The "Transition"

I call this a day of "transition" as we spent lots of time clearing beds of bulb foliage prior to the final preparation and planting of those spaces with summer annuals. The warm start to spring has pushed tulips (Tulipa), ornamental onions (Allium), etc. well in advance so we're clearing that foliage now with the intent of a quick "turn around" prior to planting. Normally we would be doing these same tasks in two to three weeks. Our goal is to plant as much as possible each day. Above is Marianne planting outside the reception garden. That blue and white petunia is a relatively new variety called 'Rhythm & Blues'. Jenny later joined Marianne with this planting project and to the right is Dr. Yahr planting containers in the reception garden this morning. Last year we diverged from the traditional blue/silver theme of the reception garden and explored pink. It looked alright although this year, we're back to deep blue and silver and should be able to plant the remainder of that garden by this Saturday (Saturday work day! 8 am - 12 noon!). To the left is Marv this morning with one of our remaining trees to be installed.

Many of the Grumpies, including Gary, Urban, Rollie, Ron B. and Del worked on cutting back and removing bulb foliage from around the gardens (daffodils and ornamental onions). We had a nice turnout of Grumpies with many also working on taking down some of our plant sale tents. Dick P., Dick H. and Dick C. all worked on various projects while Stan was in the Japanese garden continuing his very specific pruning routine on the pines (Pinus). Ron W. helped take down the tents and later joined the others. Dr. Gredler was in for mowing and Dr. Yahr for planting. Our carpenters (Dave, Jim, Vern and Bob) had plenty of work to do including the rebuilding of some gazebo elements that need replacements before we repaint. Pat was in to work on some of his painting preparations as well. We also had Winnifred as our lone Grumpette and both she and Jenny did a nice job clearing weeds and bulb debris from the large bed near the east end of the garden. We also saw Mary W. (helped water), Janice, Karen, Dawn, Cindi, Sharon, Art, Darcie and Mary (Exec. Director). To the right is Big John securing twine on the supports for our elevated, horizontal, PVC planters. We'll be planting runner beans (Phaseolus sp.) and other edible climbers up all of these supports. Directly below is our only dwarf Japanese painted fern (Athyrium niponicum). Called 'Eco Dwarf', this variety came from Don Jacobs of Eco Gardens in Decatur, GA. While most painted ferns reach 12"-15" in height, this variety stays around 6" but still has all of the nice features associated with that type of fern (silvering, maroon, etc.) although the fronds also seem "scaled down." Further below are the bloom clusters of the Coppertina ninebark (Physocarpus opulifolius 'Mindia') which are showy for a week or two. Today was quite busy this morning out in the gardens and the grounds staff kept quite busy as well. Marv and Terry set-up sprinklers (we missed the rain yesterday), planted two large trees, rototilled and prepared planting areas and watered our containers. Big John continued collecting allium stems/foliage, created our twine supports for the beans (Phaseolus) and rototilled the beds for the ornamental edible and compact vegetable display. Larry spent most of the morning repairing a significant irrigation problem. He probably has a repair of this nature a couple times each summer. In this case, a large line was pierced with a stake from the new herb garden edging. We have so many irrigation lines that it's tough to avoid hitting these on occasion with digging, pounding stakes, etc. Ironically, Larry himself hit another line later while installing posts for the oak leaf garden art project! To the right are the flower clusters of the 'Blue Ice' hybrid bluestar (Amsonia hybrida) which only gets 18" tall but has this spectactular spring display and a yellow fall color late in the season. To the left is the variegated foliage of the Star Showers Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia 'Monham') along my fence in the backyard. I like this variety for that cream dappling but have seen plenty of reversions (all green leaves). Jenny was a weeding and planting machine today and Marianne did her fair share of cutting back tulips (Tulipa), planting and her top notch cutting display. To the right is another shot from my backyard. This is the golden cutleaf elderberry (Sambucus racemosa 'Sutherland Gold') that has such a nice combination of color and texture. I cut mine back every winter to 12" stubs and it bounces up to 7' or so and looks like this all summer. Further below is a shot of one of our school programs this morning out in the arboretum. Kudos to our education volunteers that do such a fantastic job with youth (and adult) education here at RBG. At the bottom is the 'Pewter Lace' Japanese painted fern (Athyrium niponicum) in the fern & moss garden and the yellowish foliage is from the winter aconite (Eranthis hyemalis) that is going dormant for the season.