Pansy Sale Poised

With John's trip yesterday and mine today, we have quite a nice assortment of pansies that will be offered as part of our Pansy Sale held in conjunction with our Compost Sale this Saturday (8 am - 12 noon). The photo above shows just some of the 9,000+ pansies that can be purchased in three formats: hanging basket ($12), mini-planter ($7) and 4 packs ($2 each, mix and match). It's a great time of year to plant pansies and certainly add compost to the garden. With our Spring Plant Sale looming over Mother's Day weekend, we have a lot of opportunities for folks to pick up some great plants at reasonable prices. Bagged compost, obelisks and other offerings will be part of the spring sale which again has a heavy focus on vegetables, perennials, herbs and shrubs. Lots of color seen out in the gardens today (see below) and plenty of staff and volunteer efforts (see further down as well).

'Jetfire' daffodils (Narcissus)

hyacinth (Hyacinthus orientalis) offering fragrance

'Northern Gold' forsythia (Forsythia sp.)

'Blue Shades' wind anemone (Anemone blanda)

bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis)

'Mellow Yellow' hellebore (Helleborus sp.)

With sunshine and a high temperature of 68 degrees F, the day was perfect to be outside and our volunteers took advantage of this warm spell as next week looks like a different scenario. We are still quite dry and I sure would like some consistent April showers! Above is Kay who focused her attentions on tidying up the sunken garden. She also worked on removing a problematic plant that lost the battle to Kay's unrivaled tenacity. Kathy (directly below) and Eva (second photo down) continued tidying up the entrance garden which is already seeing some very early weeds. Marv worked more on his moss gardens which are looking superb. Urban was in for planting and Dr. Gredler did some painting and mowing. Pat M. continued transitioning our giant obelisks from winter use to their summer application in our Alphabet Jungle Garden. Gena and Myrt did more painting and we also saw Chuck, Maury, Dr. Yahr, Bob K., Art, Gary and many others today.

Despite their scowling faces, Terry (left) and Big John (above) had a fun day out in the gardens (I think...). The guys continued preparing containers including those planted by Cheryl (below) in the sunken garden and those that Cindy did in the reception garden. The guys also helped unload and process incoming plants and shifted things around for more painting at the Horticulture Center. Cheryl and Cindy also finished potting up our caladiums this morning, moved on to pansy planting in 14 large containers and Cheryl did a nice job watering all of our yard and greenhouse plants which literally doubled in quantity in the last two days and will continue to "accumulate"! After my trip to pick up pansies, I spread some crabgrass pre-emergent control in problem areas (do it when the forsythia are in bloom!), unpacked plants, had a meeting and continue to try and keep up! It's now the busy season which is always exciting. Further below are additional shots from this morning out in the gardens.