Rotary Botanical Gardens - Hort Blog: Weeds Be Warned

The 'Satisfaction' lily (Lilium hybrida) will give you plenty of satisfaction with a wonderful fragrance, long bloom time and impressive height around 4' tall or so. We have 50 of these in the English cottage garden starting to bloom right now and they are intoxicating! This variety is one of the Orienpet hybrids which are a cross between Oriental and trumpet lilies. Fun! We had more rain last night which again allowed us to have a full day of traditional gardening with minimal use of hoses and watering cans! Yay! The weather was sunny and comfortable around 80 degrees F and both staff and volunteers seemed to enjoy getting outside. I was chained to the desk getting ready for our Home Garden Tour this Saturday, July 12th (9 am - 3 pm, rain or shine). See our website for more details and get your tickets early at RBG or K&W Greenery (Janesville)! Tickets can also be purchased on the day of the event. Below are some other images from this morning.

Incrediball smooth hydrangea (Hydrangea arborescens 'Abetwo')

'Pomegranate' double coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) - perennial (will fill out more!)

boulder wall packed with 'All Gold' Hakone grass (Hakenechloa macra) - perennial

Even though Marleen (above left) and Magda (above right) were leaning on their hoes this morning, they did accomplish lots of weeding and planting in their garden space and throughout the Jungle Garden seen directly behind them. Kathy and Barb put in some great time weeding in the entrance garden while Vicki joined them and stayed until the end of the day. Urban (below) did some serious pruning in multiple locations and Larry H. worked on tidying up paths. Karen M. was in to work in the Japanese garden and Gwen (second photo down) was weeding in the vegetable beds at the Horticulture Center. We had our Garden Development & Maintenance Committee Meeting which included a big crowd of Larry H., Dr. Yahr, Kris K., Big John, Iza, Maury, Chris D., Denise, Hal and Christine. Maury also ran errands for us and both Dr. Gredler and Bill O. did their mowing rounds. Chuck S. led a cart tour and Art H. stopped by to discuss a project. We also saw many others but my memory is failing....

The grounds staff did not run out of duties today. While watering was effectively taken off the list, we had plenty of mowing, tidying and particularly weeding! I've never seen such a bumper crop of weeds out in the gardens. Areas we may have cleared mere weeks ago are now filled with weeds again and in some areas, the weeds are quite tall. Of course the rain has been a huge factor but right now we are truly in "brush fire mentality" with addressing the weediest of areas first! Cindy did some weeding in the Potter Daylily Collection (looking good by the way) and moved on to continued efforts in the Nancy Yahr Memorial Children's Garden (see further below). Cheryl (above) was a "weeding whirlwind" and focused on the terrace garden for most of the day with some yard watering later. Larry did his push mowing rounds, smoothed over paths and weed whipped much of the day. The turf is sure not slowing down with all of this rain! Pat also push mowed, cleared bulb foliage and also worked on weeding in the daylily collection as well. Big John planted shrubs, tidied up an area near the Scottish garden, weeded and worked on some other projects as well. Janice also weeded multiple areas, worked on the cutting display and other tasks as well. It was a productive day although another dozen sets of hands would have helped for sure! We'll finalize planting soon and continue to target weeds with a renewed vigor! Below are more photos from this morning.

Quickfire panicled hydrangea (Hydrangea paniculata 'Bulk')

'Kermit Piggy' petunia (Petunia) - annual

'Mr. Majestic' striped marigold (Tagetes patula) - annual

above and below are some sweet shots of the "Pollinator's Paradise" theme in the Nancy Yahr Memorial Children's Garden which also features our All-America Selections (AAS) Display (which is entered in their fun annual contest...three peat victory is the target!)