Today was our annual journey to Paul's Tree Farm to pick-up white pines (
Pinus strobus) for use in our Holiday Lights Show set-up. Paul has been very generous and has donated trees every year for the past 12 years. Our crew of 15 (all but me seen above) did a great job and we were loaded quite quickly. Larry and Big John went early to start cutting the trees and we later caught up with our four vehicles and four trailers. This was our smallest crew for this endeavor but we made quick work of it and appreciate the help from Kurt H., Dick H., Dick P., Rollie, Larry, Big John, Bob A., Bob C., Jim, Dave, Ron W., Roger, Denny and Pat. We had a nice break out there after loading up and enjoyed a perfect day. Those veterans that helped with this task in the past all agreed that this was the mildest weather we've had for this expedition and were happy for the warmth and sunshine. We cut, loaded and hauled 200 trees back to the gardens and put them next to pre-pounded stakes. We usually lose a couple trees on the way back but didn't lose any this year. Marv and Terry started immediatly on wiring the trees to the stakes and we'll decorate them yet this week. Below is Kurt helping load and secure over 70 trees on his trailer.
Marv and Terry continued to put up displays and lights today and as mentioned above, shifted to securing the newly arrived trees for the upcoming event. Many of the trees will be decorated with twinkle lights but some will simply serve as "visual barricades" and backdrops. Marianne did more work on her luminaries, decorated woody plants with lights and started setting out certain lights for use on the new trees. Janice also worked on lights, obelisk decorating and some gardening, including getting our volunteer Mary situated for fall clean-up as well. Aside from running the chainsaw this morning for pine cutting, Larry worked on some other lights projects in the afternoon. Other volunteers today included Dr. Gredler, Ron B., Jenny, Tom (working on electrical projects), Julie, Bob K., Vern, Del and many others. Below are the copius fruits of the burning bush (
Euonymus alatus) which are proving to be a nuisance in woodlands and other areas where they are "dispersed" by birds. I think we'll continue to see more evaluations and considerations of this woody plant in regards to its potentially invasive demeanor. Varieties with minimal or no fruiting will be developed and promoted in the near future I'm sure.
We are really pushing ahead this week with this nice weather over the next couple of days. We still have a couple bulbs to plant (2,000 or so) and plenty of debris to collect. However, the Holiday Lights Show has become the #1 priority and we'll continue to pursue event set-up completion
by some time next week. LP Tree Service was here again today to place more lights up in the trees and they also do a nice job clipping lights along the eaves of the visitors center. Our primary tasks left for the event are decorating the the new trees, finishing display set-up and my contribution of running the cords will complete the scene although I'm woeful
ly behind right now. I'll run plenty of cords tomorrow as I prefer 60s as opposed to 20s any day! To the left we have the fall color of the Judd viburnum (
Viburnum x
juddii) which has very nice, fragrant pink flowers in spring and a fairly reliable, red/maroon fall color late in the season. To the right is a sample of what Jenny is dealing with right now. She's peeling old labels off of these aluminum signs and stacking/organizing the labels by relative height for reuse next spring. After a couple of years of laser engraver use, we wont need these types of signs but will certainly use them over the next two years. Urban was here pruning suckers off of crabapples (
Malus sp.). The picture below shows just one tree in need of sucker pruning. Once they start suckering like this (many times encouraged by the original pruning), our only recourse is to keep cutting them back annually. Urban and Little Jerry will "de sucker" over 50 of these in the coming weeds. The bottom photo shows a small tree that I've promoted on past blogs. This is the colorful fruit set of the green hawthorn (
Hawthorn viridis 'Winter King') which catches my eye whenever I drive by on Palmer Drive (our frontage road). Here is a good example of how "berry set" can be an ornamental asset as well.
by some time next week. LP Tree Service was here again today to place more lights up in the trees and they also do a nice job clipping lights along the eaves of the visitors center. Our primary tasks left for the event are decorating the the new trees, finishing display set-up and my contribution of running the cords will complete the scene although I'm woeful
ly behind right now. I'll run plenty of cords tomorrow as I prefer 60s as opposed to 20s any day! To the left we have the fall color of the Judd viburnum (Viburnum x juddii) which has very nice, fragrant pink flowers in spring and a fairly reliable, red/maroon fall color late in the season. To the right is a sample of what Jenny is dealing with right now. She's peeling old labels off of these aluminum signs and stacking/organizing the labels by relative height for reuse next spring. After a couple of years of laser engraver use, we wont need these types of signs but will certainly use them over the next two years. Urban was here pruning suckers off of crabapples (Malus sp.). The picture below shows just one tree in need of sucker pruning. Once they start suckering like this (many times encouraged by the original pruning), our only recourse is to keep cutting them back annually. Urban and Little Jerry will "de sucker" over 50 of these in the coming weeds. The bottom photo shows a small tree that I've promoted on past blogs. This is the colorful fruit set of the green hawthorn (Hawthorn viridis 'Winter King') which catches my eye whenever I drive by on Palmer Drive (our frontage road). Here is a good example of how "berry set" can be an ornamental asset as well. 
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