Crystal Clear

The weather was sunny with blue skies today and followed the same pattern as yesterday with a frosty morning warming to the mid 50 degrees F by afternoon. This is truly the time for "layers" in Wisconsin as I started with four and ended with two by the end of the day. The top photo is a shot taken from the Japanese garden looking east to the zig-zag bridge in the foreground and observation pier in the distance. We still have some of our beautiful fall color and this has been one of the nicest autumns that I can remember. It was a great day to be outside and we all took advantage of the opportunity. Directly above is the frosted foliage of the donkeytail spurge (Euphorbia myrsinites) which has such nice architecture throughout the year. This perennial (native to Southeastern Europe) can be a bit of a thug, particularly in warmer climates and I've seen it take up some real estate in Midwestern gardens as well.

We had our small Tuesday crew of Janice, Big John, Larry and myself. However, we were joined by Marianne (as a volunteer today) and many other volunteers. Big John mentioned seeing a buck out in the gardens today (see to the right, center of photo) and we later saw his girlfriend too (below). Next week we'll start pounding posts and putting up fencing to minimize their access to our tasty arborvitae (Thuja occidentalis) hedges. Janice worked on decorating obelisks as can be seen above as she rotates a 9' obelisk and secures the lights. She has this down to a science and will have decorated close to 30+ obelisks that will be placed in strategic locations shortly by Marv and Terry. Janice also spent quality time in the English cottage garden cutting down perennials. We opt to remove as much perennial debris as possible in the fall as we are hard pressed for time in spring and lack winter visitors to enjoy some of that late season interest. Of course ornamental grasses are left up until next March. Big John emptied out containers, hauled containers, planted daffodils (Narcissus) and helped Janice later in the afternoon. Larry worked on pumping out water features for subsequent cleaning and put up more lights displays. Marianne continued her epic luminary route and should be able to finish it up tomorrow. Above is our sunflower sculpture out in the gardens with a nice frosty edge. We have about a dozen of these sculptures around the gardens, most of which were created by Brady Lueck, a local sculptor and artist. Despite the small crew today, it was busy around the gardens. Kay was here and hauled out five solid cartloads of debris from our North American garden. She is very thorough and never seems to slow down. Robin continued her plant removal efforts in the reception and sunken gardens. Dr. Gredler was here to do some mowing, dump runs and leaf collection and we also saw Mary W., Luis, Ron, Bev and Maury. Larry and I met with Todd (Nature's Touch) to talk about various ideas/projects in the gardens and Todd had his crew planting five enormous 'Whitespire' birches (Betula populifolia) down on the "point" near the new structure. We positioned the birches in a tight clump for a "mini-grove effect" that I've observed up at Olbrich (Madison). The density of the trunks and thereby the white bark has maximum effect and the canopies become one. To the left is Marianne stringing the C7 bulbs in our half gallon milk jugs. We only have a bulb in every third socket and seal off the rest so the spacing looks good. Marianne and Jenny have historically put these out and they are a great addition to the holiday light show (if we don't suck them up with snowblowers....not a pretty sight). On Monday, we go cut and haul small white pines (Pinus strobus) that are donated to the gardens and used for this event as they are either decorated or used as backdrops for other lights displays. Below is the beautiful golden sedge (Carex elata 'Bowles' Golden') in our in fern & moss garden (and many other locations throughout throughout the gardens). I never hesitate to recommend this grass relative as it looks great in part sun and forms a nice tight clump (avoid running sedges at all costs!). The bottom photo is of the fall color of the Hamilton's spindletree (Euonymus hamiltonianus 'October Fire') near the waterfall in the Japanese garden. This specimen will ultimately get well over 12' tall but has superior fall color and interesting fruits.