A Cloudy Thursday

We thought today would be a "rain out" which would have been ok as a good old-fashioned soaking would be appreciated. We did have sporadic rain but were still able to get out in the gardens for most of the day. We had a nice volunteer turnout and were productive both inside the Horticulture Center and out in the gardens. We continue to see more color in the gardens and the forsythias (Forsythia sp.) are peaking like the one seen above ('Northern Gold'). The hyacinths (Hyacinthus) are also in full bloom (see directly below) and offering their spring fragrance around the gardens. Years ago we planted over 10,000 hyacinths representing 60 varieties and some of those "remnant plantings" continue to delight. The third photo down shows Dutchman's breeches (Dicentra cucullaria) in full bloom in our woodland walk garden.

We had a small but productive grounds staff today. Janice caught up on many indoor tasks including some impressive coordination for the looming Spring Plant Sale and Tree Sale involving recruiting and organizing volunteers, labeling and other needs. These combined sales will be over the Mother's Day weekend (see our website for more details and tell family, friends, neighbors and even people you don't like). Janice also worked on potting up more trial plants and juggled plenty of projects today. Larry unloaded more bagged compost (see third photo down) early this morning so we're stocked for our Bagged Compost Sale (every Saturday at the Horticulture Center from 8 am until 12 noon). Larry also helped haul off debris from some tree pruning efforts and worked on other projects as well. Big John dug out some dead/dying shrubs, worked on preparations for tomorrow and had a busy day with multiple projects. I continue to prepare for our spring events and am coordinating efforts with all of our growers for staging our deliveries. We have only so much space and have perfected the "dance" of coordinating our spring sale with daily plant arrivals for the grounds as well.

garden hyacinth (Hyacinthus)

Dutchman's breeches (Dicentra cucullaria)

We didn't have much traditional gardening occurring out in the gardens but the Grumpies jumped right in to many projects. Ron P. and Ron R. headed out to bring in pruning debris from some recent elm (Ulmus sp.) pruning near the Japanese garden while Ron W. and Bob C. started assembling plant sale tables (see Ron directly below). Bob C. later shifted out in to the gardens and did some composting near the gazebo garden. Del was in to help out around the Horticulture Center and Dick H. ran many loads of debris to the dump. Dr. Gredler came in for more aeration/mowing between rain drops. Our carpenters, Dave, Vern and Jim, continued working on our new giant obelisk (second photo down) as well as many other projects too. Our painters included Terri (third photo down), Gary B., Bob K., and Pat M. (fourth photo down) who is currently our Head of Safety. Maury ran errands for us and Gary was in to work on labels for our 2014 Garden Art Project which includes 25 beautiful Adirondack chairs that have been "artistically rendered" and will be displayed out in the gardens soon (and auctioned off in early September). An additional chair will be featured at the Parker Education Center too! Pat C. came in for afternoon label creation and we also saw Jason and many others today as well. See further down for some colorful plant shots from yesterday and today.