Looming Work Day

We had another nice sunny day out in the gardens but it did get quite warm (84 degrees F) in the afternoon. The top photo shows the 'Bartzella' intersectional hybrid peony (Paeonia) that was donated to us by Roger Anderson, a peony breeder from Fort Atkinson, WI that introduced this selection (and many more). Much of my time was centered around getting ready for the volunteer work day tomorrow (8 am until 12 noon). I've found that laying out plants in advance has many advantages for being able to keep ahead of our volunteer crew. Directly above is just some of the area we hope to plant tomorrow. We've always been very proactive with preparing projects for volunteers as we want to keep everyone busy and minimize any idle time! Over the next five Saturdays, we'll plant our largest display areas which include the All American Selections, reception garden, entrance gardens slope, smelly garden and our trial displays. I hope we get some consistent rainfall over the coming weeks as we're just rediscovering the challenges of keeping up with the watering with a small crew.

To the above right are Marleen (left) and Magda in their garden section near the 'Dialogue' sculpture. Magda has taken great care of this space since I've been around and Marleen, a good friend of Magda's, has been volunteering recently and we appreciate her involvement as well. Other volunteers today included Sue and Kelley who both did a great job clearing bulb foliage and weeds out of their section of the shade garden. They'll be back next Friday to start planting this large, partly shaded garden. Ron K. spent the entire morning tidying up the woodland walk garden. He and I walked around and noted some additional target weeds as well as the open space that we hope to fill with new perennials some time next week. Dr. Gredler accomplished his Friday mowing and we also saw Dr. Yahr, Bradford, Maury, Del and many others. Rose and Urban came in to do some nice re-staining of the decking boards on the porch above the English cottage garden. To the left is the always beautiful roof iris (Iris tectorum). To the right is the 'Globemaster' ornamental onion (Allium sp.) repeated in clumps along a long shrub border near our east gate. Directly below are the deep pink blooms of the golden-leaf weigela (Weigela florida 'Briant's Rubidor') which has bright golden foliage throughout the growing season as well. The next photo down shows "Mr. Moss" (Dale S.) today who, along with Marv and Terry, again hauled in rocks, soil and moss to continue to improve our moss islands. The grounds staff kept busy today. We had some excitement this morning when Marv and Terry noticed an anchored bass boat out in the water not far from our 'Dancing Waters' fountain. The fisherman seemed to be lying down and wasn't responding to our yells. We were just worried so I made a call to the police. Within 2 minutes, we had a police car, ambulance, three fire trucks, a truck with a boat, divers, etc. There were nine emergency vehicles there and all the sirens roused the fisherman from his nap. He was totally fine and a bit surprised to say the least. However, always "better safe than sorry". Big John worked on pushmowing and later moved to more painting on the arched bride. It sure looks good and I think he finished that structure. The gazebo is next on the list for some re-painting attention. Janice helped me haul plants for tomorrow and did some planting of her own. She also did a nice job cleaning out some areas of bulb foliage and weeds prior to us preparing these for planting in the near future. She also did some serious watering which became a concern today with the hot afternoon. To the right are the airy flower plumes of goatsbeard (Aruncus dioicus) in the sunken garden. They typically look like a white astilbe on sterioids! To the left are the Mediterranean bells (Nectaroscordum siculum) which are close onion (Allium) relatives. These are planted in fall as bulbs and can be touchy with our colder winters. However, it sure is beautiful, particularly with the blue obelisk in the background (reception garden).

Marv and Terry were extremely helpful for Dale this morning and then moved on to other projects like hauling soil, watering trees, rototilling beds, running the blower (Terry), etc. The guys did a nice job and have mastered the art of multi-tasking. Marianne was in briefly although I never saw her. She freshened up her cutting display and set up for our Compost Sale tomorrow (8 am until 12 noon). To the right is one of our beautiful Siberian irises (Iris siberica) in full bloom. I'm not entirely sure of the variety but would guess 'Caesar's Brother' which is quite common and very dark blue like this one. Directly below are the three suspended, culvert pipe planters with plantings installed by Janice yesterday. It will be interesting to watch these fill out over the next couple of months. That silver coloration is quite blinding from certain angles and should catch the eye of every visitor. At the bottom are the neat blooms of the beautybush (Kolkwitzia amabilis) which is in full bloom right now. These large shrubs have an informal, arching shape and are quite impressive in bloom. However, they are equally unimpressive (in my mind) when out of bloom but are tough as nails. Regardless, the close-up photo of the flowers really shows some neat detail.

Planting Commences In Earnest

Today was another perfect day for weather with ample sunshine and temperatures around 75 degrees F. We had great volunteer involvement all day and we accomplished many tasks around the gardens. The top photo shows my first double racked trailer load of plants that went out in front of the Parker Education Center this morning. This is the start of our grand silver/white/light blue theme! We had a great turnout of Grumpettes (Suzy, Marilyn, Miriam, Donna, Karen, Bev, Mary and Glenna) this Thursday and I figured that there is no time like the present to get some plants in the ground. That's not to say that we don't have plenty of weeding to do but I'm also looking at a yard full of plants that need to be planted in the coming weeks. Directly above are Suzy (with shovel) and Janice in the entrance garden this morning. Janice is planting our pedestal/urn combinations which will have a centerpiece of blue lyme grass (Elymus arenarius 'Blue Dune') and trailing aluminum plant (Dichondra argentea 'Silver Falls') that will shortly be cascading over the sides. There are six of these in front and they should look pretty cool. The ladies planted over 2,000 annuals this morning and Janice and I took time to really water the new plantings. To the above right is Mary R. tucking in some plants and Marilyn can be seen to the left doing the same thing. To the right are Donna (foreground) and Glenna moving along that front of that garden. We planted about 80% of that space and have yet to add that "touch of blue" to complete the composition (next week). We also had a decent showing of Grumpies with Ron W., Ron Y. and Ron B. setting up our terrace garden umbrellas and moving on to path clean-up and plant unloading. Ron B. did some more air edging along the back of the woodland walk. Del was also in for some clean-up and Dick H. worked on digging plants out of the second parking lot island that we still have to clear for new plantings. Dave T., Jim, Bob A. and Vern were all in to work on some carpentry projects which included the preparation and painting of the sign posts for our oak leaf garden art project. Dr. Gredler was involved with mowing and Maury ran some timely errands for us. Hal and Doris were in to tidy their area as were Mary H. and her daughter. Mary and Roy weeded their section of the shade garden and also installed some plantings. Kathy (new volunteer) came in to help this afternoon in the yard with watering and plant organization. We also saw many members of the Janesville Area Herb Society, Mary W., Stan, Lori, Julie G., Kris and many others. I'm sure I'm forgetting some volunteers but certainly appreciate everyone's efforts today. Directly below is a wildlife sighting not far from the home of one of our grounds horticulturists. Further below is another unknown, double columbine (Aquilegia sp.) looking very good despite popping up in an area where it was never planted. These little surprises are usually welcome.

The grounds staff hit the ground running this morning. Larry and Big John each went to pick up plants today. Larry spent time getting our back-up fountain up and running down in the sunken garden and helped with some other projects. John and Pat spent some boating time together (see bottom photo) to paint the "hard to reach" areas of both the arched bridge and observation platform. This is a tricky task and despite offering John $20 if Pat came back wet...no such luck. The guys have done a bang up job and we hope to recruit more painting help to finish the gazebo which is the last of the four large re-painting projects. John also painted later and Pat started the day with some composting. Janice hauled additional plants up front for our project, helped plant and organized the ladies for their "post planting" tasks in the formal gardens. Janice also watered and planted the three horizontal, vertical tubes (I'll get a photo tomorrow). Jenny was our labeling saviour again and matched labels to the incoming plants and another larger category of annuals that we'll be pulling from over the coming weeks for our various schemes. This is when the color-coded identification labels (created in winter) come in handy. For instance, we'll pull and place all flats with a yellow label (All American Selections) tomorrow in preparation for the first of our five sequential Volunteer Planting Work Days (8 am until 12 noon) this Saturday. To the upper right is the always interesting bloom structure of the native Jack-in-the-pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum) in the woodland walk garden. Also called bog onion, brown dragon, Indian turnip, etc., this woodland perennial has a long history of uses by Native Americans and is worthy of more research. To the left is the interesting crossing or zig-zag appearance of the "criss cross" lady fern (Athyrium filix-femina 'Victoriae') in our fern & moss garden. This one always gets comments from visitors and is quite textural in appearance. To the right, also in that same garden, is our small variegated hedge maple (Acer campestre 'Carnival') which will frequently show almost entirely white leaves. This is a very slow grower and marginally hardy for us. However, our specimen (3' tall or so?) has done well for five years and is a real beacon of color in that shady garden. Directly below is a pink bloom cluster of the Chinese neillia (Neillia sinensis). This rare shrub is not overwhelming in any feature to be honest with the exception of being darn tough in the space where we located three of these (near the east gate). They get no supplemental irrigation, are in part shade and the soil is marginal. After the blooms are done, the arching form and clean foliage looks nice and eventually turns yellow in fall. We've never observed any insect or disease problems on these specimens either. At the bottom are Big John and Pat out in the boat. John has been painting on that bridge for the past week or two and it looks great! The new paint has really "brightened" it up.

Prepatory Progress

Today involved lots of preparations for our looming planting projects. We continue to have more plants arrive in the yard daily. Today Big John picked up a load from Ahren's Acres Greenhouse (Brodhead, WI). We have three trips tomorrow for plants... While I usually try not to post pictures of plants that I can't identify to the variety level, I had to include the two "unknowns" above for their beauty. Feel free to print these out on a color printer and match them to a catalog with pictures to find a variety that looks similar. Both of these plants are in the English cottage garden. At the top is a peony (Paeonia) just getting ready to open and directly above is an Oriental poppy (Papaver orientale). The English cottage garden is looking quite colorful and Lynn was in both yesterday and today planting all sorts of good stuff throughout that space. This garden is really the first garden (with the exception of the entrance garden) that visitors experience as they enter the gardens proper. To the right is the extremely dark and glossy foliage of the contorted purple European beech (Fagus sylvatica 'Tortuosa Purpurea') in front of the Parker Education Center. This plant is very happy and has done well over the past 10 years. To the left is the "often featured" hybrid false indigo (Baptisia x bicolor) called 'Starlite Prairieblues' (from the Chicago Botanic Garden). This is our best (and oldest) specimen positioned near the North point garden.

We had a great volunteer turnout this morning. Kay was in to tidy up in both the sunken garden and Nancy Yahr Memorial Children's Garden ("Smelly Garden"). She did a nice job and will continue to deal with lots of weeds in that children's garden. Myrt, Gena, Mary and Nancy came in and did a nice job cleaning up the reception garden and preparing it for planting. Jumbo Jim arrived with four RECAPPERS and the guys did a nice job tidying up the alpine garden and Japanese garden. We also saw Dick H., Marilyn H., Alice, Sue P., Rose, Urban, Maury (ran errands for us), Mary W., Elsa and many others. Dr. Gredler mowed and aerated some lawns. We see lots of volunteers coming and going around here this time of year. To the right is the dark maroon, spring foliage of the purple-leaved catalpa (Catalpa x erubescens 'Purpurea') near the shade garden. This dark maroon will fade to a maroonish green in summer but looks awesome right now as the leaves are quite large and "tropical-looking." Directly below are some ornamental onions (Allium 'Purple Sensation') near the alpine garden that caught some nice morning light for this photo. Further down are the six silver planters that Marv and Terry put out in the entrance garden today. We'll plant them very soon and they'll definitely be a conversation piece. We call them "flying saucers on a post"! The grounds staff also had a busy day today. The weather was perfect with sunshine and 70 degrees F. We had a brief, but heavy, spurt of rain last night which was enough to wet the beds around the gardens. After his plant run this morning, Big John continued his epic repainting of the arched bridge which has a lot of surface area! From across the water, it's looking great and has a fresh "brightness" to it (except the spots that John missed....). Pat worked on mulching the color rooms, composting the larch wall border and later painted in the English cottage garden. Marv and Terry hung all 23 of our hanging baskets (watered them as well), installed the "flying saucers on a stick", composted, rototilled and worked on some other odds and ends. Jenny was again a huge help out in the yard and organized and matched labels to the plants that we'll install this Saturday as part of our Saturday Volunteer Work Day (8 am - noon). Jenny was able to escape the yard to continue her clean-up efforts in the Hosta Hollow garden. Marianne planted containers, cleared bulb foliage from the terrace and demonstration garden, weeded out front and spent a good chunk of time on watering our extensive collection of plants in the holding yard. To the above right is one of the many beautiful oak leaf garden art projects out in the gardens. This one is in the children's garden. We'll have signs installed for all forty of these shortly and a map of all the art pieces and their locations will be developed as well. To the left are the beautiful blooms of the variegated sweet iris (Iris pallida 'Albo-Variegata'). Note the variegated foliage in the background. There is also a variety (same flowers) with golden variegated foliage called 'Aurea-Variegata'. To the right is the blooming start of the "hard to rival" perennial lupine (Lupinus polyphyllus). This variety is 'The Chatelaine' and looks breathtaking (and appropriate) in the English cottage garden.

Tonight I'm presenting the topic of Vertical Gardening as part of our monthly lecture series (6:30 pm - 8 pm at the Parker Education Center). I didn't realize how popular this topic was until I presented it at the WPT Garden Expo this past February. Both of my presentations for this topic were standing room only (300+ in the room) and I think it was well received (nobody threw anything at me). I hope for a good crowd tonight. Directly below are six of our eight colorful Adirondack chairs overlooking the pond from the North point garden. At the bottom is an unknown peony (Paeonia) variety at my house. I believe this was from Song Sparrow Nursery a couple years ago (if you care to match it). I like that color pattern!

Plenty of Color

It was another hot day (84 degrees F) with plenty of sunshine. I was able to get out in the gardens briefly and captured the pictures you see in this blog. Unfortunately, I don't know what variety the double peony (Paeonia) above is or the nice coral ones further down. These peonies (donated years ago) are in a bed along Palmer Drive and are really quite impressive (even at 30 mph). We had a busy day around the gardens as well as over in our yard at the Horticulture Center. This transitional time is challenging as we end the plant sale and bring in more loads of our own plants. The plants are the matched with labels and staged to go out to their final destinations. We average two or three plant runs daily now for the next three weeks. Big John and I did our first run to Jenka Blossoms (Lima Center, WI) this morning for many of our tropicals (which looked awesome). Larry and Bill O. went back to get the last of our order this afternoon. We continue to pack our plants in the yard and keeping up with the watering is certainly a priority. To the left is the enormous bloom (just opening) of the umbrella magnolia (Magnolia tripetala) which is also know for large, tropical leaves. This specimen, in our shade garden, is eye-catching in bloom and as a bold, textural element. To the right is the start of the wispy white blooms of a hybrid goatsbeard (Aruncus hybrida 'Misty Lace') in the woodland walk garden. I like this variety for the white flower sprays that really "shine" in the partly shaded garden (needs moisture!). To the left is the showy foliage of the golden English oak (Quercus robur 'Concordia') in the Scottish garden. This vivid gold does fade to a chartreuse in summer but is still quite nice. This variety doesn't look nitrogen deficient or sickly like some other "golden" trees and shrubs do later in our hot summers.

Larry helped take down some plant sale elements as did Pat and Janice. Larry also did some mowing, watering, ran irrigation and worked on some other projects. Janice planted more of her "Grains of the World" collection and really helped consolidate the yard and made more room for our incoming plants. Jenny spent the day in the yard matching our plant labels to the newly arrived plants. This is perfect timing and Jenny is awesome at doing this (she makes the signs too). We can then take the signs out with the plants and install them at the time of planting instead of being retroactive and trying to remember where everything is located. This may seem common sense but isn't always as easy to do as it might seem... Pat mowed, watered, yanked stakes and painted today while John moved on to more painting on the arched bridge (looking good) after our morning plant run. To the right is the fragrant, perennial valerian (Valeriana officinalis) in the Scottish garden. The flower clusters are slightly pink as they open to a pure white. This plant smells awesome (sweet like vanilla) and has a long history of herbal uses. However, it drops lots of seed and will spread rapidly in open, unmulched soils. Be wary of this spreading as we constantly have to "cull the herd" and try to maintain manageable groupings. To the left is another unknown peony (Paeonia) but the one that really catches my eye. These flowers are almost 12" in diameter.

Our volunteer involvement today was appreciated. Dr. Gredler was out mowing much of the day and Bill came in to work with Larry and accomplish some tidying out in the gardens. Marianne came in to finalize the clearance sale details and finances. Mary H. and her daughter were in to plant annuals in their assigned garden plot. Mary W. came in later to help water and we also saw Elsa, Gary, Gordy, Deb, Kris, Jumbo Jim and many others. Lynn was in to plant the English cottage garden with a wide range of perennials, annuals and vegetables. Kay did a nice job weeding in the shade garden and along the larch wall bed (which will be orange-themed this year...offensively orange!). I appreciate all our volunteer involvement but hope we can recruit more weeding and planting help over the coming weeks. To the right is the 'Purple Smoke' hybrid false indigo (Baptisia hybrida) which really has a nice shade of flower as seen in the image. I've mentioned in a previous blog but will state again that the false indigos this year are really quite impressive. Directly below is the Star of Persia ornamental onion (Allium christophii) just starting to open. Those metallic florets will continue to open and form a 9"-12" diameter sphere (umbel) that is very impressive (18"total height for the plant). I'll post a photo of the flower at peak in a week or so. Look closely at the bottom photo and see all the white fuzzy groupings.....these are cottonwood (Populus deltoides) seeds still poised to come floating down over the gardens. UGH!

The Influx Of Annuals

Today we made three trips to area nurseries (two destinations) to pick up our summer annuals. It was nice to see the yard fill with all our our goodies for the gardens but we had to negotiate the unloading in the yard as it was our Spring Plant Sale Clearance today. Not surprisingly, we had to get customers away from RBG stuff all day. With everything 15% off today, I was surprised we didn't have more traffic at the sale but it was certainly worth having. Janice was in briefly to help get it going and Marianne stuck around to help facilitate the sale all day (with the exception of her field trip out in the gardens to refresh the cutting display). The top picture is a hybrid magnolia (Magnolia sieboldii x Magnolia tripetala) which we purchased years ago. What a neat flower and while I thought this one would be marginally hardy, it's toughed it out now for about seven years in the garden (just overlooking the zig-zag bridge). To the right is a showy bloom cluster of the hybrid locust (Robinia x slavinii 'Hillieri') in the hosta hollow garden. To the left are some "stacked" pvc planters (spray painted silver) that Marv and Terry installed today (Larry set up the supports). The guys filled these with soil and the open portions will be planted shortly. This shows a nice vertical way to grow plants and I think our visitors will be quite curious as to what the heck it is as they see it from a distance. These were donated by the owners of http://www.theurbangrow.com/. We have our vegetables and ornamental edibles pulled aside to plant this space once the ornamental onions (Allium sp.) go dormant. However, we may plant these pvc planters and other containers soon to give them a good start.

We had a good Grumpy morning. Our only Grumpette was Donna who did a great job weeding berms in the area that will soon become our All American Selections (AAS) Garden. Rollie (seen to the right) worked with Ron W. and Ron Y. (directly above) in the rose garden. The guys mulched all four of the rose beds with cocoa bean hulls. They did a nice job and the scent of chocolate was quite noticeable in that area and in the vicinity of these Grumpies. Urban and Bill S. cut/collected tulip foliage/stems in the children's garden and watered some new trees. Bob C. and Ron B. did a nice job tidying up the "air edging" in two areas. Dick P, Dick H. and Dick C. worked on getting the 'Dancing Waters' fountain up and running. When they brought it in last fall, we thought there might be some issues but they had it hauled out and spouting early this morning with little difficulty. Del, Dick K., Gary and Dick C. worked on spreading woodchip mulch over one of the main parking lot islands. Dave, Jim, Vern and Bob worked on various carpentry projects. We also saw Deb and Bev at the Horticulture Center as they are trying to get our oak leaf project organized and properly displayed out in the gardens. Directly below is one of our new families at the gardens. All of that white fluff (seeds) in the water is from the female cottonwoods (Populus deltoides). The second photo down shows Janice (standing) and Rose (sitting) potting our vertical wall planter yesterday during a slow period of the plant sale. The grounds staff did a great job today and as valuable as they are, I wish we had more help out in the gardens (just about every day). Larry went on two plant runs today, the first of which, he took Pat along with him. Pat later shifted to painting. Larry also pumped down the sunken garden pool as we need to take a look at the pump (not running). Larry and I also alternated running irrigation here and there as it's starting to look a litte dry. Again, Janice was in briefly to help out at the sale and Marianne kept an eye on things all day. Marv and Terry went over to Palmer Park and prepped the sign area for their Visitors Center which we typically plant for them in return for some advertising support. The guys did a nice job and came back for some other projects including edging along our outer fence line, some repairs and a much-needed gas run. Big John started the day with mulching but shifted to more painting duties on the arched bridge. To the right are the double blooms of the horse chestnut (Aesculus hippocastanum 'Baumannii'). This specimen is on the east end of the shade garden and seems to look better each year. To the left are the vivid blue flowers of the 'Caspian Blue' false indigo (Baptisia australis) near the children's garden. The false indigos around the gardens universally look great this year and are getting to be significant plants.

A special thanks to all our plant sale volunteers that helped out in the sale with customer service, check outs and watering. Mary W., Virginia, Sylvia, Elaine, Pat and many others were very helpful. I was able to spray some more Round-up in tough spots and had a meeting this afternoon. We'll be back at our plant runs tomorrow and despite our nice truck & trailer arrangements, we can only bring so many plants back on each trip. To the right are the blooms of ornamental kale (Brassica oleracea) which typically wont overwinter (= rarely seeing the blooms) but had no trouble with our mild winter this year. I'm not sure which variety this is (maybe 'Redbor'?) and the picture was taken in town (near Basics Cooperative) and not at the gardens. I thought the lemon yellow blooms looke great above the dark foliage. Directly below is the globeflower (Trollius europaeus) in full bloom in the Scottish Garden as are the 'Mt. Everest' ornamental onions (Allium sp.) seen at the bottom blooming in front of the Parker Education Center'.

Happy Mother's Day!

Photos courtesy of Jim T. Thanks! Happy Mother's Day to ALL moms (particularly Janice and Marianne who were at the plant sale all day...ugh.)!