It was another beautiful sunny day with temperatures again reaching 70 degrees F. What a nice gift from Mother Nature and it was nice to see lots of visitors going through the gardens today. There is still a lot of color to enjoy as evidenced by the photos above and below from the Japanese garden this morning. We made some time for our late season gardening efforts today and continued with our aggressive focus on Holiday Lights Show (HLS) preparations. I remember some early Novembers that were chilly and damp so we'll take advantage of this week for sure. We like to have the HLS set-up, tested, tweaked, tested again and ready for the premiere at the Taste of Chocolate event on November 21st. Check out this event on our website as tickets sell fast! Many of our veteran grounds staff have been involved in setting up the HLS and that is quite evident in how smoothly our progress goes daily!
fall color on bald cypress (Taxodium distichum) - deciduous conifer (needles will drop)
late season coloration of 'Crimson Queen' cutleaf Japanese maple (Acer palmatum)
the moss garden looks nice and lush today!
Nice shot above of the "ever picturesque" arched bridge. Our volunteers were a big help again today. Eva and Kathy tidied up the woodland glen garden (color rooms) and continue to come daily to help out which is very much appreciated. Pat M. was in to work on HLS tasks including preparations to erect the second of two "Towers of Power" in the rose garden. Maury ran some errands and Nancy N. came in to put primer on some of our new Adirondack chairs (sold soon from the Cottage Garden Gallery). Dick P. was in to install more of our memorial bricks and we saw others as well. The photo below of empty crates and empty reels is heartening. We're probably about 67% set up and should be good by the end of next week for testing. Some other HLS shots are further below...
Bob K. devised this "safety fence" near the gazebo
cords above and a portion of the second Tower of Power below...
fresh antlers for our plywood deer cutouts
Above is Bob K. cleaning up the water feature in the Nancy Yahr Memorial Children's Garden today. Bob also put up more arches for the HLS and had some other odds and ends. Cindy had great progress with putting out the half gallon milk jug luminaries today and has them situated with some final stringing tomorrow. Larry H. worked on decorating trees and shrubs near the Rath Environmental Center then shifted to decorating some of the temporary trees we cut last week that are now staked in various locations. Big John hauled out displays, obelisks and had a very full day of HLS duties. I had some meetings but ran cords the remainder of the day.
fall color from underneath a three-flower maple (Acer triflorum)
this stray nasturtium (Tropaeolum sp.) bloom was nice to see today
this 'Jolt Pink' sweet William (Dianthus) continues to bloom
'Dewey Blue' dune grass (Panicum amarum) looks good - perennial
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