Weekend Preparations

Today was another nice one with sunshine and temperatures in the upper 70 degrees F. It was another busy day around the gardens with many visitors wandering the paths. We spent most of our day tidying up for a busy weekend which includes our last spring Volunteer Work Day tomorrow from 8 am until 12 noon. There are also five weddings tomorrow and the Rotary Pie Ride in the morning will add to the congestion along Palmer Drive (the frontage road for the gardens) and our parking lots. Above is the 'Surfinia Summer Double Pink' petunia (Petunia) which is one of four annuals being featured in our American Garden Award (www.americangardenaward.com/) display. Visitors can vote on their favorite by text message, on the American Garden Award (AGA) website or by mailing in a postage paid ballot card provided at the display. I'll ultimately share all four selections but they are still "filling out." Directly below is the variegated sundrops (Oenothera fruticosa 'Fruhlingsgold') blooming nicely above cream-edged foliage. The second photo down shows the yellow fumitory (Corydalis lutea) which is a "blooming powerhouse" from April until early October in many shady areas around the gardens. The third photo down shows the interesting, maroon-tinged foliage of the purple catalpa (Catalpa x erubescens 'Purpurea').

Our grounds staff was busy from start to finish. Terry push mowed, set up sprinklers, did his "blower rounds", watered, pruned and did other odds and ends. Jeremy also push mowed, mulched and cut back more bulb foliage. Cindy watered the All-America Selections display garden and many other areas. She also did a nice job weeding the AGA bed (mentioned above) and moved on to our flossflower (Ageratum) collection. Janice did a nice job on the cutting display, fertilized, watered containers and the yard and worked on some other projects. I hauled plants all day in preparation of the volunteer day tomorrow. Since we don't have a large area left, I ended up laying out plants in six different areas. We'll just work through them systematically. Below is the variegated smooth phlox (Phlox glaberrima 'Triple Play') blooming nicely. Those blooms are only about a 1/2" in diameter but there are many clusters.

We had some excellent volunteer support today (as we do every day!). Art (above) planted all morning and did a nice job installing many plants just outside the reception garden. Kay (below) worked the east end of the RBG property and really tidied up with weeding and cutting back bulb foliage. Dr. Gredler and Bill O. were in for their mowing duties. The second photo down shows the daughter/mother duo of Natalie (left) and Jan in the Scottish garden. This is Jan's assigned garden space although Natalie and the grandkids have all helped Jan in the past. Ray planted vegetables over at the Horticulture Center and Karen M. was out tidying in the Japanese garden. We also saw Dr. Yahr, Julie G., Marilyn H., Dick H., Maury, herb garden volunteers and many others. Further below are some nice shots from the rose garden this morning.