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Today was borderline overwhelming with playing catch-up after attending the American Public Gardens Association (APGA) national conference in Philadelphia, PA last week. The conference was wonderful and both Kelli and I felt it was well worth the time for the advantages of networking and "talking shop" with so many others from other gardens. I'll feature some of the highlights over the course of my blogs this week. Further below are some shots taken at the Mt. Cuba Center which is one of my favorite stops. On Thursday morning last week (in Philly), Ed Lyon and I went to the historic courthouse and paid to take an elevator up to the top of the central tower for a nice view of the city (at 570 feet or so?). I hate heights and really didn't enjoy the elevator getting stuck between the 17th and 18th floor for 45 minutes. There were five of us in this 12 square foot elevator and it felt like hours before we were rescued. The elevator operator had run that elevator almost daily for four years and had never had any problem. At least we didn't plunge to our deaths. Very memorable. Above is a duck family enjoying our shoreline and below is the almost-completed lower pool in the Japanese garden. Further below is the recently sodded North Point garden which continues to "mature" nicely. It was nice to see all the progress in the gardens when I returned although we unfortunately didn't get the rain that went both north and south of Janesville.We had a good crew today although some of the early rain (between 7 am and 8 am) may have kept some volunteers away. Marv and Terry continued to prepare some smaller areas for planting, did some watering and started to weed one of our tough garden areas. The weeds didn't bother to wait for my return and will be one of our primary challenges over the next couple of weeks. Marianne and Noah (her grandson) did a nice job weeding in the sunken garden and worked on some other projects. Larry kept irrigation going and spent significant time in the main parking lot pruning/shaping our larger barberries (Berberis) and burning bushes (Euonymus alatus). Bill O. helped Larry finish this job later in the afternoon. Big John popped by and Janice came in for our Horticulture Therapy Committee meeting this afternoon (which also included Darcie, Karen, Joan, Art, Victoria and Jordan). To the right are some of the marigolds (Tagetes) in our large marigold collection and to the left is a nice shot of the small waterfall in the fern & moss garden. My walk around this morning included plenty of photos as you can imagine. Surprisingly, I only took 1500 shots during my conference trip but feel I caught what I needed to and will sort thru the pictures soon. Also to the right is another nice shot of the Armenian basketflower (Centaurea macrocephala) in the formal perennial garden.

The Grumpies had a productive morning with Del and Bob C. skimming and replacing path gravel down in the Japanese garden while Dennis, Gary and Maury did the same in the Scottish gardens and color rooms gardens. This "refreshing" really looks good and is an annual endeavor. Pat and Dick H. went along the North path and cut back some overgrown brush and tried to tidy up one of our more unsightly paths. Shirley was in to weed in the gazebo garden and Dr. Gredler was in to do his Monday mowing. Dave, Jim, Vern and Bob A. started to repair our plant sale tables that have seen some wear and tear and will be making some new ones as well. With our next plant sale in September, we have to be ready to go. Ariel worked on processing some labels and was out in the woodland walk swapping old labels for new. The progress with the new laser engraver has been impressive to say the least. We also saw Kelli, Kris and many others over here today as well. Directly below is the 'Electrocution' plantain lily (Hosta) and the yellow coneflower (Echinacea paradoxa). The third photo down shows the terrific trio of Marianne, Noah and Marv today. Below are a few of the many photos I took at the Mt. Cuba Center (www.mtcubacenter.org/) which was totally awesome. The natural areas were unbelievable and the formal gardens and future trial garden were exciting too. I was able to connect with a good friend, Peggy Anne, who works there and I enjoyed our tour (albeit, way too brief). I've wanted to visit this garden for years and am glad I finally was able to do so. Check out their website for more information and history.