Thursday, May 28, 2015

Productively Crazy Today


Today was a nice sunny day with temperatures reaching the mid 80 degrees F.  It was nice to have some sun and the recent rainfall has certainly been a great boon.  The gardens still look great (note Russo Fountain above with rhododendrons in the foreground) although the seeds of our female cottonwoods (Populus deltoides) are starting to drift down and in the photo above, you can see the start of that "white haze" out on the water.  The seedlings will germinate very quickly....

We had a huge volunteer turnout today which is expected on a Thursday. However, it was amazing how many volunteers we had helping out throughout the entire day.  Very impressive.  Our grounds staff had their own duties but were helpful in assisting wherever needed.  Janice helped get various groups together for volunteer efforts.  These groups included our morning "Grumpettes" and the Chestnut House volunteers.  She also had plenty of her own work in the Thomas Jefferson Collection and elsewhere which included label work, more planting, etc.  Big John ran for another pick up of plants, rototilled, watered and bounced between some projects.  Larry had mowing, water feature checks, watering and other duties.  I was able to place some plants for installation this morning but spent time in the yard figuring out what will be planted this Saturday at the third of our five sequential Volunteer Work Days (8 am until 12 noon, meet at the Visitor's Center!).  Below are some additional photos from this morning.

'Mt. Everest' ornamental onions (Allium)
blooms of pagoda dogwood (Cornus alternifolia)
foliage of variegated pagoda dogwood (Cornus alternifolia 'Argentea')
'Rikugi Sakura' Siberian iris (Iris siberica)

Our volunteers, like Betty (above), were collectively very productive today as they worked through a wide range of tasks.  Below are some images of just a few of our volunteers that helped today.  To describe the myriad tasks accomplished would take some time but suffice it to say our hard working volunteers made a big impact today around the gardens.  Volunteers included Betty, Hal, Doris, Gary, Ron R., Ron Y., Bob K., Dave, Vern, Jim, Del, Pat M., Dick H., Dr. Gredler, Dr. Yahr, Larry H., Alan M., Kelley, Sue M., Mary Kay, Mary Ann, Mary R., Lisa I., Karen, Bonnie, Suzie, Eva, Kathy, Shirley H., Mary D., Dejanique, Jumbo Jim, four RECAPPERS, Joel, Cheryl, Urban, Rose, the Chestnut House volunteers, Gary (labels), Rollie (mowing) and many others.  That's over 50 volunteers for grounds which is quite amazing and hopefully a pattern that repeats itself!  Further below are more images from today.

Hal and Doris
Alan (left) and Larry H.
Vern (driving), Dave T. and Jim D. (unsafely riding in the back)
Janice (standing) after pushing down Mary Ann
Kelley (foreground) and Sue M. (partially hidden)
the Grumpettes (Mary R., Bonnie, Karen, Suzie) in action both above and below

fragrant abelia (Abelia mosanensis)
Oriental poppy (Papaver orientale)
'Cherries Jubilee' hybrid false indigo (Baptisia hybrida) - Decadence Series
'Starlite' hybrid baptisia (Baptisia x bicolor) - Prairieblues Series
 'Caspian Blue' false indigo (Baptisia australis 'Caspian Blue')
'Blue Ice' hybrid bluestar (Amsonia hybrida)
neat new sculpture in the Children's garden

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