The Quick Shift To Autumn

The last couple of days have been chilly in the morning and remind me of late September. Today warmed up nicely though and I'm sure we'll get our share of more sun and heat yet this month. The lighting was perfect early today for some photography. The top photo is the sunken garden this morning with some light fog and morning light coming thru the cottonwoods (Populus deltoides). There was a very small wedding in this garden later today and we made sure everything was primped and ready for their ceremony. Directly above is the English cottage garden which truly looks dynamite. I ran in to Lynn S., our volunteer for that space, this morning and she was starting to pick some of the produce in this space. She found some nice eggplants (Solanum melongena) and Swiss chard (Beta vulgaris). This year, Lynn created the perfect combination of annuals, perennials and vegetables and this garden is a great start for visitors as this is the first garden they see as they exit the Parker Education Center. To the right is the showy 'China Town' plume celosia (Celosia plumosa) which has the double impact of bright red flower plumes above maroon foliage. To the left is the 'Purple Flash' ornamental hot pepper (Capsicum annuum) in the English cottage garden. The small, glossy black fruits are forming but the real appeal is the variable foliage of magenta, cream, green and purple. We first grew this variety last year and I envision using this variety annually as part of our displays every year for the ornamental impact.

Besides Lynn, Kay was here to help weed in many areas. I saw her in the arboretum, sunken garden, reception garden, gazebo garden and shade garden. She brought back some significant debris and never has difficulty keeping busy! Janet T. tidied up the orange themed wall planting and it looks great. Our garden development committee meeting included Dr. Yahr, Dr. Gredler, Big John, Joanne, Dick P., Christine R., Gary, Maury and Iza. We had some great discussions which included some preliminary plans for 2013. Dr. Gredler did a nice job mowing today and also aerated some of our more compacted lawns. Stan worked on more pruning in the Japanese garden and Urban spent some quality time thinning out a small, weeping willow (Salix alba 'Niobe') near the North point garden. I met with Ron K. in the woodland walk garden where he is doing a great job. I'll have some more plants for him to install later this week. We also saw Rose, Lori, Kris, Bradford and many others today. To the right is one of our "flying saucers on a stick" planters in the reception garden. They turned out as nice as I thought they would with the blue lyme grass (Elymus arenarius 'Blue Dune') in the center and aluminum plant (Dichondra argentea 'Silver Falls') trailing over the sides. Directly below are the small, but showy flower clusters of the 'China Purple' bush clematis (Clematis heracleifolia) which are very profuse on a plant that tends to take up some space (4' tall by 8' wide). This non-vining clematis is known for superior flower power and is one of the most asked about plants in the English cottage garden. The next photo down is turtlehead (Chelone obliqua) in the sunken garden. This July/August bloomer will actually bloom even later in to the season and has some very interesting flower form. Position all turtleheads in full sun or part shade but make sure the soils are damp.
Directly above is one of my favorite annuals. This is the Mexican tulip poppy (Hunnemannia fumariifolia 'Sunlite') which has the beautiful combination of lacy, blue/green foliage and bright yellow blossoms. I've had some trouble finding seed recently but we were able to grow it this year and it is part of our All-America Selections (AAS) display garden. In fact, this plant was an AAS winner back in 1934! This annual prefers tougher soils in full sun and will produce blooms (2" diameter) until frost. To the right is the start of some powdery mildew on our mildew-resistant garden phlox (Phlox paniculata 'David'). Despite the drought, there is really no shortage of diseases out there and this is not unusual. When we cut this down, we'll be careful to dispose of this foliage efficiently. However, to the left is a "currently un-mildewed" specimen of variegated garden phlox (Phlox paniculata) called 'Shockwave'. The pictures of 'Shockwave' show it more as a pink flower but this is what I saw this morning in the English cottage garden. What a great combination of both foliage and flower (with some scent included!).

The grounds staff today included Janice, Big John, Larry and myself. Everyone kept busy with a wide range of activities. John and Larry pushmowed and Larry went on to a full day of running the string trimmer. John cut back some perennials, removed a dead magnolia, weeded and helped check containers for watering (with Larry). Janice also watered and spent some time with John picking veggies out of our Ornamental Edible & Compact Vegetable Display. Janice has already picked many batches of vegetables and she and John later dropped all of these off at a local food bank. Most of the significant vegetable collection at the Horticulture Center will also be donated. Janice has a great team in place to maintain and water this collection. Directly below are two more images from my visit to the English cottage garden today. Directly below is the corkscrew or snail vine (Vigna caracalla) that Lynn planted on some of our obelisks. I've featured this before but think I got the best photo yet. At the bottom is our copper cheese vat planter with the giant elephant ears (Colocasia gigantea 'Thailand Giant') continuing to dominate the composition. The bright pink leaves are from the 'Blazin' Rose' bloodleaf (Iresine hybrida).