Snow In June

The cotton continues to fall and when it accumulates like it does as seen above in the sunken garden, it is certainly a "winter wonderland." Although I'm not entirely sure of it, I believe this has been a bumper crop this year. This mess should only last a couple more weeks or so and both wind and rain will help expedite the process and knock some more of that cotton down. I gave a tour today and they all commented on the "winter wonderland" look out in the gardens! Despite the fact that we suffer thru this mess each June, the volume of seeds is always quite astounding. The images to the left and right show some of the debris. Below and to the left are a cluster of Euonymus caterpillars (thanks for the ID Mike M.!) that are defoliating some of our Eastern wahoos (Euonymus atropurpureus) but are so interesting in the morning when hundreds are climbing up these silken threads to the nests.

It was another perfect temperature day with partly sunny skies and a high around 80 degrees F. It looks like there might be some rain around mid-week which would be perfect timing for all of the plants that we've put in the ground daily (including today!). Larry started running irrigation early and removed two smaller trees for me that have been less than vigorous the past couple of years. Larry also repaired a downed tractor and helped water as needed. Big John mowed early and spent a good portion of time watering containers, beds, etc. He later did some composting for an area we'll plant yet this week. Pat mowed, planted and did some watering as well. Jenny was in to do some planting and inventoried our signage needs in the new Smelly Garden. She also planted our English cottage containers. I spent time laying out plants but then had a sequence of two meetings followed by a tour. This tour was a group of women from around the country that get together each year in a certain area to view gardens. I think they are called the "Rare Plant Society"? Very nice ladies and I enjoyed giving the tour as they really seemed to enjoy the garden. I'm trying to get all of my "ducks in a row" before leaving next week to the American Public Garden Association (APGA) conference in Philadelphia, PA. Kelli and I will be travelling together and there is enough going on that splitting up seminars/tours, we'll be able to really get some value out of this conference and hopefully forge some connections while spreading the word about our little garden. Nice shot to the right of the pale coneflower (Echinacea pallida) in the formal perennial garden. I've always loved the "architecture" of this bloom. Red marigolds? Well, almost! Below is 'Durango Red' marigold (Tagetes) in our marigold collection. It will be neat to see all these varieties side by side. We had more great volunteer help today with the early arrival of Ron and Bev to continue planting in the annual beds east of the visitor's center. There were another 50-60 flats out there from placement yesterday for the Rotary Planting Workday. They did a great job planting and were later joined by Jenny and Pat. Don and Pearl (right and below left) helped in that area after planting their traditional area all morning. They probably put in 1,000 plants between them and did a nice job as usual. Magda was in to weed and plant in her garden as was Mary H. Bob and Chris were in the sunken garden removing more bulb foliage like that of the daffodils (Narcissus) that are more than ready to cut back as they yellow. Dr. Yahr was in to help plant and later mulched an area with Dr. Gredler who spent some time mowing today too. Mary W. was in and helped some of the herb ladies today. Joanne was out weeding her area and we also had a productive Garden Development & Maintenance Committee Meeting (Dr. Yahr, Gary, Dr. Gredler, Joanne, Carrie, Christine, Big John, Hal, Iza and Maury). Today we also saw Vern, Bill O., Ruth, Alice and many others.

With looming showers, we'll have to plan our week out well as we still have plenty of planting and need to be ready for one of the crazy Saturdays at RBG. This Saturday will include a planting workday, many weddings and the Rotary Pie Ride along Palmer Drive which is quite an event. We'll be helping facilitate the sale of food at this event and perhaps we'll inspire some potential visitors to stroll over. Tomorrow night I give the next installment in our lecture series on Container Gardening (6 pm -8 pm at the Parker Education Center). I hope to see a good crowd and look forward to the presentation (free for RBG members and $5 for all others). To the right are the beautiful blooms of the viper's bugloss (Echium vulgare) which is very eyecatching on slender, 30" columns. Directly below is 'Merlin Blue Morn' petunia and at the bottom is the cone formation on the Korean silver fir (Abies koreana 'Horstmann's Silberlocke') in front of the Parker Education Center.