No Blue Sky Today

It was interesting watching the Doppler radar this morning as the rains seemed to be all around us for quite some time yet we still had decent working weather this morning. There was very little evidence of blue sky but it was nice to split the day both inside and outside. Above is the Thomas Jefferson Collection still looking showy although Janice started to purge some of the more unsightly plants that have received recent frost damage. I love this sign below which is one of the thirteen that were included in this collection. We'll have this popular collection next year as well and will rotate in some new annual and vegetable varieties as determined by Janice. We had a nice turnout of volunteers that took advantage of the dry morning for plant removals and tidying in many locations. Further below are additional recent images from our Autumn garden.

West entrance to the Japanese garden

'Debonair' pond cypress (Taxodium ascendens) - deciduous conifer (fall color)

fall color of the 'Red Bull' big bluestem (Andropogon gerardii) - perennial

Firespire musclewood (Carpinus caroliniana 'J.N. Upright') fall color - woody tree

fall color of Himalayan silver birch (Betula utilis) - woody tree

start of fall color for the Beaver Creek witchalder (Fothergilla gardenii 'KLMtwo') - woody shrub

Above is the beautiful Fall Fiesta sugar maple (Acer saccharum 'Bailsta') which looks better each day near the North point garden. Volunteers today included Kay and Eva helping purge annuals from our front garden with Cheryl. We'll be planting tulips (Tulipa) in front of the Parker Education Center on Saturday so need everything cleared out in advance. Bill O. came in for mowing duties and Nancy N. continued working on her bench lettering project. We had our Garden Development & Maintenance Committee Meeting which included Larry H., Big John, Maury, Christy, Christine, Hal R. and Gary S. Maury also ran some errands for us. We also saw Dr. Gredler, Dr. Yahr and Urban today.

Grounds staff today included Big John, Cindy, Cheryl, Janice and Pat. Pat worked primarily on Holiday Lights Show (HLS) preparations and lights repair. Janice started purging the Thomas Jefferson Collection which is still looking pretty good overall. She also worked on the cutting display and other duties related to the HLS. Cheryl worked primarily on clearing out the annuals in front of the building and shifted to some other tasks in the afternoon. Cindy did a nice job purging seasonals in the Nancy Yahr Memorial Children's Garden. Much of this work is in advance of some looming work starting later this week involving a new centerpiece to this special garden. Big John also had some tasks in this same area, worked on bringing in obelisks, had HLS duties, etc. It was a busy morning and like yesterday, the morning was extremely productive with everyone shifting to afternoon projects. Below are some additional recent photos from the garden this week.