Day 1 (of 3) For The Spring Plant Sale

The plant sale began in earnest this morning with 200 customers piling in before we were "officially" open at 9 am. We had a great turnout, particularly in the morning, and have already sold out of some varieties of tomatoes and peppers. The traffic has been steady and we only had a couple drops of rain. I think we were fortunate today and were happy to avoid a deluge. The daylilies are selling well and our bagged compost is moving nicely as well. We hope to have a great day both Saturday and Sunday and still have quite a selection left. Marianne kept the registers moving along while Janice kept the remainder of the volunteers focused and on task. I tried to stay out of the way and helped where needed. I'm so pleased with how organized and well run these plant sales at Rotary Gardens have become. A big thank you of appreciation for all our volunteers, particularly those that helped facilitate the sale.
Marv & Terry did a great job removing the remainder of our cotoneasters near the entrance garden. These cotoneasters were planted 15+ years ago and while looking nice for many years, had started to fail with all sorts of dead spots. It was no small feat removing them but the guys accomplished the task. Bill put in a full day of tidying up the gardens and mowing while Dr. Gredler also accomplished many tasks, including mowing. Bob T. was here to air edge and Mary and Roy weeded our their assigned portion of the shade garden. They'll plant it next week. Nice shot of 'Georgia Peach' coral bells (Heuchera) below and a close-up of the fragrant "bottlebrush" blooms of Beaver Creek fothergilla (Fothergilla gardenii 'KLMtwo') at the bottom.

The Plant Sale Shall Soon Beginneth

Our plant sale will finally begin tomorrow. We had a great crew of over 20 volunteers here this morning working on the tagging of herbs and vegetables (see above). Kudos to Janice and Marianne for organizing our helpers and keeping everything running smoothly. The weather was windy and cool but with plenty of sunshine. Many of our helpers were signed up to help until noon but stayed well past 1 pm to finish up. The Grumpies were also here and helped with the sale and did some mulching and carpentry work as well. Jenny spent the day working on labels for the fern garden while Larry worked on water features and string trimming around the gardens. Dr. Gredler ran some loads to the dump and did some mowing as well. I stayed out of Janice and Marianne's way and worked on signs and other plant sale details.

In my wanderings thru the Fern & Moss garden today, I saw this neat combination of emerging ferns. Nice burgundy foliage of emerging Japanese painted fern (Athyrium niponicum 'Burgundy Lace') with Korean twin-shield fern (Diplazium conillii). We all rave about spring blooms but there is nothing more exciting then seeing ferns emerge and "unravel". There are a lot of neat ferns in that garden and some are just starting to emerge. Nice shot at the bottom of wild hyacinth or quamash (Camassia leichtlinii 'Blue Danube') that we plant in fall. This native (Pacific NW) bulb is an edible root crop utilized by Native Americans of that area in the past. As a garden plant, this bulb (as big as a daffodil bulb) should be planted 6-8" deep and needs lots of water. There are different varieties and species but I keep coming back to 'Blue Danube' and it's clear blue blossoms (opening from bottom to top) on a sturdy 24"-30" plant.

GLOOM & MIST

Very gloomy today without a hint of sunshine. We've had sporadic mist and light showers thru the day but I'd classify this as a very productive day and the perfect day to work on preparing for the plant sale. Nice shot of black-leaved ligularia (Ligularia dentata 'Britt Marie Crawford') taken in a volunteers' backyard. We have this same variety in the gardens and I love the deep maroon, emerging foliage that actually is darker in more sun. The maroon washes out with summer heat but the yellow, daisy-like blooms in mid-summer look great with the dark foliage. This plant is a "heavy drinker" and needs moist, organic soil and plenty of water. See below for the clear yellow blooms of Celandine poppy (Stylophorum diphyllum) blooming in our part shade gardens. This perennial does reseed (seed distributed by ants!) and we occasionally cull out or relocate the babies. What a beautiful native flower (Eastern U.S) though. See www.illinoiswildflowers.info/woodland/plants/cel_poppy.htm for more information on this plant.
Marianne and Janice did an awesome job organizing the plant sale vegetables this morning. Both ladies are so organized and were able to get everything set up and ready for tagging tomorrow. Margaret and Shirley have been helping with tagging for most of the day and Bev and her sister stopped by to visit and were "recruited". Dr. Gredler did some mowing, ran debris to the dump and continues to work on lawn repair. We also saw Maury, Dr. Yahr and Jim W. today. Marv and Terry have been getting the outside portion of the sale organized and have spent time tidying up our sprawling complex around the Horticulture Center. Larry and Bill went on two plant runs with our enclosed trailer and brought back all the peppers and basil for the sale as well as some New Guinea impatiens for the gardens. Larry has been working on various smaller projects including the preparation of some of our new herb garden signs. We'll really hit the planting next week and will continue to accumulate more plants from our various suppliers. We still need to pick up over 60,000 annuals and get them in the ground before the 4th of July! Nice shot of shooting stars (Dodecatheon meadia) below. See www.hort.net/profile/pri/dodme/ for more information on this picturesque native plant.

Sunshine & Wind

I did a walk around the gardens this morning and really enjoyed the beautiful colors including those of redbud (Cercis canadensis) above. What a neat tree. We've had the maroon-leaved, golden and variegated varieties here but all have perished except for the straight species. I sure love the subtle flowers before the leaves emerge and the white-flowering form is beautiful as well. Productive day around here despite a small staff and volunteer turnout. Larry and Jim made two trips to go pick up our tomato plants for the plant sale this weekend. If you've ever wondered what 15,000 tomatoes look like, see below. Imagine if each of these produced 20 lbs of fruit (144 tons)! These represent 100 varieties of heirloom varieties that we've selected. They can be viewed at www.rotarygardens.org/images/2009%20tomato.pdf for those that may want to patronize the sale.
Janice worked on arranging some of the plant sale while Bob helped her and then worked on composting and "deadheading" spent tulip blooms. Dr. Gredler has been working on turf repair and both Bill and Marianne were here for various reasons. Mary helped me create and laminate plant sale signs while Kay and Barb did a nice job weeding around the gazebo garden this morning. With strong winds and thundershowers predicted tomorrow, we decided to put the baby tomatoes inside until Thursday but we'll organize labels tomorrow so we're ready to process these plants. Tomorrow will be pick-up day for the peppers (sweet and hot) and basil.

It's interesting seeing various lawns this time of year. You can see the "perfect" lawns with no weeds, even mowing strips and a deep green lushness inspired by that first fertilization. I don't equate gardening success or laziness by the look of a lawn as there are so many other horticultural features of a landscape beyond the lawn. I've heard some criticism about our dandelions at Rotary Gardens but it's "water off a duck's back" as they say. We don't have the time, inclination or funds to chemically treat all our lawns for weeds. We give our lawns attention but only fertilize twice per year and spot treat as needed. I'm more worried about the 4 million garlic mustard seedlings, 12 million cottonwood seedlings (coming soon!) and some of the invasives that we're dealing with daily. A couple of dandelions are the least of our worries. Of course, creeping Charlie (Glechoma hederacea) gets a bad rap too and I'll agree it is very aggressive. However, it is quite beautiful when it blooms (see to the left) and also has an interesting history over the years. Control is very difficult for this weed although it's durability in tough soils makes it a functional ground cover as well. Decide for yourself. See www.hort.wisc.edu/mastergardener/Features/weeds/creepingcharlie/creepcharlie.htm and www.extension.umn.edu/yardandgarden/ygbriefs/h510creepingcharlie.html for more information on this plant. Nice shot of the Ma-chii' in our fern/moss garden. What a beautiful day and tonite is our volunteer potluck to help celebrate and appreciate the importance of our wonderful volunteers (like Kay below, sporting her "doo-rag" and smile!).

Plant Sale Looming!

Nice shot of wild columbine (Aquilegia canadensis) to the left blooming today throughout the gardens. We plant columbine by the hundreds every year as it is welcome color in early spring and the dangling flowers are nice to see. There is a variety of this species called 'Little Lantern' that stays 12-18 inches as opposed to the normal height of 30". Great weather today although sporadically overcast with some rain coming mid-week. Nice shot of 'White Candle' crabapple (Malus) that I took at Longenecker Gardens at the UW-Arboretum. The crabapples and lilacs were really starting to peak and I saw all sorts of other neat plants. Dr. Hasselkus has assembled quite a collection of plants and I never get tired of visiting Longenecker. My wife reprimanded me for "working" on Mother's Day although I classify my photography of plants as strictly a hobby! Spring blooms are nice but so is colorful foliage. See below for the beautiful foliage of 'Hedgerow's Gold' dogwood (Cornus sericea 'Hedgerow's Gold').

We had a superb turnout for our Grumpy day today. Ron and Gary moved one of our new signs (no small task) and then helped "un-mulch" and compost. Dick P, Dick H., Bill, Ed and Terry T. assembled our plant sale tables and helped move them in to place. They trickled to other projects after that while Urban and Dick K. planted boxwoods and helped compost. Vern and Bob A. worked on carpentry project while Shirley and Mary weeded the entire sunken garden. Janice and Marianne are working on organizing the plant sale and were able to do some gardening and tidying today. Marv and Terry drew the "short stick" and are removing some very old cotoneasters that are failing in our entrance garden. This is a monstrous task but I think they'll tackle it in short order. Larry continues to work on water features and equipment while I've been getting ready for the plant sale and other upcoming activities. Jan R. came in today and we saw Little Jerry for awhile too. French lilacs (Syringa vulgaris) will be peaking this week and next so enjoy the perfume of spring!

Preface To A Nice Weekend

Lots of color out in the gardens today. We started with an overcast day but it is bright and sunny now. Spring colors are so vibrant as evidenced above with pink hyacinths (Hyacinthus) and grape hyacinths (Muscari armeniacum) planted together last fall for this "bouquet effect" (nice shot by Sue S.). Warm temperatures over the past couple of weeks have encouraged blooms a bit earlier than usual but our tulip displays should hold for the busy Mother's Day weekend (see to the left). We get hundreds of visitors if the weather is nice and it does look favorable although a bit on the cool side.

Great day today with Margaret and Kay working together and taking care of some serious weeds. I was able to spray herbicide in some of our really bad areas but we're doing pretty good with weeds (until our cottonwoods seed themselves everywhere in the next month or so). Marv and Terry hung all our hanging baskets which took some time as we have to bend down their hooks so people can't walk away with them. Surprisingly enough, we've had planted containers and hanging baskets "walk away" from here. Unbelievable. Marv and Terry also planted some trees and did various tasks in preparation for our big spring weekend. Marianne did a great job on tidying, preparing the cutting display, planting hostas and also transplanting pachysandra in the Japanese garden to replace those patches that we lost in the floods of '08. Dr. Gredler did a lot of mowing and we also saw Maury, Bob T. and some other volunteers. Luis O. came in and we're trying to finish up some labeling and relabeling in the sunken garden. Our GIT team (Garden Interpretation Team) has done a great job out there and we've alreay replaced over 1000 labels with many more to come. This was long overdue and the gardens look so much better for these improvements. Nice shot of 'Red Peacock' crabapple (Malus) to the right. I love the "bicolor" look of the blossoms with the darker unopened blooms augmenting the lighter pink blooms that are fully open. Very nice! Hopefully our compost sale will do well tomorrow and our plant sale the following weekend. Nice shot below of the fragrant, early blossoms of Beaver Creek fothergilla (Fothergilla gardenii 'KLMtwo'). Also called witchalder, this small shrub also has a wonderful fall color and can take some shade.

Therapeutic Thursday

Nice shot of our BIOTA sculpture at the southeast corner of the garden. This space transitions in to nice summer annuals and Hal and Doris R. do an awesome job maintaining this space. Hal was out there today hoeing up the early weeds between these tulip groupings. The pink tulips are errant but look vivid with the oranges! Great weather today going from overcast to nice and sunny very quickly. Last night we had another volunteer project that included dividing the remainder of our daylilies and organizing the daylily grouping for the upcoming plant sale. We had a great turnout (see to the left) and set up for inside division as we had some showers earlier and wanted to be productive inside. Janice and a dozen volunteers potted up another couple hundred divisions and we now have the daylily portion of the sale organized and layed out.

The Grumpies kept busy with various projects. Ron and Gary installed our new signs in to their holders and with the exception of two minor problems, the rest of the signs are in place for the weekend (see sample to the right). Ed and Larry went on a plant run while Maury did some running for us. The carpenters worked on another trash box and Bob came in and worked on "un-mulching" and area that we will compost soon. Dr. Yahr planted some small trees and had the guys install two small benches in the wishing well garden. Dick and Charlie hauled tables, recycling and the benches mentioned above. Overall, a great day as our water features are looking good, Larry finished the push mowing and we're looking pretty good for the weekend.

Our yard is starting to fill up with plants as we haul more flats back from our various suppliers (see below). The juggling trick is to accomodate the plant sale but also fit our stuff for the grounds. The local paper misprinted our plant sale as running from May 1 thru the 17 instead of May 15-17. Needless to say, we had plenty of people over here scoping out our plants for the grounds. It was tough to shoo people out and I understand why they were disappointed about the error. Oh well. We hope they'll come back for the sale. We'll start planting in earnest next week. I like to have most of our plants here before we start laying out beds. We don't always know what our "painting" will look like out in our flower beds but we certainly want all our "paint selections" available and ready to go (good analogy?). Nice shot at the very bottom of the Elf's Home spirea (Spiraea x cinerea 'Grefshiem') that has beautiful arching sprays of blooms and is one of the first spireas to bloom in our climate. Topping out at 5' tall, this bone hardy spirea is a real eyecatcher and has bloomed well for us every year.