All Carts In Use

It was another nice day after some light showers over the previous evening. We continue to water as needed although there isn't the same anxiety that we had last year when there simply wasn't much help from Mother Nature. Sounds like we might have rain later this evening. We had a great team out there with lots of grounds members and many volunteers. My blog title, "All Carts In Use", refers to a busy day. When all 10 of our garden carts are out and being used in the gardens, we know there is a lot being done (or at least a lot of staff and volunteers driving around the gardens...). Above is the 'Pleasant Edging' daylily (Hemerocallis) which is one of hundreds of varieties blooming out in the gardens right now. This one caught my eye; particularly the light ruffling on the flower petal edges. With so much color out in the gardens, there's no difficulty finding photography subjects like the 'Rhubarb' Swiss chard (Beta vulgaris) seen below with such colorful stems. We use Swiss chard in many locations including mixed compositions and containers. It's good for you too! The next photo down shows the blooms of the 'Minerva' Rose of Sharon (Hibiscus syriacus) which is a large woody shrub that typically blooms in August. This variety is about 9' tall for us right now and this bloom time is quite welcome as there are few woody plants blooming this time of year! The third photo down is a close-up of the wispy blooms of the 'Lavender Mist' meadow rue (Thalictrum rochebrunianum) which is about 8' tall right now in our sunken garden. This perennial likes moist soils and part sun is just fine.

Volunteers abounded today. Above, from left to right, are Patrea, Eva and Kay. The ladies did a dynamite job weeding the entire Potter Daylily Collection near the arboretum and continued efforts in that same area as well. The daylilies (Hemerocallis) are looking great right now and even better with all the neighboring weeds gone. Stan came in to work in the Japanese garden and Urban spent some time pruning some overgrown woodies and dead branches. Gary came in to do some labels for me and Bob T. continued his air edging progress out in the gardens. Dave and Jenny E. (seen directly below) are taking care of three garden areas as assigned garden volunteers and do a nice job when they're not violating our strict, public display of affection (PDA) rules. We also saw Rose, Marsha (photography), Dr. Yahr, Maury, Dr. Gredler (mowing), Bill O. (mowing) and many others. It was a nice day to be outside and the gardens continue to look colorful and tidy with so many helpful hands involved.

The grounds crew was able to focus on more project oriented work and significant weeding in select areas today. Both Cindy and Cheryl had multiple assigned areas to tidy up and they did a superb job in many areas. Cheryl focused on weeding while Cindy also did some fertilizing and watering. Pat did a nice job thinning and "training" our weeping ginkgo tree (Ginkgo biloba 'Pendula'). He also adjusted path rocks, push mowed, fertilized, watered and did some weeding in the entrance garden. Larry ran some irrigation, push mowed and worked on various projects. Janice also worked on tidying up multiple areas, watering and duties related to the Fall Plant Sale (coming soon!). I spent some time putting out new labels this morning and had some other meetings and office work to attend to this afternoon. Below are some additional photos from today!