Beautiful Day - Third In A Row

Above is the golden fall color on the swamp white oak (Quercus bicolor) which was just glowing with some morning light from behind this specimen in the woodland walk garden.  We enjoyed this day as much as the last two with a similar warm up to 70 degrees F and plenty of sunshine.  The gardens continue to maintain lots of autumn color and we did see a couple visitors touring the gardens.  The last Story & Stroll program was this morning and participants toured the gardens as well.  The kids sure seemed to enjoy the gardens and were mesmerized by all the Holiday Lights Show (HLS) elements that have been set up already.  The grounds staff had a great day and our volunteers continued with our important garden clean-up efforts.

fall color of the sweet gum (Liquidambar styraciflua) both above and below

fall color on Summer Wine ninebark (Physocarpus opulifolius 'Seward') - woody shrub

fall color on variegated Norway maple (Acer platanoides 'Drummondii')

'Mariesii' variegated hydrangea (Hydrangea macrophylla) - woody shrub

Our garden volunteers also enjoyed the nice weather.  Above is Pat M. hauling the top half (10') of the second "Tower of Power" (20' total height + the star!) that will be erected and secured under Pat's guidance tomorrow morning.  These two giant obelisks will certainly be focal points out in the HLS!  Kathy and Eva continued cleaning and tidying up the woodland glen garden (formerly the color rooms).  Directly below are Cookie (left) and Resa who finished removing seasonals in the North point garden and the ladies brought back many loads and did a nice job tidying up.  Dr. Gredler was out mowing and Maury ran some errands for us.  Dick P. placed more bricks out in the gardens this morning.  Marv B. (second photo down) did a nice job tidying up both moss areas which look exceptional this time of year after those recent rains.  Kay (third photo down) cleared annuals from a bed we plant for Convention & Visitors Bureau here in town (just down the road).  She then shifted to the Scottish garden which she continues to purge of leaves, perennials to cut back and some pruning debris today. Ron P. (fourth photo down) stopped by to work on some lights repair and both Myrt and Patty did a nice job with leaf collection in the gazebo garden later in the day.  We also saw Bev F., Mary W., Marsha M., Tina B. and many others today.  Nancy N. worked on putting primer on some of our new Adirondack chairs and we saw lots of others today as well.

Our grounds crew of Terry, Big John, Cindy, Bob K. and Larry H. all did a great job today and again, the primary focus continues to be the HLS set-up.  Terry and John put up lots of displays today and the boat they are hauling (seen above) was later rowed out by me from the gazebo to transfer Bob K. from the U.S.S. Ginger seen directly below.  This is the first time we'll have a floating display for the HLS and it is situated exactly where the Russo Family Fountain is normally located (cleaned and hauled away for winter storage).  Bob also put lights on arches and had some other duties.  Larry H. was a decorating machine today and focused on putting up lights on trees that we picked up last Thursday.  Cindy (second photo down) finished placing and wiring the luminaries (half gallon milk jugs) and will shift to some other projects soon.  That photo gives an idea of just a small portion (10%?) of the luminaries she's been working on over the past two weeks.  I was able to run cords most of the day but have to keep our volunteers organized and on track with gardening and other tasks.

fall color on the American smoketree (Cotinus obovatus) seen above

fall color on Lady in Red ninebark (Physocarpus opulifolius 'Tuilad') - woody shrub

fall color above on the 'Compactum' Koreanspice viburnum (Viburnum carlesii) - woody shrub

golden fall color on this "skeleton-leaf" silver maple (Acer saccharinum 'Born's Gracious')