Plants Are Growing Overnight

Above is one of my favorite coleus (Solenostemon scutellarioides) varieties, 'Sedona'. That orange really pops out and the "dead sedges" (Carex flagellifera 'Toffee Twist') will look good spilling over the edges. Some of our containers are in areas where plant selection might be dictated by the surrounding color theme; the maroon/red them out front for instance. Many of our containers though are just fun to play with each year as we don't plan them over winter and design "on the fly" (with the exception of the hanging baskets that are designed the September previous to the year they are displayed). It was sunny and hot today but I didn't feel that it was too oppressive despite sweating thru both shirts I wore today. Nice shot below of Suzy and Janet planting the border along our wishing well garden today (with Mary). We had another spectacular volunteer turnout today.

Larry and Janice both mowed today and both watered select areas and containers among other duties. Jenny was here matching up labels and watered our yard that was drying out quickly. Little Jerry worked on mowing and spent some time in the Japanese Garden. I was able to spray more herbicide and had a presentation over the lunch hour with Rod for the Noon Kiwanis Club. We had a nice showing of Grumpies with Pat, Bob, Del, Ron B., Roger and Dick H. dicing up and collecting all the branch debris that Larry created yesterday they later moved on to mulching and other tasks. Big John planted the remainder of the roses we had spotted yesterday, composted our last fern bed and helped plant annuals. We have over 100 ferns waiting to be planted and hopefully will get them installed tomorrow or early next week. Bob T. and Bill worked on "air edging" flower beds which is done with a sharp spade and helps define the separation between turf and flower bed. We do this every year on those beds that aren't permanently edged and have that soil/turf "interaction." Vern, Bob A., Jim and Dave T. continued on their carpentry projects and will not run out of work any time very soon. Suzy, Mary, Glenna, Janet and Mary D. all came in to plant and weed and did a great job. Chris, Bob and August finish planting their section of the sunken garden. We also saw Cindy, Laurie, Maury, Dr. Gredler, Lois, Shirley and her grandson. Steve and Shirley S. were here working on our labeling project too! Crazy day. Nice shots of lilies (Lilium) of unknown varieties but they sure are a neat perennial, particulary the fragrant ones. When I started at RBG over 12 years ago, there was a huge lily collection along the pond near the zig-zag bridge. One winter, some muskrats undermined that bed and consumed most of the lilies and essentially decimated that entire collection. We're slowly adding more each year though. Below is the foliage of one of the new Hakone grasses (Hakonechloa macra). This is the variety 'Stripe it Rich' that has prominent streaks of white and makes this variety different from others that are either green or have lots of yellow/gold.
The gourds and cucumbers are off to a great start at the Horticulture Center. The supports that our carpenters built should be perfect for both types of plants and this heat should get these plants moving along. It will be interesting to taste test the heirloom cucumbers, many of which will look quite different from what we see in the grocery stores. I never realized how healthy cucumbers were until I did a little research. Janice has a great team of volunteers keeping up with this collection and and she mentioned today that the foliage of the 'Seven Happiness' luffa (Luffa cylindrica) is "way cool". The foliage can be seen below and I totally agree. The fruits of this vine are edible when young (use like zucchini) or can be left to ripen on the vine for later use as a bath sponge. We have a ways to go but will keep an eye on all the excitement.

A Sunny Respite (Temporary Though...)

Today was a nice, pleasant day with sun, some clouds and not too hot overall. I'm glad the plants had a chance to perk up and stretch before the incoming thunderstorms over the next five days beat them down again. We have mushrooms galore around the gardens right now which is a lot better than cracked, arid soil in my mind. I'm so glad we have so much planted already and are still on track to finish our annual planting very shortly. Nice shot above of Land of the Giants Hosta Farm in nearby Milton, WI. I picked up our order and the owner, Jeff (whom I've know for years) gave me a tour of the nursery which opened up before me in this dappled glade above. A wonderful garden and by the way, a "by appointment only" nursery for now. See www.landofthegiantshostafarm.com/ for more information. A lot was accomplished out in the gardens today. Larry went on a path of "corrective destruction" as seen above. This is one of the purple-leaf plums in our arboretum that has become undesireable for many reasons. Larry diced up this one and "limbed up" many of the smaller trees surrounding the sunken garden. We planted hybrid elms (Ulmus sp.) and honeylocust (Gleditsia) years ago to fill in when the current cottonwoods (Populus) are removed as they age. Nice shot to the left of one of my favorite perennial combinations (in the Scottish Garden). this is golden meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria 'Aurea') with blue oat grass (Helictotrichon sempervirens 'Sapphire'). You can't go wrong with blue and yellow. Little Jerry did a lot of pruning here and there and worked in the Japanese garden as well. Marianne started the day by "roughing up" our cocoa bean hull mulch around the roses that was beginning to form mold from all the moisture. She moved on to tidying, weeding and continues to plant small gaps in the entrance garden. For three years now she has been maintaining our "front door garden" and does a superb job. Marv and Terry bounced between mulching, planting trees, planting annuals and other projects. Big John worked on composting, weeding, planting roses and mulching. I was able to spray a couple loads of herbicide today as it may be my only window until late next week. Kay was here (upper right) and continued to tackle our weedy shade garden with a thorough approach. I told her that she is one of the very few volunteers that has the patience to deal with such a large (depressing) area of weeds and do such a nice job without going insane. Shirley was back in action and personally weeded and planted 3/4 of the color rooms garden. Jumbo Jim came in with two RECAPPERS and they helped Little Jerry, weeded the roses and tidied up our alpine gardens prior to our Saturday tour by the rock garden society folks. Nice shot below of a neat alumroot (Heuchera villosa 'Brownies') with dwarf goatsbeard (Aruncus aethusifolius) to the right and golden spiderwort behind (Tradescantia x andersoniana 'Sweet Kate'). We also saw Dave, Dr. Gredler, Art and Gwen today. Don and Pearl were back to finish their area as well as the bed across the path from their area.
The 27 plywood daisy projects have been a huge hit out in the gardens. The Janesville Gazette ran a nice article on the program which should bring in more visitors or at least create a better awareness of the local art we are featuring. I was disappointed to see an emailed comment to the Gazette from someone saying that the daisies are a "distraction from the peace and natural solitude" and had they "known that they would be wrecking their view all summer, they wouldn't have renewed their membership." To each their own but what a sad commentary regarding support for local artists of all ages. The Carefree Celebration rose (Rosa 'RADral') from Bill Radler (to the left) continues to catch my eye (I realize this same image was posted last week but wow, that is a nice color). Shrub roses have really come in to their own and Big John has a couple more to put in tomorrow to fill out our collection. To the right is a close-up of one of my favorite catmints (Nepeta x faassinii 'Walker's Low') which is a tough perennial with violet-blue blooms that are quite exquisite if you look closely. Reaching 30" tall and 36" wide, this mounding perennial was named Perennial Plant of the Year by the Perennial Plant Association in 2007. Blooming right now in to July, consider shearing back 2/3 of growth as the flowers wane to get another burst of color and mounded growth. Many catmints become leggy and reseed; neither of which is a problem for this variety (named after a garden in England, not for it's compact nature!). Below is Janice's biodegradable pot trials. Step 1 and Step 2 are illustrated here and she'll monitor how quickly these pots break down in the soil over the course of the summer. This should be interesting. The Cowpots (cow poop) claim they will help boost the growth of the plant which I think is entirely possible. We'll examine plant size too. Great initiative by Janice who has a background in research.

Rain With A Side Order Of Drizzle

It was damp today. That sums it up. Actually, this morning was the only time we had to be dry out in the gardens (between 7 am and 9 am). The rest of day has fluctuated between drizzle and heavy rains. Everyone got caught out in the first downpour and I think Big John and Jenny got the worst of it over the rest of the day as they tried to dodge raindrops. Nice shot above of the common elderberry (Sambucus canadensis) that can be seen along roadsides, woodland edges and other areas and is very noticeable right now because of the huge flower clusters that will later become the drooping clusters of dark purple berries in late summer. I love most elderberries for the range of colorful foliage from select varieties, but this species has the most impressive blooms at almost 12" across. Not far from where I took the elderberry shot this morning near the Horticulture Center, I was reacquainted with the 'Young Lady' smokebush (Cotinus coggygria 'Young Lady') and its wispy, billowing flowers (like smoke) that catch the eye over the course of the summer. The wispiness isn't the actual flower but a related flower structure. This variety is known to be quite compact (8' tall and wide) and has a nice yellow-orange fall color as well. This is certainly an eye catcher. We severely prune some of our maroon-leaved smokebushes ('Royal Purple') for fresh growth each year but lose the flowers. I envision using more of the 'Young Lady' variety elsewhere in the gardens. Below is one of our Bailey Nursery test roses called 'Minnesota Red'. This caught my attention this morning as it certainly doesn't look like a shrub rose and has done remarkably well with literally zero attention. I hope this one is introduced in the near future. It was a relatively small crew today but despite the rain, lots of projects were checked off the list. Big John hauled out tools and kneeling pads for our Cloverbud 4H camp to plant although that activity was understandably a wash out (pun intended). John moved on to removing thug ferns, cutting back perennial geraniums, planting roses and did his mowing stint in the rain. Larry did his mowing as well and worked on various inside projects as well as buying lunch for everyone (thanks!). Jenny worked on matching up labels and didn't let the rain slow her down. Janice worked on various projects, the most exciting of which is an actual "mini-trial" with our biodegradable pots. I'll post pictures tomorrow regarding this activity. She essentially planted the same plant, purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) in our five different biodegradable pots (similar size) and planted them out in the same space (for similar sun and rain exposure). She'll be examining how fast these pots break down, observe root penetration rates as well as take observations regarding the actual plants themselves. This should be neat. Little Jerry and Dr. Gredler got soaked mowing the larger lawns and I was out placing plants in some of our remaining open beds for installation later in the week. Gary and Ron W. came in this morning and worked on clearing weeds and debris from another neglected border. They were poised to mulch the space but got rained out. Kay spent more time weeding in the shade garden but being so sweet, melted with the rains. We also saw Dr. Yahr, Maury, Bob T., Art and Judy over here today. Nice shot to the left of the 'Pewter Lace' Japanese painted fern (Athyrium niponicum 'Pewter Lace') with a wide range of interesting coloration. I really enjoyed the fern garden today while marking ferns for removal (ostrich and sensitive) and took the image to the right of the golden fullmoon maple (Acer shirasawanum 'Autumn Moon') nearby. I can't wait until this gets bigger with bright yellow spring leaves, chartreusy summer leaves, then a nice orange-red fall color. Below is some additional foliage of interest that I'd like to share. I love all ginkgos (Ginkgo biloba) but spend the most time looking at the variety 'Saratoga' below that has a dense canopy with variable leaves, most of which droop and have a dramatic split. For those that know ginkgos, this variety strays from the standard leaf shape and is quite ornamental (nice yellow fall color too!). At the bottom is the variegated forsythia (Forsythia viridissima var. koreana 'Kumson') that while not a strong bloomer, has very dramatic leaves with prominent silver veination. We cut ours back severely if they get "rangey" and they are a nice groundcover in masses. Very showy.

Many Achievements On A Rainy Day

There was no direct sunshine today and while it was dark and overcast all morning, we were able to fit in a very productive morning with grounds staff and volunteers. Nice shot above and below of elements in the Nancy Yahr Memorial Garden (called the wishing well garden frequently) as I found myself down there this morning placing plants for planting today and tomorrow. I love that arched seating well area above (note the 'Terra Cotta' yarrow in the foreground) and the limestone steps below with surrounding plantings are quite nice for being planted last fall. The drizzle started around 10:30 am and continued until 2 pm or so for us. I was glad to see the rain as a good soaking this week should help develop some deep roots and will let us focus on planting instead of dragging out hoses and sprinklers. Marv and Terry did a nice job weeding, composting, rototilling and eventually planting what we call the "sign area" over at nearby Palmer Park. The Janesville Area Convention & Visitors Bureau (JACVB) has a visitors information office in one of the park buildings and for over a decade now, we've planted up the 300 sq. ft. bed around their sign with annuals. The parks department takes care of weeding, watering and maintaining the planting, after we install the plants. We have a great relationship with the JACVB and they trade us some significant advertising for this service. The guys also worked on mulching and other projects in the drizzle this afternoon. Everyone was pretty damp today including Little Jerry who worked on shearing shrubs in front of the visitors center and also did work in the Japanese garden. Janice and Marianne worked on their respective projects (indoors and outdoors) while Larry spent the day with the string trimmer hitting all those "hard to reach" shaggy spots. He mentioned how heavy that trimmer was by the end of the day and the wet grass attached to his pants added another 20 lbs. I'm sure! I was able to lay out another couple thousand annuals, most of which were planted before the rains really settled in for the afternoon. I'm also working on our Home Garden Tour and starting preparations already for our fall plant sale. Both plants shown here were also in the wishing well garden and are showy perennials selected for a long "bloom window." To the left is the pink speedwell (Veronica spicata 'Fairytale') with upright flower clusters thru mid-summer and to the right is the dwarf wood betony (Stachys monieri 'Hummelo') which is one of my top 10 favorite perennials for full sun (will take part shade too though). These little violet-pink "bottlebrush-like" blooms are very long lasting and the foliage of this plant always looks good. Mondays are always rife with good volunteers. Above are Don and Pearl planting the area that they have lovingly tended for the past eight years. Prior to that, they took care of another location. They do a great job and worked thru the drizzle to install 300 annuals in this space with just a couple more to go along the front of the path. The scary thing is that they not only match clothes when they volunteer but all the time!? :) Good folks. We had two new volunteers today, Beth and Ronnie, who jumped right in to planting with Mary, Mary, John, Gary and Ron. They did a great job and Peg K. was in the English cottage garden tidying up as well. Jumbo Jim was here later with RECAPPERS and they were very helpful as always. Nice shot of donkeytail spurge (Euphorbia myrsinites) which has such an interesting look after the early chartreuse flowers fade. This perennial is a thug in other climates but a nice edging perennial for us.


The Grumpies were well represented today with Del and Ron W. jumping right in to composting and Urban and Charlie worked on skimming up gravel and refreshing an older path with fresh gravel in the Hosta Hollow garden. Pat and Ron B. did a nice job along our east parking lot with weeding, mulching and tidying up that end of the garden. Gary and Maury helped organize the yard and moved on to other duties. The carpenters were down working on the new arbor and sizing up future gates (see Jim, Vern and Dave's lower torso to the right..). Those guys are so darn handy. Big John cleared a coastal area of weeds and mulched around our desireable plantings. He later shifted to planting with the gang and does a nice job keeping things moving along. He was a huge help Saturday too and is growing on us (like a fungus). Dr. Yahr and Avis (see below) did a nice job planting in the wishing well garden and we hope to finish that space later this week if possible. We also saw Geesje, Mike, Dave, Bev and of course Dr. Gredler. The iris beds in this space, once the irises are cleared out and divided, will be planted with annuals in mid-July for colorful filler (using donated annuals from area nurseries). The two bottom photos show another great garden perennial called yellow meadowrue (Thalictrum flavum ssp. glaucum) that not only has the contribution of showy yellow flower clusters in June thru July, but also sky blue foliage. This perennial tops out at about 48" in damp (moisture essential), full sun although it will tolerate part shade as well.

Soaking Rains On The Way

Above is a shot of one of our hundreds of breadseed poppies (Papaver somniferum 'Seriously Scarlet') at home. Nice to see some rain today and it looks like we'll have more during the week. We've certainly "crescendoed" with planting this weekend but still have about 35,000 annuals to poke in over the coming weeks in some of the smaller areas. We'll have to shift to some weeding too as the warmer rains have really boosted weed germination. Another full week ahead of us!

Four of Four

The area above was devoid of plants yesterday morning and is now planted and complete after a full morning of attention from about 50 volunteers. Even better, the area above was one of four areas that was planted in its entirety. Not only did we plant four of four areas but this fourth of four Saturday work days was again, very successful like the previous three. The rain seemed poised all morning and we had a brief shower around 11:15 am that was easy to work thru and the sun later came up. I still hope it rains tonight and soaks everything in nicely although the long range forecast looks good for precipitation through the upcoming week. We had a crack team of volunteers in the front berm (called the "flag berm"). See Carolyn to the left and Mary and Del to the right. These images show a lot of red and maroon which is a strong, rich color combination that I think will look quite fetching in a couple of weeks. We planted lots of foliage annuals like coleus (Solenostemon), sedges (Carex), purple fountain grass (Pennisetum), copperleaf (Alternanthera), sweet potato vine (Ipomoea batatas), etc. Our filler annuals are all red bloomers, many with maroon foliage. It will be nice to see the many celosias (Celosia sp.) that will look dynamite in these compositions like 'Amigo Mahogany Red', 'Forest Fire', 'China Town', 'Fresh Look Red', 'New Look' and so on. Lots of good ones out there. Below are more volunteers including Magda and Felicia further down. We also had 14 volunteers from the Rock County Corrections "WORKENDER" program. This is a program that allows low-risk offenders to be involved in community service as opposed to jail time and/or other restrictions with the intent of not disrupting their employment, childcare or educational opportunities. We've worked with this program before, specifically for planting projects, and I would say that this was our best group yet and everyone was enthusiastic about not only planting but finishing this large area. They did a nice job and were no different than our other volunteers (aside from the orange vests) in working towards some lofty goals in the morning (which was to plant as much as possible before the rains, which never really came!). I think it was a first time planting experience for some of these participants but everyone gave it their all. This large bed has been a target area for planting by the participants of this program in the past as it requires a good 30 people to get it done in 3 hours or so and is our largest planting area near the main parking lot. The red and maroon theme is going to look pretty sweet this year.

As with many of our work days, we usually have a "back-up plan B" if we underestimate the progress of our volunteers and need to move beyond what we originally planned. Well, that happened by 9:30 am and we planted another entire berm with the trial annuals from Ball Seed, PanAmerican Seed and Takii Seed. We had a dozen or so volunteers shift over to this area and planted 90% of that space. We had everything cleaned up and watered by 11:30 am as we wanted to get out of there before all the weddings started. Our fourth planted area (also red and maroon themed) was planted by members of the Noon Rotary Club behind our Parker Education Center. The gang, led by Hal and Doris (below and to the right), planted the entire terrace garden border as well as a large area in the wishing well garden. The Noon Rotary Club planted this area in the past and did another great job. I actually placed the plants out there Thursday and we kept them watered in place until the Saturday planting. I don't know all the names of the participants planting this space but saw Hal, Doris, Pam, Paul, Gary, Dr. Yahr, Leslie, Whitey and Dave A. Great progress and this border will echo our front plantings and really help define this neat garden space.

Preparations For Tomorrow

It looked like it wanted to rain all day and I'm glad we weren't fooled and did plenty of watering before the afternoon turned hot, sunny and windy. There is still a chance of rain tonight but I wont hold my breath. Nice shot above of queen-of-the-prairie (Filipendula rubra 'Venusta Magnifica') starting to bloom with wonderful pink flower clusters. This native perennial prefers damp, full sun locations and tops out at almost 5' tall. The threat of rain with cool breezes and a dark sky this morning prompted some quick activity out in the gardens as we thought our time might be cut short. Janice and Terry mowed right away as did Dr. Gredler and Little Jerry (who later pruned too). Marianne, Marv, Terry and I hauled out plants for the planting work day tomorrow which looks favorable as rains should come later in the day tomorrow. It's going to be a hot one though! I placed around 10,000 annuals out in our entrance garden and we'll hit the ground running in the morning. Marv and Terry also removed juniper stumps, rototilled and prepared more beds for planting (next week) and cleaned up garden areas for the weddings. We had three weddings scheduled for tonight which is remarkable for a Friday. Five outdoor weddings in the gardens tomorrow! Marianne did lots of weeding today, fertilized some annual beds, assembled the cutting display and watered. Janice did a nice job watering in the plants we installed yesterday (glad we didn't let it go) and worked on various projects. Overall it was a very productive day. I took the rose picture below in our yard as it caught my eye immediately. This is Rosa 'Morden Sunrise' and is a shrub rose developed at the Morden Research Station in Canada (part of the Parkland series). It is described as having a "kaleidoscope of color" with peach, coral, yellow and cream all represented on a semi-double, slightly fragrant bloom. Looks awesome to me and we'll get this in the ground very soon. Nice shot further below of Marv with the rototiller which has recently become an extension of his body as he has done most of our substantial rototilling.
To the right is the opened up pink globeflower (Centaurea pulchra major) that I referenced in its closed form this past Tuesday. Looks neat and there were ants all over the bloom checking it out. Today wouldn't be complete without the contribution of many great volunteers. Kay was in and took a respite from planting to tackle one of our weedy areas in the shade garden. She is very thorough and did a great job as always. When she puts on the bandana, we know that some serious work is being done. Dr. Gredler was here mowing, running to the dump, etc. and we saw Dr. Yahr and Maury as well. Magda and Sara were out weeding, tidying and planting in their garden space. Dave and Mary were also planting in their garden area. The progress out in the gardens is amazing and I can't wait to see all the annuals filling in over the coming month or so. It should be quite colorful. Jenny and Dave came in today as volunteers and spent a couple hours sorting thru labels and matching them up to our annuals. Jenny follows the labels from my winter lists, her typing, creation, preparation and finally her installation of the labels six months after she first saw the name of the plant. Providing accurate interpretation is a huge challenge as in the past, it has been difficult to keep up with labeling our plants as they go in the ground. We've streamlined the process and feel it is going smoother each year (although we keep planting more and more). The new laser engraver will allow us to ultimately convert all labeling to a standard format but the plan of attack is to start with all the woody plants (this fall and winter), then perennials (next year), then finally annuals in two years or so. Nice shot to the left of another shrub rose (Rosa 'Radral'). This is 'Carefree Celebration' rose and is from the breeder of the original Knockout roses, Bill Radler. I've met and spoken with Bill a few times and he is an amazing breeder and very generous with his time and contagious enthusiasm. To the right is 'Morden Blush', another tough Canadian shrub rose that has a subtle, pinkish white, double bloom and is very floriferous. Introduced in 1988, this is another of the Parkland series of roses that we're interesting in trying here and promoting as a low-maintenance option. I'm hoping that we'll have 50+ varieties of low-maintenance shrub roses in the next year or so and will eventually display those that do the best in our setting. Our rose collection has struggled in the past but we're committed to upgrading the collection and we have Becky N., one of our Master Gardeners and a professional horticulturist, working on our roses. Nice shot below of the flossflower (Ageratum 'Patina Delft') that looks almost "otherworldly" in a close-up. At the bottom are some lilies (Lilium, unknown variety) that are looking good along the sunny edge of the woodland walk garden. Well, I hope my next blog tomorrow night mentions finishing the entrance garden planting with 40 volunteers followed by a nice soaking rain right after we put the trowels away....or at least after all the weddings!