With the July 4th holiday tomorrow, we were treating today like a Friday with preparations for a busy weekend which includes some weddings as well. Above is the 'Mystic Illusion' dahlia (Dahlia) which looks nice with these yellow blossoms above near-black foliage. The weather was perfect today with sunshine and a high near 78 degrees F. We had a very productive day with a strong turnout of volunteers. I was also amazed by the amount of visitors (including a busload of kids) out in the gardens which is always good to see. While we still have some planting to finish and plenty of weeding, there is some "light at the end of the tunnel". Below are some additional photos from today.
'Religious Radish' coleus (Solenostemon scutellarioides)
'Benary Giant Pink' zinnia (Zinnia elegans)
some of our pink theme finally filling in nicely in the entrance garden above
We had a great crew of Grumpettes (Women Weed Warriors) this morning and the ladies worked on a combination of planting and weeding. Above is Barb (left) and Sue who did some major planting and weeding in and around the azalea/rhododendron garden. Below are Marilyn, Bonnie, Mary R. and Kathy finishing a flower bed this morning before moving on to more weeding in the entrance garden with Mary D. Marianne G. was in to help weed in the Thomas Jefferson Garden and Vicki stopped by this afternoon for weeding in the reception garden. Kathleen was back for her second day of volunteerism and jumped right back in to planting. Hal and Doris weeded their garden and Jumbo Jim brought in RECAPPERS to tidy up the Japanese garden. Grumpies included Bob C., Gene and Ron R. who worked on mulching. The second photo below shows (left to right), Jim, Bob C., Dave T. and Vern. The guys continue to renovate the Japanese garden fence and had some other projects too. Vern came back in the afternoon to stain the foot boards of the arched bridge. This stain also included crushed walnut shells which should add some traction on that bridge which can get slippery when wet. Pat M. worked on some Holiday Lights Show tasks and did some painting as well. The third photo down shows Corky and Joan working in the veggie beds at the Horticulture Center. Dr. Gredler did his mowing rounds and Bill O. stopped by to set up for mowing tomorrow. Maury ran multiple errands for us. We also saw Dr. Yahr, Chuck S., Ron W., Bev D., Rose N., Urban (with his son Jeff) and many others.
The grounds staff had a busy day when they weren't posing for photography like Janice above in the Thomas Jefferson Collection. Janice worked in this space and shifted between many tasks including helping to coordinate all our morning volunteers. Big John and Terry worked on push mowing, planting, watering and did more path repair at the end of the day. Jenny came in for afternoon weeding in a couple locations. I was able to get some herbicide action going in some of our very weedy areas and will get back to planting and other duties next week. Below are some more photos from this morning.
'Seductor' daylily (Hemerocallis) - perennial (our daylily collection will peak in the coming week or two)
'Visions' false spirea (Astilbe chinensis) - perennial
red Abyssinian banana (Ensete ventricosum 'Maurelii') with 'Golden Dreams' coleus (Solenostemon scutellarioides)
'Young Lady' smokebush (Cotinus coggygria)
Above is a great message on one of the twenty-five Adirondack chairs out in the gardens as part of the 2014 Garden Art Project. The twenty-sixth chair is in the Parker Education Center and is well worth the visit.
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