Wonderful Wednesday

It was another gorgeous day out in the gardens.  It was one of our five scheduled FREE days and we saw an excellent crowd of visitors enjoying the gardens.  The views (like that above in the gazebo garden) continue to look gorgeous and our seasonal collections are filling in nicely with all of the recent heat.  I can look back to my seed ordering in January and realize the culmination of selecting, ordering, picking up, planting and encouraging so many of our plants has reached the peak time for visitors to enjoy the summer color!  The weather was not unbearably warm (84 degrees F in the afternoon) and we still have nice cool mornings.  Our grounds staff was very productive today as were our many volunteers.  All the photos in this blog were taken today.

 Plectranthus argentatus peaking out of 'Lacinato' kale (Brassica oleracea) - both annuals

 'Golden Torch' cardinal flower (Lobelia cardinalis) - perennial

 'Sunshine Daydream' double sunflower (Helianthus x multiflorus) - perennial

 'Gnash Rambler' coleus (Solenostemon scutellarioides) - annual

 'Arizona Sun' blanket flower (Gaillardia aristata) - perennial

Our volunteer crew was excellent today. Kathy (above) and Eva (below) worked in about three different areas and focused on some serious weeding.  While the first wave of weeds was decimated over the last couple of months, we continue to comb through every garden area and do our best to hold the weed population in check.  These ladies are excellent at what they do!  Kay was in for a good portion of the day as well for weeding, tidying and a significant planting project just outside the English cottage garden.  She worked along a narrow border that has needed help for years and it looks fabulous.  The second photo down shows Marleen (left) and Magda working in their assigned garden space.  These ladies are excellent gardeners although they get a bit chatty at times....beautiful smiles though!  Pat C. came in for label repair and inventory.  She is quite organized which is a huge help in regards to our plant records and labels!  The third photo down shows the Chestnut House volunteers working with Janice at the Horticulture Center for yard projects and tending their raised planters.  The fourth photo down shows our afternoon crew of (left to right) Patti, Gena, Mary and Myrt.  The ladies also weeded with a heavy focus on the woodland glen, Palmer Drive peony bed and elsewhere.   Dr. Gredler came in for some afternoon mowing and we also saw Joe M. (watering), Marsha M. (photography) and many others!

The grounds staff kept busy today and made lots of positive comments about the number of visitors out in the gardens - always great news!  Cheryl did some tidying in the rose garden crescents to start the day and transitioned to more weeding and tidying in and around the Japanese garden.  Cindy did some planting but spent the bulk of her time keeping the Smelly Garden theme in the Nancy Yahr Memorial Children's Garden looking excellent.  Nolan worked on weed whipping and fertilizing while Trevor worked on fertilizing and gravel path upgrades.  Terry and Big John pruned a lot more boxwoods (Buxus) and moved on to watering projects and other duties.  I was able to place plants for installation, collect some debris, install plant signs and catch up on desk work.  Another excellent day during peak garden season!

 spider flower (Cleome hassleriana) - mixed colors - annual

 zinnia (Zinnia hybrida 'Profusion Double Deep Salmon') - annual

 'Pegasus' begonia (Begonia hybrida) - annual

 'Cheyenne Sky' switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) - perennial

 'Red Cathedral' love-lies-bleeding (Amaranthus caudatus) - annual

chameleon plant (Houttuynia cordata 'Chameleon') - perennial (spreading!!!)

Perfect Weather!

Today was simply beautiful with a cooler start to a sunny day with a high temperature around 80 degrees F.  It was excellent working weather and while the gardens were still damp from our recent rains, we did some select watering and fertilizing here and there.  The gardens were beautiful today as evidenced by the photo above with this planting berm (maintained by Hal and Doris) also featuring the Biota sculpture by O.V. Shaffer.  We saw lots of visitors today!  Our grounds staff had a busy day but accomplished a lot of diverse tasks over the course of this beautiful day.  We've had late July temperatures in the upper 90 degrees F so we can't complain too much.  We also had an excellent turnout of volunteers.  Below are some additional photos from today.

 'Sylphid' plume celosia (Celosia plumosa) - annual

 'Greywoods Tallyho' daylily (Hemerocallis) - perennial

 'Prairie Moon' rattlesnake master (Eryngium yuccifolium) - perennial

 'Mandarin Orange' creeping zinnia (Sanvitalia procumbens) - annual

 'Solar Flare' coneflower (Echinacea hybrida) - Big Sky Series - perennial

Our talented crew of volunteers continues to come in daily and two of our most frequent volunteers jumped back in to some serious weeding in the entrance garden.  Above is Eva with her red jacket complimenting the theme and below is Kathy (who didn't match at all...).  The ladies are my mobile weeding force and bounce around the gardens daily!  The second photo down shows Barb S. in the formal gardens where she helped Cheryl weed those eight sections that are defined by boxwoods (Buxus).  The ladies did a great job of course!  The third and fourth photos down show Resa and Cookie respectively as they tidied up the North point garden (their assigned garden) which is looking excellent!  Bill O. came in for his mowing and Pat M. did a great job repairing a damaged terrace umbrella from the weekend storms.  Kay (fifth photo down) did her weeding kung fu in a "bed in need" and transitioned to her area as well for clean-up.  Jenny was in to keep the Hosta Hollow looking awesome.  Don and Pearl (sixth photo down) continue to maintain their excellent garden space while Kylie and Forrest (seventh photo down) processed plants in the holding yard.  We also saw many others today as well.

Almost the entire grounds staff (sans Terry) was here today.  Big John worked on pruning, fertilizing and other projects.  Larry continued work on water features and other duties including watering.  Nolan was in for mowing and Trevor worked on mowing, sweeping and lots of fertilizing.  Cindy worked her magic in the Smelly Garden which looks (and smells) excellent.  Cheryl tidied in the formal gardens and Japanese garden and took care of yard watering.  Janice spent time in the Thomas Jefferson Collection, did the cutting display and had a wide range of other tasks as well.  I was able to spray some herbicide, had meetings and am getting ready for our Gardening as Therapy symposium on August 11th!  Check out our website for more information.

 bronze fennel (Foeniculum vulgare 'Smokey') - perennial

 Queen Anne's lace (Daucus carota) - biennial

 the RBG prairie is looking pretty nice!

 'Crimson King' basil (Ocimum basilicum) - annual

variegated giant reed (Arundo donax 'Versicolor') - seasonal

Back To Basics

The weekend saw some heavy winds and driving rain on Saturday afternoon and we spent quite a bit of time today cleaning up the gardens.  Thankfully, there were only a few large branches down but plenty of debris to collect.  The gardens still look great (see above) and are transitioning to mid-summer quite nicely.  We had to do very little watering today as we've had consistent precipitation and the cloudy sky helped as well.  We had an excellent turnout of volunteers today and the staff dove right in to a wide range of general gardening tasks.  All the photos in this blog were taken throughout the day.

 'Kilimanjaro' snow-on-the-mountain (Euphorbia marginata) - annual

'Supreme Cantaloupe' coneflower (Echinacea hybrida) - perennial

 fragrant heliotrope (Heliotropium arborescens 'Alba') - annual

 'Chinese Dragon' golden ray (Ligularia japonica) - perennial

 'Ocean's Fury' crested hybrid painted fern (Athyrium hybrida) - perennial

goldenseal (Hydrastis canadensis) - perennial

Our volunteers worked on a wide range of tasks today.  Dick P. (above) was cutting more strap aluminium for our plant signs and Gary was in to continue on our labeling.  Maury ran lots of errands for us and Dr. Gredler did his mowing rounds.  Alan (purple boy below) did an excellent  job weeding, mulching and ultimately collecting washed out rock and gravel from the gate area by the gazebo garden.  Larry H., Lloyd and Ron R. went on post-storm duty and did an super job tidying up paths and patios after the debris-laden weekend.  Dick H. ran to the dump and worked on some other projects.  Ron Y., Dave, Bobby K. and Jim continued work on the obelisk assembly line in the Horticulture Center.  Kathy (second photo down) and Eva did a nice job weeding in the Alphabet Jungle Garden while Mary D. weeded in the formal annual sections.  Pat M. worked on path tidying as well and fixed a damaged umbrella from the weekend.  Ed (third photo down) continued re-graveling one of our primary paths.  Shirley H. (fourth photo down with her druid twin) did a nice job weeding in the Scottish garden and reception garden.  Rollie was in for some mowing and Lisa I. stopped by to meet with me as we assessed the Potter Daylily Collection.  We also saw Joe M., Marcia L. (English cottage garden) and many others today!

The grounds crew had a great day.  Larry checked over the gardens and spent time draining and cleaning the sunken garden water feature.  We do this a couple times annually.  Terry checked over the paths and Alphabet Jungle Garden for some post-storm concerns and then moved on to some serious yew (Taxus sp.) shearing in the formal gardens as well as container watering.  Cindy progressively tidied from the front entrance garden to the terrace garden and will continue work tomorrow in the Smelly Garden theme of the Nancy Yahr Memorial Children's Garden.  Nolan did a nice job with gravel path upgrades and had some late day fertilization too.  I was able to get out in the gardens for a tour and started installing the backlog of woody plant labels that need to go in the gardens.  Great day had by all!

 scarlet gilia (Ipomopsis aggregata) - annual (great for hummingbirds!)

 white blazing star (Liatris spicata 'Alba') - perennial

 alpine gentian (Gentiana septemfida var. lagodechiana) - perennial

 nice combo of 'Cheyenne Spirit' coneflower (Echinacea hybrida) and 'Golden Jubilee' hyssop (Agastache foeniculum) - both are perennials

 'Green Jewel' coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) - perennial

 'Limara Lemon' sulphur cosmos (Cosmos sulphureus) - annual

'Passion Flute' coneflower (Echinacea hybrida) - perennial