Rotary Botanical Gardens - Hort Blog: All-America Selections Garden

Blog brevity this evening as I type late in the evening after a busy day that concluded with a fun talk up at Olbrich Botanical Gardens (Madison, WI) on the topic of "The Scented Garden." I got up there an hour early to tour the gardens and take photos. I wasn't disappointed and caught lots of color. I greatly enjoyed my "walk-about". It looked like the magnolias had some light frost on Tuesday night although they'll probably get it again over the next two evenings. I'll post some shots this weekend as I saw some neat stuff. I saw Samantha P. (Olbrich grounds) leading a tour and the Wisconsin Hosta Society was meeting in another room and I saw Jeff Miller of Land of the Giants Hosta Farm (Milton, WI). We had a nice albeit brief chat before my presentation.

I did take some garden photos today out in the cold and very light snow. However, this blog focuses on some All-America Selections (AAS) winners that we'll be featuring this year in our annual AAS Display Garden. This year we'll plant over 100 winners along the "larch wall border" which is a bed 140' long with an average width of 6' or so. This is a prime location to display these winners and we've so enjoyed our relationship with AAS and their wonderful staff (Diane, Macie, Marge and more!). These are some of my favorite winners and we look forward to displaying a wide range of excellent plants, like the 'Golden Jubilee' hyssop (Agastache foeniculum) seen directly above.

Above are Gena (left) and Myrt putting another coat of purple on this giant Adirondack chair (one of two) that made its original debut at the 2014 Holiday Lights Show. Nancy (below) helped as well and is seen here cleaning up the other chair prior to painting. Dr. Gredler (second photo down) was there to assist. Jenny came in to work on labels and Vern and Bob K. worked on some carpentry projects. Maury ran errands for us and Bob and Bev D. popped in as well. The third photo down shows the Chestnut House team (Janelle, Dawn and Victoria, from left to right) getting boxes prepared for the looming Spring Plant Sale on Mother's Day weekend (see our website!). Jordan joined the group and Janice helped out as well. We also saw Rollie, Urban, Jumbo Jim, Marv and many others today.

Staff today included Terry, Big John, Cindy and Cheryl. The gang had a wide range of activities. Terry and John continued preparations for a garden modification near the North point garden and Cindy and Cheryl worked on potting up more plants indoors and garden work as well.