Frosty Start To Friday

It was a frosty morning which is no surprise for this time of year. The day did warm up nicely although next week looks to be quite a bit colder. Above is the cranberry cotoneaster (Cotoneaster apiculatus) showing some frost on the nice fall color tinged foliage. Below is the Prairie Flame shining sumac (Rhus copallina var. latifolia 'Morton') which, while not quite reaching the peak fall color stage, looks neat even with some frost. This is a rare blog with no people shots which is unusual for me. We did have a small crew today and only saw a couple volunteers. However, gardening progress and more set-up for the looming Holiday Lights Show (HLS) were the priorities today. The images in the blog today are a hodge podge but sure show that there is garden color even in November!

'Blue Cloak' concolor fir (Abies concolor) - conifer (barberry fall color in the foreground)

our ornamental kale (Brassica oleracea) is still shrugging off the frost

Golden Raindrops crabapple (Malus 'Schmidtcutleaf') - woody tree

I was connecting cords beneath the "Tower of Power" this morning and took this shot while underneath the structure. I essentially ran cords all day and will continue to do that same task all of next week. We have to have everything up, wired and tested before our Taste of Chocolate event on November 23rd (get your tickets now!). Big John and Terry also set-up more HLS displays, secured trees for decoration and bounced between HLS preparations. Cindy did more garden clean-up along the west road, North point area and other locations. There is no shortage of leaves and debris to collect daily and Cindy took a nice dent out of it today. Pat was in for half day and worked on repairing more lights and preparing the last of our half gallon milk jug luminaries for placement next week. Maury came in with some supplies and Dr. Gredler was in for mowing and leaf shredding. Tom C. finished wiring in our last two temporary power lines so we're in good shape to start testing the HLS over the next two weeks. We also saw Tina B. and a few others. Below are some other recent images from the gardens.