A Precipitation Teaser

Above is the metallic violet "sphere" (umbel actually) of the Star of Persia ornamental onion (Allium christophii) just starting to bloom. At only 18" tall, the flower clusters are a good 8-12" in diameter and are pretty neat in dried arrangements too. We have a couple thousand of these fall planted bulbs around the gardens and they are just starting to peak. Sometimes we'll leave them up for a couple months as the flowers will still hold their form once dry. We are moving forward with removing bulb foliage in areas prior to planting annuals. To the right is 'Whirlwind' plantain lily (Hosta) and to the left is a close-up of the bloom of the Lady In Red ninebark (Physocarpus opulifolius 'Tuilad'). To the lower right are the blooms of the climbing hydrangea (Hydrangea anomala subsp. petiolaris) on the archway between the sunken and reception gardens.

This morning was extremely dark and overcast with some ominous thunder from time to time. I would have bet that it would rain and all it did was drop a very light drizzle from time to time. I guess the west side of Janesville had a nice downpour and we had nary a drop. We were all poised and ready to run for cover but never even had to put on a rain coat. I got to work a bit early as I had to lay out plants in three areas before my morning meeting (education). The nice thing about the overcast skies was that it never really got hot like yesterday until well after 2 pm when the sun periodically peaked out. Once it was warm, there were plenty of swimmers over at Lion's Beach and we had to "redirect" those swimmers that decided that our shoreline and fountain were nice targets and staging points for their shenanigans. I've spent my 13 years constantly policing that shoreline near the beach for the reasons of safety and security for the gardens. When I started at the gardens, the entire beach was fenced in and their were lifeguards. Budget cutbacks (9 years ago?) involved eliminating lifeguards and the surrounding fence. This "swim at your own risk" beach, while in theory seems like a nice opportunity for an inexpensive swim, has become extremely challenging for us as a neighbor as we're contantly monitoring our gardens and main fountain. I don't begrudge anyone a swim to cool off but the teenagers have really been a nuisance and rarely acknowledge any warnings about being in areas where swimming isn't allowed. We sure don't need another tragedy like the drowning that occured last summer. Directly below is one of the beds I layed out today and Big John and Pat took care of planting everything here. John Pat and Marianne also planted the terrace border (blue/yellow theme). This is our American Garden Award program (www.americangardenaward.com) that features seven entries that can be voted upon by visitors. Check out their website. This is our third year as a participating display garden for this program and we're happy to promote this neat program. With all of the rototilling that Marv and Terry accomplished today, their was no shortage of young robins (see above) looking for a quick worm. Marv and Terry secured our cucumber and vine supports in the edible garden and moved on to watering and many other projects. Big John also rototilled (formal annual sections, which we'll plant tomorrow), watered and planted . Pat watered, cleared bulb foliage, planted and composted. Marianne juggled her tidying jobs, cutting display, watering and also planted quite a bit as well. We saw Janice here for the education committee meeting which also included Kris, Ariel, Mary, Bev, Chris, Kelli, Mary Kay, Jane and myself. Overall, it was a small crew outside. Cora O. and a friend came in to plant most of the remaining containers out in the gardens. Dr. Yahr also helped plant containers and hand watered the entire Smelly Garden for us too. Dr. Gredler was in to work on various projects (weeding mostly) and we also saw Chuck, Maury, Lisa I., and many others. To the upper right is one of the beautiful leaves of the variegated horseradish (Armoracia rusticana 'Variegata') in the sunken garden and blooming quite close to that specimen, is the fingerleaf Rodger's flower (Rodgersia aesculifolia) seen to the left with creamy, airy flower plumes. There was lots of progress today (see to the right and directly below) in the Japanese garden and our contractors are steadily getting the stream and pond taken care of after so many days of delay with rain. The end result of this entire project should be quite impressive and work on the final element, the waterfall, should commence this week as well. Our irrigation guys finished the new irrigation in the North Point garden and helped troubleshoot some other issues we had out in the gardens, including a zone that just would not turn on at all. Overall, it was a very productive day although it's disappointing not to have more volunteers in on a day to day basis as we still could use planting help and the weeding issues are starting to mount. The muggy weather doesn't help but with two more work days over the next two Saturdays (8 am until noon, donuts involved...), we should be able to get our major areas planted in a timely fashion. At the bottom is a close-up of the blooms of our black-eyed Susan vine (Thunbergia alata 'Lemon Star') that will be part of our yellow and blue theme as it works its way up a blue obelisk.