Kris K. mentioned the robin's nest she saw on our bear sculpture in the woodland walk garden. I got a nice shot today of mama robin "eyeballing" me as I went by this morning (look closely above). That bear is looking quite protective
as well! To the left is a nice angled shot of the gazebo. The roof of that structure has an "antique look" with ample moss although we're hoping to raise funds yet this yea
r to get new roofing materials for this iconic structure. It was great weather today and it quickly warmed from 37 degrees F to 67 degrees F by the end of the day. The first day of our extended tree sale went very well and we think we sold another 1,000 trees or so. Marianne and Janice took turns keeping an eye on the sale and we appreciate Maury being around as well as additional Golden "K" fellas and our volunteer Alice. Thanks Alice for working all day! Our Executive Director, Kelli, was on the radio today and promoted lots of upcoming events and opportunities at RBG, including the tree sale. Despite less pleasant weather tomorrow, we're hoping for another great sale day (8 am - 2 pm) and closure on this fundraiser. To the right are the early blooms of the native merrybells (
Uvularia grandiflora) in the gazebo garden. With the daffodils (
Narcissus) at peak, it wasn't hard to get a nice backlit shot of one this morning (see below). We've planted tens of thousands of daffodils over the years at RBG and don't regret it at all (despite the messy foliage that takes forever to go dormant!). Further below is the beautiful bloom of 'Jane Platt' magnolia (
Magnolia kobus var.
stellata 'Jane Platt') near the sunken garden. Many of our magnolia blossoms have a bit of frost "tinge" (appearing brown) but these clear white blooms avoided damage.
It was a busy day out in the gardens and we saw plenty of visitors enjoying the beautiful day outside. Our first order of business today was to haul out all our tender plants that we thankfully brought inside last night. As I was scraping frost of my windsh
ield this morning, which is not unsual for April, I also felt better about the big "shift" of the plants to safety. We collectively moved almost everything back out as it looks like night time lows will be in the 40s for a bit which isn't ideal but shouldn't kill anything outright. Big John moved on to an area between the Japanese garden and fern/moss garden where he's scra
ping off old woodchips to compost an area that has never been amended in the past. He also ran out some signs, watered and did his pushmowing rounds. Terry also mowed and worked with Marv on putting up obelisks, composting, etc. Marv also did a nice job preparing an area for reseeding and did some gravel work too. Marianne and Janice were out weeding and Marianne also did another nice job refreshing the cutting display (lower right). To the immediate right is the snake's head f
ritillary (
Fritillaria meleagris) starting to bloom. You can see how it gets its common name and those "checkers" become more prominent shortly (as the blooms open in to "bells") and give credence to the other common names of checkered fritillary, chess flower and guinea-hen flower. I spent almost the entire day outside which was a surprise to my coworkers who thought I had become permanently attached to my desk. I secured signs for the butterfly art project and took notes that will lead to a map that will guide visitors to the various entries. It was nice to explore the gardens too and I managed to take 200 pictures and come up with many more projects and immediate needs. With the gardens developing quickly, it wont be long until we feel overwhelmed with juggling weeding, mulching, planting, mowing, etc. I also took advantage of the sun and heat to spray herbicide over the sunken garden bricks which play host to 1000s of weeds that come up early in those warm cracks. We try to minimize herbicide use at the gardens and do primarily manual control. However, situations in our brick paths and bluestone patios necessitate some chemical assistance as manual control would be impossible. Below is a shot of the Nancy Yahr Memorial Children's Garden this afternoon. The bulbs are really looking good and this is the space that will be our "Smelly Garden" this year with over 200 varieties of scented plants. Directly beneath is the clean and showy foliage of 'Jack Frost' false forget-me-not (
Brunnera macrophylla 'Jack Frost') in the shade garden.
Next week we will be preparing for the spring plant sale in earnest. The spring sale used to involve some plant divisions from the gardens (daylilies, hostas, etc.) and odds and ends. About seven years ago, we started offering heirloom tomato plants and the sale has "snowballed" in to a sizeabl
e sale that will include over 100 varieties of vegetable plants (heirloom and hybrid tomatoes, bell peppers, hot peppers, compact vegetable selections), 80 varieties of herbs, seeds from our squash collection and ove
r 60 varieties of perennials. We'll also sell bagged compost, compost tea and worm castings. I'm excited about the "plant your own container" component of this sale which will allow customers to plant their own containers (or one purchased from RBG) with selections from the sale. We'll offer help and look forward to providing this service. We're marketing this sale heavily and we hope it does well as it is a vital fundraiser to give the gardens a financial "boost" this time of year. Nice shot of one of the butterflies to the right. We've positioned the butterflies throughout the gardens (thanks to Marv and Terry for mounting all of them!) and they look great. The materials (mainly beads) on three of them are coming off but Deb G. is working to restore them. To the
left is a sample of the totally biodegradable SoilWrap pot (paper) from Ball Seed Company. I saw an article on these pots and contacted them for samples which they sent promptly. Janice will include these with her biodegradable container display. Ball Seed has been so supportive of us with seed trialing, sample plugs, etc. and we look forward to our RBG Members Only bus tour to their trial gardens (West Chicago, IL) on August 4th this year (check out our website!). To the right and below is Janice planting more ornamental mustard (
Brassica juncea 'Brazen Brass') in the vertical wall planter (yesterday). She worked on some different ways of inserting the plants and we'll convert this planter to more heat tolerant plants in June. I tried to get the "before" picture (below) taken without Janice but she kept edging in for the "Vanna White Pose". I'll post a picture of this in a month and hopefully it will be a "wall of maroon"!
Kris K. mentioned the robin's nest she saw on our bear sculpture in the woodland walk garden. I got a nice shot today of mama robin "eyeballing" me as I went by this morning (look closely above). That bear is looking quite protective
as well! To the left is a nice angled shot of the gazebo. The roof of that structure has an "antique look" with ample moss although we're hoping to raise funds yet this yea
r to get new roofing materials for this iconic structure. It was great weather today and it quickly warmed from 37 degrees F to 67 degrees F by the end of the day. The first day of our extended tree sale went very well and we think we sold another 1,000 trees or so. Marianne and Janice took turns keeping an eye on the sale and we appreciate Maury being around as well as additional Golden "K" fellas and our volunteer Alice. Thanks Alice for working all day! Our Executive Director, Kelli, was on the radio today and promoted lots of upcoming events and opportunities at RBG, including the tree sale. Despite less pleasant weather tomorrow, we're hoping for another great sale day (8 am - 2 pm) and closure on this fundraiser. To the right are the early blooms of the native merrybells (Uvularia grandiflora) in the gazebo garden. With the daffodils (Narcissus) at peak, it wasn't hard to get a nice backlit shot of one this morning (see below). We've planted tens of thousands of daffodils over the years at RBG and don't regret it at all (despite the messy foliage that takes forever to go dormant!). Further below is the beautiful bloom of 'Jane Platt' magnolia (Magnolia kobus var. stellata 'Jane Platt') near the sunken garden. Many of our magnolia blossoms have a bit of frost "tinge" (appearing brown) but these clear white blooms avoided damage. 
ield this morning, which is not unsual for April, I also felt better about the big "shift" of the plants to safety. We collectively moved almost everything back out as it looks like night time lows will be in the 40s for a bit which isn't ideal but shouldn't kill anything outright. Big John moved on to an area between the Japanese garden and fern/moss garden where he's scra
ping off old woodchips to compost an area that has never been amended in the past. He also ran out some signs, watered and did his pushmowing rounds. Terry also mowed and worked with Marv on putting up obelisks, composting, etc. Marv also did a nice job preparing an area for reseeding and did some gravel work too. Marianne and Janice were out weeding and Marianne also did another nice job refreshing the cutting display (lower right). To the immediate right is the snake's head f
ritillary (Fritillaria meleagris) starting to bloom. You can see how it gets its common name and those "checkers" become more prominent shortly (as the blooms open in to "bells") and give credence to the other common names of checkered fritillary, chess flower and guinea-hen flower. I spent almost the entire day outside which was a surprise to my coworkers who thought I had become permanently attached to my desk. I secured signs for the butterfly art project and took notes that will lead to a map that will guide visitors to the various entries. It was nice to explore the gardens too and I managed to take 200 pictures and come up with many more projects and immediate needs. With the gardens developing quickly, it wont be long until we feel overwhelmed with juggling weeding, mulching, planting, mowing, etc. I also took advantage of the sun and heat to spray herbicide over the sunken garden bricks which play host to 1000s of weeds that come up early in those warm cracks. We try to minimize herbicide use at the gardens and do primarily manual control. However, situations in our brick paths and bluestone patios necessitate some chemical assistance as manual control would be impossible. Below is a shot of the Nancy Yahr Memorial Children's Garden this afternoon. The bulbs are really looking good and this is the space that will be our "Smelly Garden" this year with over 200 varieties of scented plants. Directly beneath is the clean and showy foliage of 'Jack Frost' false forget-me-not (Brunnera macrophylla 'Jack Frost') in the shade garden.
e sale that will include over 100 varieties of vegetable plants (heirloom and hybrid tomatoes, bell peppers, hot peppers, compact vegetable selections), 80 varieties of herbs, seeds from our squash collection and ove
r 60 varieties of perennials. We'll also sell bagged compost, compost tea and worm castings. I'm excited about the "plant your own container" component of this sale which will allow customers to plant their own containers (or one purchased from RBG) with selections from the sale. We'll offer help and look forward to providing this service. We're marketing this sale heavily and we hope it does well as it is a vital fundraiser to give the gardens a financial "boost" this time of year. Nice shot of one of the butterflies to the right. We've positioned the butterflies throughout the gardens (thanks to Marv and Terry for mounting all of them!) and they look great. The materials (mainly beads) on three of them are coming off but Deb G. is working to restore them. To the
left is a sample of the totally biodegradable SoilWrap pot (paper) from Ball Seed Company. I saw an article on these pots and contacted them for samples which they sent promptly. Janice will include these with her biodegradable container display. Ball Seed has been so supportive of us with seed trialing, sample plugs, etc. and we look forward to our RBG Members Only bus tour to their trial gardens (West Chicago, IL) on August 4th this year (check out our website!). To the right and below is Janice planting more ornamental mustard (Brassica juncea 'Brazen Brass') in the vertical wall planter (yesterday). She worked on some different ways of inserting the plants and we'll convert this planter to more heat tolerant plants in June. I tried to get the "before" picture (below) taken without Janice but she kept edging in for the "Vanna White Pose". I'll post a picture of this in a month and hopefully it will be a "wall of maroon"!
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