Today was another perfect day for weather with ample sunshine and temperatures around 75 degrees F. We had great volunteer involvement all day and we accomplished
many tasks around the gardens. The top photo shows my first double racked trailer load of plants that went out in front of the Parker Education Center this morning. This is the start of our grand silver/white/light blue theme! We had a great turnout of Grumpettes (Suzy, Marilyn, Miriam, Donna, Karen, Bev, Mary and Glenna) this Thursday and I figured that there is no time like the present to get some plants in the ground. That's not to say that we don't have plenty of weeding to do but I'm also looking at a yard full of plants that need to be planted in the coming weeks. Directly above are Suzy (with shovel) and Janice in the entrance garden this morning. Janice is planting our pedestal/urn combinations which will have a centerpiece of blue lyme grass (
Elymus arenarius 'Blue Dune') and trailing aluminum plant (
Dichondra argentea 'Silver Falls') that will shortly be cascading o
ver the sides. There are six of these in front and they should look pretty cool. The ladies planted over 2,000 annuals this morning and Janice and I took time to really water the new plantings. To the above right is Mary R. tucking in some plants and Marilyn can be seen to the left doing the same thing. To the right are Donna (foreground) and Glenna moving along that front of that garden. We planted about 80% of that space and have yet to add that "touch of blue" to complet
e the composition (next week). We also had a decent showing of Grumpies with Ron W., Ron Y. and Ron B. setting up our terrace garden umbrellas and moving on to path clean-up and plant unloading. Ron B. did some more air edging along the back of the woodland walk. Del was also in for some clean-up and Dick H. worked on digging plants out of the second parking lot island that we still have to clear for new plantings. Dave T., Jim, Bob A. and Vern were all in to work on some carpentry projects which included the preparation and painting of the sign posts for our oak leaf garden art project. Dr. Gredler was involved with mowing and Maury ran some timely errands for us. Hal and Doris were in to tidy their area as were Mary H. and her daughter. Mary and Roy weeded their section of the shade garden and also installed some plantings. Kathy (new volunteer) came in to help this afternoon in the yard with watering and plant organization. We also saw many members of the Janesville Area Herb Society, Mary W., Stan, Lori, Julie G., Kris and many others. I'm sure I'm forgetting some volunteers but certainly appreciate everyone's efforts today. Directly below is a wildlife sighting not far from the home of one of our grounds horticulturists. Further below is another unknown, double columbine (
Aquilegia sp.) looking very good despite popping up in an area where it was never planted. These little surprises are usually welcome.
The grounds staff hit the ground running this morning. Larry and Big John each went to pick up plants today. Larry spent time getting our back-up fountain up and running
down in the sunken garden and helped with some other projects. John and Pat spent some boating time together (see bottom photo) to paint the "hard to reach" areas of both the arched bridge and observation platform. This is a tricky task and despite offering John $20 if Pat came back wet...no such luck. The guys have done a bang up job and we hope to recruit more painting help to finish the gazebo which is the last of the four large re-painting projects. John also painted later and Pat started the day with some composting. Janice hauled additional plants up front for our project, helped plant and organized the ladies for their "post planting" tasks in the formal gardens. Janice also watered and planted the three horizontal, vertical tubes (I'll get a ph
oto tomorrow). Jenny was our labeling saviour again and matched labels to the incoming plants and another larger category of annuals that we'll be pulling from over the coming weeks for our various schemes. This is when the color-coded identification labels (created in winter) come in handy. For instance, we'll pull and place all flats with a yellow label (All American Selections) tomorrow in preparation for the first of our five sequential
Volunteer Planting Work Days (8 am until 12 noon) this Saturday. To the upper right is the always interesting bloom structure of the native Jack-in-the-pulpit (
Arisaema triphyllum) in the woodland walk garden. Also called bog onion, brown dragon, Indi
an turnip, etc., this woodland perennial has a long history of uses by Native Americans and is worthy of more research. To the left is the interesting crossing or zig-zag appearance of the "criss cross" lady fern (
Athyrium filix-femina 'Victoriae') in our fern & moss garden. This one always gets comments from visitors and is quite textural in appearance. To the right, also in that same garden, is our small variegated hedge maple (
Acer campestre 'Carnival') which will frequently show almost entirely white leaves. This is a very slow grower and marginally hardy for us. However, our specimen (3' tall or so?) has done well for five years and is a real beacon of color in that shady garden. Directly below is a pink bloom cluster of the Chinese neillia (
Neillia sinensis). This rare shrub is not overwhelming in any feature to be honest with the exception of being darn tough in the space where we located three of these (near the east gate). They get no supplemental irrigation, are in part shade and the soil is marginal. After the blooms are done, the arching form and clean foliage looks nice and eventually turns yellow in fall. We've never observed any insect or disease problems on these specimens either. At the bottom are Big John and Pat out in the boat. John has been painting on that bridge for the past week or two and it looks great! The new paint has really "brightened" it up.
many tasks around the gardens. The top photo shows my first double racked trailer load of plants that went out in front of the Parker Education Center this morning. This is the start of our grand silver/white/light blue theme! We had a great turnout of Grumpettes (Suzy, Marilyn, Miriam, Donna, Karen, Bev, Mary and Glenna) this Thursday and I figured that there is no time like the present to get some plants in the ground. That's not to say that we don't have plenty of weeding to do but I'm also looking at a yard full of plants that need to be planted in the coming weeks. Directly above are Suzy (with shovel) and Janice in the entrance garden this morning. Janice is planting our pedestal/urn combinations which will have a centerpiece of blue lyme grass (Elymus arenarius 'Blue Dune') and trailing aluminum plant (Dichondra argentea 'Silver Falls') that will shortly be cascading o
ver the sides. There are six of these in front and they should look pretty cool. The ladies planted over 2,000 annuals this morning and Janice and I took time to really water the new plantings. To the above right is Mary R. tucking in some plants and Marilyn can be seen to the left doing the same thing. To the right are Donna (foreground) and Glenna moving along that front of that garden. We planted about 80% of that space and have yet to add that "touch of blue" to complet
e the composition (next week). We also had a decent showing of Grumpies with Ron W., Ron Y. and Ron B. setting up our terrace garden umbrellas and moving on to path clean-up and plant unloading. Ron B. did some more air edging along the back of the woodland walk. Del was also in for some clean-up and Dick H. worked on digging plants out of the second parking lot island that we still have to clear for new plantings. Dave T., Jim, Bob A. and Vern were all in to work on some carpentry projects which included the preparation and painting of the sign posts for our oak leaf garden art project. Dr. Gredler was involved with mowing and Maury ran some timely errands for us. Hal and Doris were in to tidy their area as were Mary H. and her daughter. Mary and Roy weeded their section of the shade garden and also installed some plantings. Kathy (new volunteer) came in to help this afternoon in the yard with watering and plant organization. We also saw many members of the Janesville Area Herb Society, Mary W., Stan, Lori, Julie G., Kris and many others. I'm sure I'm forgetting some volunteers but certainly appreciate everyone's efforts today. Directly below is a wildlife sighting not far from the home of one of our grounds horticulturists. Further below is another unknown, double columbine (Aquilegia sp.) looking very good despite popping up in an area where it was never planted. These little surprises are usually welcome. 
down in the sunken garden and helped with some other projects. John and Pat spent some boating time together (see bottom photo) to paint the "hard to reach" areas of both the arched bridge and observation platform. This is a tricky task and despite offering John $20 if Pat came back wet...no such luck. The guys have done a bang up job and we hope to recruit more painting help to finish the gazebo which is the last of the four large re-painting projects. John also painted later and Pat started the day with some composting. Janice hauled additional plants up front for our project, helped plant and organized the ladies for their "post planting" tasks in the formal gardens. Janice also watered and planted the three horizontal, vertical tubes (I'll get a ph
oto tomorrow). Jenny was our labeling saviour again and matched labels to the incoming plants and another larger category of annuals that we'll be pulling from over the coming weeks for our various schemes. This is when the color-coded identification labels (created in winter) come in handy. For instance, we'll pull and place all flats with a yellow label (All American Selections) tomorrow in preparation for the first of our five sequential Volunteer Planting Work Days (8 am until 12 noon) this Saturday. To the upper right is the always interesting bloom structure of the native Jack-in-the-pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum) in the woodland walk garden. Also called bog onion, brown dragon, Indi
an turnip, etc., this woodland perennial has a long history of uses by Native Americans and is worthy of more research. To the left is the interesting crossing or zig-zag appearance of the "criss cross" lady fern (Athyrium filix-femina 'Victoriae') in our fern & moss garden. This one always gets comments from visitors and is quite textural in appearance. To the right, also in that same garden, is our small variegated hedge maple (Acer campestre 'Carnival') which will frequently show almost entirely white leaves. This is a very slow grower and marginally hardy for us. However, our specimen (3' tall or so?) has done well for five years and is a real beacon of color in that shady garden. Directly below is a pink bloom cluster of the Chinese neillia (Neillia sinensis). This rare shrub is not overwhelming in any feature to be honest with the exception of being darn tough in the space where we located three of these (near the east gate). They get no supplemental irrigation, are in part shade and the soil is marginal. After the blooms are done, the arching form and clean foliage looks nice and eventually turns yellow in fall. We've never observed any insect or disease problems on these specimens either. At the bottom are Big John and Pat out in the boat. John has been painting on that bridge for the past week or two and it looks great! The new paint has really "brightened" it up.
Thanks for your appreciation! I feel very strongly about the plight of our native bees and hope that this blog will help people identify them and want to help save them by growing nectar-rich plants in their gardens.
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