical regions. The variegated form is a popular landscape tropical and always seems to have clean foliage and ample vigor.
We are heading in to a busy season very shortly with special events looming on the horizon. With our iris sale being offe
red on August 28th (10 am - 4 pm) we'll spend a good portion of our time the week prior getting the irises processed, bagged (bearded iris), tagged and priced. August 28th is also the 5th Annual Garden Festival being organized and run by the Rock Prairie Master Gardener Association (RPMGA) from 11 am until 4 pm. This event has free admission
and there will also be free admission in to the gardens for that day as well. The event will feature vegetable tasting, vendors, food, crafts, seminars, kids activities and much more. It seems that this event continues to gain momentum and we hope for good weather and a good turnout. More foliage plants from CBG can be seen here. To the left is the Persian shield (
Strobilanthes dyerianus) that I wax poetic about all the time. However, I think this is one of my best photographs of this beautiful tropical. To the right is a dark-leaved cotton plant (
Gossypium hirsutum 'Burgundy') that was in a container. I've only seen this plant in catalogs/magazines and was thrilled to see it in person (although it was in an out-of-the-way location near some bathrooms!). The combination of interesting leaf shape, leaf color and neat pink blooms make this one a target for me to find for next year! Directly below is the 'Hilo Beauty' elephant ear (
Colocasia esculenta) that was very prevalent around CBG, particularly in their bulb garden. Every leaf had a different pattern and the tropical contribution was effective in both mass plantings and containers. We've grown this at RBG in the past but I ran in to lots of this yesterday and need to become reacquainted with it soon. The bottom photo is the only one in this blog posting taken at RBG. This is a perennial fountain grass (
Pennisetum alopecuroides) called 'Red Head' that forms inflorescences sooner than many of the fountain grasses. This variety was introduced by Brent Horvath of Intrinsic Perennial Gardens (Hebron, IL) which isn't too far over the border. This grass snuck up on me as I hadn't noticed it until yesterday and was impressed with the flowers, foliage and form.
As I organized my photos from yesterday's bus tour (in the air conditioning), I was struck by how many photographs were simply of foliage. Above is a neat mountain flax (Phormium 'Sundowner') seen at the Chicago Botanic Garden (CBG) in a container. This is a good example of an ornamental contribution primarily from foliage. So many of my presentations stress the importance of foliage and while I'm a huge fan of flowers, the merit of foliage, both for color and texture, can't be overlooked. Below is the wooly sage (Salvia argentea 'Artemis') that has not only the visual appeal of bold, silvery leaves but is a must-have for a tactile, children's or horticulture therapy garden where the soft leaves are engaging as well. Considered a touchy (no pun intended), zone 5 perennial, we plant this salvia as an annual and have never seen the white blooms (no bother anyway). 
erry worked on plenty of watering, cleaned out a water feature, hauled mulch, pruned and mowed. The guys also put our rock pile on to pallets and moved everything to a better location. Marianne watered, weeded, tidied and did her cutting display among other duties. She did a fantabulous job of organizing our iris photos for the upcoming sale too. Janice mowed, watered and tidied up this morning. She's also getting ready for a gourd display and biodegradable pot display for the upcoming Garden Festival (mentioned further below). Everyone broke a sweat except me as I worked on designing next years containers and am putting together one of our largest orde
rs. I think I got some heat exhaustion yesterday as I had the chills and some nausea thru last night and am finally feeling better. I hope everyone else from our tour is feeling ok! We had Kay weeding in the reception garden and wishing well garden. I had her split her time which was frustrating to her as she likes to complete a project. That reception garden will be target #1 next week as there are lots of late weeds throughout that space. Bill came in to collect leaves and mow and Dr. Gredler ran to the dump and accomplished all of his mowing as well. We also saw Mary W., Big John, Dave T. and his family and Maury and Kay went on a roadtrip to pick up our memorial bricks (much appreciated). To the left is the gorgeous 'Fishnet Stockings' coleus (Solenostemon scutellarioides) and to the right is the chartreuse elephant ear (Xanthosoma 'Lime Zinger'). Both of these shots were taken at CBG as were the two below. We're currently growing plenty of annual, maroonish grasses (all Pennisetum sp.) right now although none are as dark as the variety 'Princess Caroline' (Pennisetum hybrida) seen below. It is almost black and was developed at the University of Georgia. I'll be getting plenty of this grass for next year! Beneath 'Princess Caroline' is the variegated tapioca (Manihot esculenta 'Variegata') that is also called cassava and is a very important root crop in tropical regions. The variegated form is a popular landscape tropical and always seems to have clean foliage and ample vigor.
red on August 28th (10 am - 4 pm) we'll spend a good portion of our time the week prior getting the irises processed, bagged (bearded iris), tagged and priced. August 28th is also the 5th Annual Garden Festival being organized and run by the Rock Prairie Master Gardener Association (RPMGA) from 11 am until 4 pm. This event has free admission
and there will also be free admission in to the gardens for that day as well. The event will feature vegetable tasting, vendors, food, crafts, seminars, kids activities and much more. It seems that this event continues to gain momentum and we hope for good weather and a good turnout. More foliage plants from CBG can be seen here. To the left is the Persian shield (Strobilanthes dyerianus) that I wax poetic about all the time. However, I think this is one of my best photographs of this beautiful tropical. To the right is a dark-leaved cotton plant (Gossypium hirsutum 'Burgundy') that was in a container. I've only seen this plant in catalogs/magazines and was thrilled to see it in person (although it was in an out-of-the-way location near some bathrooms!). The combination of interesting leaf shape, leaf color and neat pink blooms make this one a target for me to find for next year! Directly below is the 'Hilo Beauty' elephant ear (Colocasia esculenta) that was very prevalent around CBG, particularly in their bulb garden. Every leaf had a different pattern and the tropical contribution was effective in both mass plantings and containers. We've grown this at RBG in the past but I ran in to lots of this yesterday and need to become reacquainted with it soon. The bottom photo is the only one in this blog posting taken at RBG. This is a perennial fountain grass (Pennisetum alopecuroides) called 'Red Head' that forms inflorescences sooner than many of the fountain grasses. This variety was introduced by Brent Horvath of Intrinsic Perennial Gardens (Hebron, IL) which isn't too far over the border. This grass snuck up on me as I hadn't noticed it until yesterday and was impressed with the flowers, foliage and form. 
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