Blue Skies Arrive

The day started with some significant drizzle bordering on rain. However, it cleared up fairly quickly and we had blue skies, sunshine and some puffy clouds until mid afternoon when it became grey again. The image above is of one of our three, three-flower maples (Acer triflorum) really peaking with that "fire orange" fall color. This one is near the gazebo. This maple was "discovered" by noted plant explorer, Ernest H. Wilson in 1917 on the Korean peninsula. The spring flowers of this Asian species are in clusters of three, hence the name. Aside from awesome fall color, this tree also has showy, ornamental bark and is a hardy, smaller-scale maple for the landscape. I'm always amazed at how much fall interest is out in the gardens and am not lacking for photos of colorful plants out in the gardens as evidenced in recent blogs. My talk last night on Bulbs was attended by 33 people and the topic seemed well-received (I only had 10 people drift off to sleep...). We also sold bulbs from our gift shop after the event which seemed only appropriate! To the right is one of the many obelisks that Janice is decorating for later placement out in the gardens. To the left is one of our later blooming perennials that isn't hard to notice this time of year. This is a perennial, ornamental onion (Allium thunbergii 'Ozawa') which will bloom well in to November and will actually keep some of that violet color in to December.

Today's staff was identical to Tuesday. We had Janice, Big John and me. Janice worked on decorating obelisks, symposium details, coordinating our afternoon volunteers and later went shopping for our next batch of LED lights for the Holiday Lights Show (HLS). Big John set out our candy cane displays for HLS, worked on decorating pink obelisks in the reception garden, planted daffodils (Narcissus) and ornamental onions (Allium) in the parking lot beds. John also started pounding in the large fence posts that will be used to support our temporary trees for decoration. I worked on compiling information on the silent auction plants that will be offered at the Plant Appreciation symposium (registration deadline Monday!) on November 5th. I continued to work on our six new garden area signs, worked with Gary on labels and was essentially desk-bound. I'll get out tomorrow and sling some more cords. To the right is the Japanese burnet (Sanguisorba tenuifolia 'Alba') still blooming strongly in the color rooms garden (48" tall). This perennial started blooming over a month ago and is still hanging in there. Directly below is one of our many maidenhair trees (Ginkgo biloba) starting to turn gold. Some of our ginkgos have already dropped their leaves but many are still going thru the transition.

We had a great turnout of volunteers today despite the damp start this morning. While we didn't have any early "Grumpettes", we did have a good crew of Grumpies. Above are Pat (to the right) and Dave (in the distance to the left). The guys were hauling and spreading compost over our flower beds near the arboretum. This was the area that held the Ornamental Edible and Compact Vegetable Display. We'll repeat this theme in the same space next year but will expand the collection to include even more varieties. If you look closely, the guys above were choreographing their raking motions and movements as they sang the old Sam Cooke lyrics, "That's the sound of the men, working on the chain gang...". Rollie ran the endloader to keep up with loading utility carts with compost. Ron and Steve went out and cleared the remainder of the reception garden planters and containers and moved on to leaf collection. Dennis and Bob C. also worked on collecting leaves which continues to be a full-time job. Dick H. was in to work on one of our garden vehicles which he later hauled off for servicing beyond what we could accomplish "in house." Dave, Jim, Bob A. and Vern were all in to continue on carpentry projects and they built a neat support/roller system for some of our larger rolls of plastics and fabrics. It's nice to have such handy people around the gardens. Gary spent the morning catching up with data entry for labels and Maury was all over the place running errands for everyone. We also saw Kelli at break and Mary W. was in briefly. To the upper right is one of the maples (Acer sp.) on the adjoining Lion's Beach lawn. I'm pretty sure this is one of the Freeman maples (Acer x freemanii) which is a cross between the silver maple (Acer saccharinum) and red maple (Acer rubrum). There are many varieties with variable fall color. This one is quite brilliant this year. To the left are the fruits of the native coralberry (Symphoricarpos orbiculatas). Also called Indiancurrant, this suckering shrub is quite durable although slightly unkempt in appearance. I love the color of the berries (primary feature of interest) which will attract birds in the winter.

Our afternoon "Grumpettes" were in today and spent considerable time cutting back ferns, collecting leaves and tidying up the fern & moss garden. Mary, Myrt, Gena and Savannah (Gena's granddaughter) did a great job and brought back many loads of debris for the compost pile. This team, including Nancy (not here today), have done marvelous work all spring and summer and we hope the team is intact and inspired for similar opportunities in 2012. To the right is the fall color on one of our oakleaf hydrangeas (Hydrangea quercifolia) out in the gardens. Their fall color, while naturally variable from year to year, will fluctuate depending on location, sun exposure and other factors. Most will maintain consistent fall color well in to November. Below are the October, confetti-like blooms of the witchhazel (Hamamelis virginiana). While the flowers, individually, don't have a lot of impact, they'll bloom for a couple weeks and as the leaves drop from the plant, the "haze" of yellow becomes more apparent. I saw lots of witchhazels blooming at Devil's Lake State Park (Baraboo, WI) a couple weeks ago (this species is a North American native). At the bottom is an Autumn shot of the Japanese garden from yesterday.