A Beautiful Autumn Day

The mornings are getting chilly and it looks like some frost over the next three nights or so. This should end the season for our annuals and tropical plants. In the mean time, we can enjoy the fall color on plants like this golden larch (Pseudolarix amabilis) seen above that gets yellow needles that drop in the fall (deciduous conifer). I'm settling back in nicely and while my only contribution to the Holiday Lights Show (HLS) set-up today was to fill my cart with cords, I'm ready to get out there and start wiring things up. It's a delicate balance right now between garden clean-up, removals and the HLS set up but we've done this dance many times over and had some excellent help today.

'Blondo' maiden grass (Miscanthus sinensis) - perennial

Sunny Knockout (Rosa 'Radsunny') is still hanging in there!

Korean feather reed grass (Calamagrostis brachytricha) is looking good - perennial

excellent fall color above on the 'Aconitifolium' fullmoon maple (Acer japonicum) - woody tree

Our excellent volunteers took advantage of a beautiful day with a very strong focus on garden clean-up. Above are Dave and Jenny who do an excellent job in the hosta hollow garden (their assigned garden space). They really tidied this garden up and are darn hard workers (when they're not hugging). Kathy and Eva worked in three different gardens (terrace, woodland walk and arboretum beds) for tidying and clean-up. Kay did an excellent job continuing clean up efforts in the display berms in the arboretum. Betty H. was in this morning to work on removals in her assigned garden area too. Dr. Gredler came in for some mowing duties while Dick H. ran many loads to the dump and repaired some equipment. Pat M. was in to set up more HLS elements (particularly arches) out in the gardens. Chuck made a recycling run and Bill O. had one of our tires repaired and returned. Below (left to right) are Gena, Nancy, Patty and Myrt. This "Quartet of Beauty" tore in the sunken garden with the removal of annuals, cutting back perennials and collecting leaves. We do quite a bit of clean-up in advance of frost as it is easier and the timing is also perfect for opening up space for HLS displays and lights. We also saw Mary W. and many others today.

The grounds crew continues to do a nice job balancing garden work with HLS set-up. Above is Larry H. putting lights on a weeping white pine (Pinus strobus 'Pendula'). Larry put up more protective fencing around our tasty (for deer) evergreens and continued with HLS progress. Bobby K. also focused on HLS work with a start of lights on our many arches. Cheryl continued her garden clean-up efforts with a strong focus in the woodland walk garden. Big John and Terry had some gardening work, had to pick up some items and ended up working on HLS progress the remainder of the day. I was able to get out in the gardens again but am still catching up on time sensitive desk work!