Another Mild Day

The weather was again quite mild today which made for excellent progress with fall clean-up and more set-up with the Holiday Lights Show (HLS). The photo above of the upper Japanese waterfall with overhanging Amur maple (Acer ginnala) was inspired by Marsha M. with one of her recent photos! There is still some nice color out in the gardens with excellent fall color, ornamental grasses, late blooming perennials, mums and some of the tougher annuals that have made it through the first two mild frosts. We saw some school groups out in the gardens (led by Dale, Barb and Mary) and the sunshine was most welcome today. Both grounds staff and volunteers accomplished a wide range of tasks.

'Ginger Love' fountain grass (Pennisetum alopecuroides) - perennial

'Majeste' lungwort (Pulmonaria) - perennial

yellow fumitory (Corydalis lutea) - perennial

hornbeam maple (Acer carpinifolium) - woody tree (interesting foliage for a maple!)

photo from underneath a 'Bloodgood' Japanese maple (Acer palmatum)

caught this fella catching some sun today

Volunteer duties today focused primarily on removals. Kay (above) sunk her teeth in to her section of the shade garden for tidying and then headed to the entrance garden for some serious removals. Observe the look I'm getting with this photo (I get the same look at home too...). Eva and Kathy were in that vicinity and focused on removals as well. Dave came in later and continued in this same area. Bill O. was in for some mowing and Maury ran errands. Pat M. worked on HLS related tasks which included putting up more arches. We also saw Mark S., Cora and many others today.

The grounds staff had a super day. Directly below is Larry H. putting lights on a weeping cherry (Prunus sp.). Larry also cleared out some containers and had some other gardening duties before shifting to putting up lights for the HLS most of the day. Cheryl did an excellent job tidying in the sunken garden and taking care of some watering needs. Cheryl's last day is tomorrow and we'll miss her excellent attention to detail although we'll likely (and hopefully) have that when she returns as a volunteer! Bobby K. worked on some electrical issues and spent the rest of the day getting LED lights up on arches. I had some indoor work to accomplish then ran cords for about three hours and will continue to make progress daily on the HLS if the weather cooperates.

Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus) tubers (eat like a potato!) - from the Thomas Jefferson Collection (collected and processed by Janice)