Youthful Energy Abounds!

It was a crazy (in a good way) day in the gardens today. Above is a shot of young volunteer planters from St. Paul's Lutheran here in Janesville. They did a wonderful job and the 19 kids with 6 adults collectively planted over 4,000 annuals. They were an enthusiastic bunch and it was beautiful weather for planting. I would love to have them back again in the future. I have another group (similar age) from Beloit tomorrow and look forward to their help as well. Nice shot of 'Globemaster' allium below from Laurie Matelli, a heck of a photographer and current president of our Rock Prairie Master Gardener Association.

Today was also a Grumpy day and the guys kept very busy. John and Gary worked on repainting the fishing pier while Dave, Jim and Bob A. worked on repairing our arched bridge railing. Del and Ron hauled daylilies then shifted to removing allium stems/foliage with Charlie and Dick H. Maury and Dick P. helped as well as it was an enormous undertaking. Vern and Glenna were also here. Little Jerry worked in the Japanese garden while Jumbo Jim used two RECAPPERS to help clean up in that same garden. Bill did a lot of his tidying throughout the gardens while Larry ran around to help with Badger Days set-up intermingled with occasional weedwhipping as time allowed. Janice helped water, weed, had meetings and worked with her high school volunteers. Overall, very busy. I'm at 75% health which was enough to get thru today. We could use rain but we hope it avoids the 8am-noon timeframe this Saturday as we have about 20,000 annuals to put in the ground. Nice picture below (taken yesterday) of the foliage of 'Samurai Sword' Japanese painted fern (Athyrium niponicum). What a nice combination of silver and purple tones. Considering ferns don't have flowers, their interest is in texture and foliage impact. The bottom image is of false indigo (Baptisia australis) in my front yard. Beautiful. Look in to the Baptisias for long-lived, exciting perennials in your full sun garden. Lots of choices out there nowadays...

Sick Today (For 6 hours...)

Rough morning but was able to come in this afternoon. Nice shot of the blooms of the pink locust (Robinia x slavinii 'Hillieri') in our Hosta Hollow garden. You may have noted over the past two weeks or so, all the trees with dangling white flower clusters (fragrant by the way) of our native black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia). A beautiful day outside and the grounds crew did a great job with their various tasks. Terry and Marv picked up plants, prepared beds, pruned and continued to edge the iris beds (look great). Marianne did a great job tidying and finished weeding the iris beds. Larry did some shopping and continues to keep our irrigation running as needed. Despite recent rains and the cool temps, we don't want any areas drying out. Little Jerry and Dr. Gredler were here as well and it looks like significant volunteer efforts from Kay, Hal, Doris and Janet today. I'm a bit out of the loop (and out of it) today but major planting over the next three days is on the immediate horizon! Nice shot below of 'William Guinness' columbine (Aquilegia) in our Color Rooms garden. We plant columbine by the hundreds ever year and let it seed around. How can you not enjoy columbine with its interesting colors and flower forms.

Another Bed Planted...

Despite the overcast skies today, the picture of the 'Ben More' rock rose (Helianthemum nummularium) in our Scottish alpine garden sure offers some exciting orange color! I took a lot of pictures today as it's so tough to keep up with all the wonderful blooms and colorful foliage out in the gardens. I came to work thinking we would be "rained out" and have to stay inside. Those days are good to catch up on desk work but we really need to keep our planting momentum. We didn't have sprinkles until late in the day and were able to have a very productive Tuesday that included planting our American Garden Award collection (see below) with the help of Janice, Jenny, Lee, Barb and Heidi. Yesterday afternoon was also very productive for planting in the reception garden with a group of 10 or so Rotarians that came to help after their lunch (see Heather below). We're making some great progress and hope for rain only at night and the weed fairy to come help us take care of our most serious weedy areas!
Jenny worked on labels today and helped us plant the American Garden Award bed. Janice helped plant, worked in the veggie area and did many odds and ends. Little Jerry continues to mow and work on pruning our pines and tidying up the Japanese garden while Larry ran for a load of plants, pushmowed and has bounced around as needed today. Bill, Dick H., Jim H. and Dr. Gredler were here to help as were the volunteers mentioned above. I have two groups of middleschoolers coming at the end of the week to do some planting and we have a big work day this Saturday and hope to plant all of our extensive annuals around the entrance garden. Nice shot of ornamental onions (Allium 'Globemaster') taken today near the reception garden. The tricolor beech (Fagus sylvatica 'Aureo-marginata') that I pictured in the blog yesterday looked so good with the overcast skies, I took a picture (see at the bottom) from underneath the leaves. What a neat look!

Wet, Muggy, Productive

The image above was taken this past Saturday during our work day. Despite early rains, we had a great turnout with over 20 volunteers planting close to 10,000 annuals in four hours. The beds they were planting contain a mix of interesting annuals, many of which are award-winners or new introductions. We left some gaps to fill in with the remainder of those collections. The weather today was very similar with morning rains, muggy temperatures but again, another productive planting day with ten members of our Noon Rotary Club in Janesville coming out to help plant. We put in a couple thousand annuals in our reception garden and I was very pleased with the progress today as well as our overall "planting progress." Nice shot to the left of English bluebells (Hyacinthoides non-scripta) blooming so well in our Scottish garden this year.

Great volunteer turnout with the Grumpies putting in a productive morning including many smaller tasks including getting our observation deck prepared for repainting later this week. We are trying to focus on infrastructure issues out in the gardens that need to be addressed. Jan came in to tidy up the Scottish garden and we maximized the use of a day that we thought we would have more rain. Marianne did a great job tidying up the entrance garden, working on irises, the cutting display, etc. She really moves. Janice weeded and planted most of the day and helped prepare for our workday. Marv and Terry worked on preparing some areas for planting and started to air edge around the iris collection beds. Marv ran for some plants in the afternoon while Terry helped remove bulb foliage and weeds in areas that will be planted very shortly. Little Jerry worked on pruning pines and collecting debris while Larry floated around and helped as needed while also tweaking our water features as time allowed. Bill also helped as usual and Dr. Gredler did most of his early week mowing already. Nice shot of 'Java Red' weigela (Weigela florida) to the right. You can see weigelas blooming all over and while I like the trumpet blooms, I do tend to pick those with interesting foliage. Why go with green weigela foliage when you can have maroon, golden or variegated? There are some nice varieties out there but understand that weigelas have a loose, arching habit and while you can shear them, they tend to look the best when left in that open form. Nice close-up shot below of the tricolor European beech (Fagus sylvatica 'Aureo-marginata') that looks fabulous this time of year. The pink margins look the best when you provide some dappled afternoon shade. Otherwise, that lighter edge might get a bit crispy. Showy tree though!

A Rainy Start

Nice woodland phlox shot (Phlox divaricata 'Plum Perfect') above from yesterday. As I type, it's raining pretty well which may put a "damper" on our planting day. Hopefully this is an intermittent shower and our beds wont get too soggy for planting. Many dogwoods (Cornus) are in bloom and the pagoda dogwood (Cornus alternifolia) is no exception. This small tree has prominent horizontal branching and also gets a nice fall color. See the shot below for 'Gold Bullion', the golden variety (Cornus alternifolia 'Bachone'). We've been using the golden variety in dappled woodland spaces where the gold (more "chartreusey" in shade) really illuminates the space.


Bill came in early to empty our garbage bins and Larry unloaded our last spring delivery of bagged compost this morning. Marianne came in to set up the compost sale and is out weeding the terrace garden. Janice and I will lead whomever comes in to volunteer on a planting expedition near our visitor's center. We hope we still get some turnout! Nice shot of a new perennial salvia (for us) that caught my eye yesterday (Salvia hybrida 'Eveline'). The blooms are quite interesting and while not a hot pink, the blooms do catch the eye from a distance.

A Reluctant Spring

I have to give Janice credit for the blog title as she just coined that phrase as we talked about all the looming showers and cool temperatures. The spring color is exceptional but we'd like a little more heat to get things moving along. Now if we could only slow down the weeds... Nice shot of more peonies (intersectional hybrids) above that are located near our sunken garden. The weather was overcast today with some slight showers here and there. We had a very productive day out there and are looking forward to another Saturday planting day tomorrow. I also will be giving a tour for the Wisconsin Woody Plant Society in the afternoon and look forward to having their membership enjoy the gardens. To the left are the crisp yellow blooms of globe flower (Trollius europaeus 'Superbus') that always catches my attention this time of year. You need damp, well-drained soils for this one and the example here (in our Scottish garden) is going on 10 years old!

Kay did a great job continuing her weeding in the reception garden. There are some odd carpet weeds in there and I appreciate her dedication as most gardeners would have gone insane dealing with the nightmare she tackled. Dr. Gredler did his mowing and other tasks while Bill was a huge help with clean-up and tidying around the gardens. Little Jerry did some mowing and working on limbing up some trees in the arboretum. Janice worked on weeding, pushmowing and many other tasks. Marianne did her usual Friday duties that including tidying the entrance garden, freshening up the cutting display and helping prepare for the work day and compost sale. Marv and Terry helped haul plants, mowed and rototilled an enormous area in preparation for next Saturday's(June 6th) planting work day. To the right is a closeup of the blooms of red buckeye (Aesculus pavia) that is a real eyecatcher in our woodland walk garden. See
www.mobot.org/gardeninghelp/plantfinder/Plant.asp?code=J210 for more information on this small tree. I love the emerging blooms of Sargent viburnum (Viburnum sargentii 'Onondaga') as they open from the outer edges first, making the blooms look bicolor with the darker buds in the center. Viburnums are such a great group of garden worthy woody plants and deserve more attention and utilization.

Busy For A Slow Day!

The iris collection is really starting to bloom well. Sue S. has passed along oodles of great shots thus far and while they all wont bloom this year (planted last summer), we expect a great showing next spring when the American Iris Society convention attendees visit the gardens. Above is 'Morningstar Blues' (Iris germanica) and I'll try to post others in the future. It's no wonder why irises are so treasured when you see the exquisite blooms and spectrum of colors. The variety 'Man's Best Friend' (Iris germanica) can be seen below. Look at the details!
Today was a well-attended Grumpy day with Gary and Bill spreading cocoa bean mulch around the rose garden, John and Charlie replacing soil in the sunken garden, Del, Rollie and Dick H. working on dismantling plant sale tables and the carpenters (Jim, Vern and Bob A.) working on bench repair. Bob T. was out air edging and Dr. Gredler was out mowing most of the morning. Elder Sorenson and Elder Black helped today with allium removal around the gardens as well. Marianne came in as a volunteer to help organize labels prior to our big planting Saturday. Janice planted our tomato and pepper collection with the help of Deb and later worked with H.S. kids planting beans and weeding thru the vegetable beds. We had a "weeding quartet" in the reception garden of Kay, Marilyn, Char and Suzanne. They did a great job and I think Kay will tackle the rest tomorrow. Shirley weeded and planted the color rooms garden while Larry, Jerry and I did our odds and ends. Nice shot of Allium 'Purple Sensation' below with our orange obelisks. As these alliums loose their color (in 7-10 days from now), we cut them at ground level and remove all foliage and stem. Watch out for the sap as it can stain! Our intent with a space like this is to plant it with seasonals within a couple days of removing the alliums (the bulbs are all still there though, safe and sound, 6" down). Those alliums in the shot are over 5 years old and still looking good. The bottom picture (from today) is of the blooms of our yellowhorn (Xanthoceras sorbifolium) at the east end of our shade garden. I love the blooms on this plant and our specimen has done well here. See www.mobot.org/GARDENINGHELP/PLANTFINDER/Plant.asp?code=R900 for more information regarding this woody plant.