Amazing Trip

I spent two wonderful days in the Phildelphia area and was honored to receive the Chanticleer Scholarship in Professional Development. This award, from Chanticleer Garden (www.chanticleergarden.org/) will allow me to pursue various professional development opportunities next year and I'm priviledged to have received this scholarship. The picture above is from Chanticleer and while this was my second visit to this garden, not only is the garden Spectacular (yes, a capital S), but the staff is so cordial and knowledgeable. I'm playing a bit of catch-up today and will continue with updates tomorrow but wanted to share three pictures from each of my destinations below. In order below (three picture each), enjoy a taste of Chanticleer, The Scott Arboretum (Swarthmore College), Longwood Gardens and The Morris Arboretum.

When It Rains, It Pours!

The shot above was taken by one of our volunteers (Kristine) this past Sunday. We had a combined 4" of rain over Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The plus side of this is that we wont have to do much watering for the week, the drawback is that most of that precipitation came down fast and hard. This resulted in flooding as seen above which came over our main path and flooded some beds. There were also many "washouts" on our gravel paths and branches down because of the typhoon winds. A couple dry days with sun should perk the gardens up which currently look beaten up. See another shot to the left. This water has since drained away but Kristine thought that the last 2" of rain came in a 25 minute period on Sunday. So much for a soaking drizzle! We'll take what we can get though...

The gardens are still looking quite nice and colorful. We're still doing plenty of weeding but are shifting to some deadheading and snipping back on the annual collections to keep them looking good thru the rest of the season. The fence crew Grumpies were here again and had the help of two new volunteers. They continue their march towards completion and the end result will look very professional. Ed, Ron, Ron W., Del and Bill worked on cleaning up washouts and collecting debris from the storms. Urban, Rose and Kathy continued to work on prepping/cleaning benches and repainting the engraved lettering on these special benches (of which there are 54!). The carpenters worked on benches and obelisks and we had the help of Joyce and Shirley for weeding. Marianne has been tidying her various collections and continues to give the irises much needed attention. Marv and Terry worked on path repair, edging and other various duties around the grounds. It's one of the few Mondays that they don't have to set up sprinklers or water containers. Little Jerry has been pruning around the gardens and Larry is getting back in to the flow after his week off. Dr. Gredler continues to me a "mowing fixture" around here and will need to keep up with the flush of rain-induced turf that will flourish shortly. I'll be away from blogging for two days as I have a neat trip out to Philadelphia and will be able to see some top notch botanical gardens including Chanticleer, Longwood and the Scott Arboretum. I'll be taking lots of pictures! Enjoy picture below of the reception garden, wishing well garden, herb garden and formal annual garden respectively.

Much Needed Drizzle

Nice shot above of our "ornamental edibles" collection taken today. This border has some nice looking plants that also have secondary functions in the kitchen. These plants include ornamental basils, hot peppers, nasturtiums, various plants with edible flowers and/or leaves, misc. vegetables, etc. There are over 100 types of plants in this interesting border collection. This display will be utilized as part of the Horticultural Therapy seminar here at Rotary Gardens on August 21. This seminar should be well-received and we're happy to accomodate hands-on activities out in the gardens as part of this experience.

Today was overcast from the start and light drizzle this morning has continued thru the lunch hour. This has the makings of a good soaker. I hope we get 1"+ of precipitation in this fashion. I took many pictures this morning with such good lighting and caught blanket flower (Gaillardia aristata 'Arizona Sun') to the left and one of our koi pond containers to the right. The centerpiece in that container is the variegated giant reed grass (Arundo donax 'Versicolor) with trailers that include wandering Jew (Setcreasea pallida 'Purple Heart') and petunia 'Plush Lilac Pearl'. Speaking of containers, I gave a presentation on container gardening up in Baraboo last night for the Sauk Co. Master Gardeners and some of the local public. What a great, enthusiastic group. Lots of fun and ideas. Below is a shot of our terrace garden with a distant, curved border with the same chartreuse and pink theme that is in front of the building.
We had a productive morning before the drizzle became a minor deluge. Marv set up sprinklers, trimmed shrubs, weeded and fertilized, etc. He sure accomplishes alot of work in a short period of time. Terry also watered but got his push mowing done early, as did Janice. Janice also organized some donated plants and worked on organizing our reference library. Marianne did her normal Friday thing of tidying, weeding, preparing the cutting display, watering, fertilizing and ending with peeling old sign labels as the weather turned sour. Little Jerry and Dr. Gredler worked on mowing while Dr. Yahr worked in our new wishing well garden. Vern was here as was Maury. Kay worked her "weeding kung fu" in a neglected portion of our formal gardens and really did a nice job (as usual). See below for a view of our annual beds just east of the visitors center and the formal annual sections. We're pretty happy with how they look right now.

A Great Evening!

Nice shot above of our chartreuse/pink theme in full force along our entrance gardens slope. This shot was taken last night as I arrived at work for our 20th Anniversary open house sponsored by the Rock Prairie Master Gardeners (RPMG). The entire lot and road was full and the gardens were the busiest I've seen them. It was a great turnout and we were happy that the gardens looked so nice for this community appreciation night. A big thank you to the RPMG and all the staff and volunteers that helped facilitate this event. Below are some additional shots from last night.
I spent an enjoyable day at Boerner Botanical Garden (Hales Corners, WI) yesterday and presented as part of a professional field day there sponsored by UW-Extension. I was able to tour the gardens and always enjoy visiting. They are suffering from some huge budget cuts and I'm very sympathetic to their challenges as they relate to staffing and even purchasing plant material. I've enjoyed this garden for many years and yesterday was no exception. I took over 300 pictures and have included some at the bottom of this posting. My presentations were well received and it's always nice talking to others in the "green industry".

Today was another sunny, hot day but we've kept up with watering with the combination of Little Jerry, Janice and I running irrigation and watering where needed. We had another productive Grumpy day with the carpenters (Dave, Jim, Bob A. and Vern) churning out new obelisks and Ron and Charlie putting together some new hand carts. Ed and Ron put together more tables for our fall plant sale (and both helped with watering as well) while John and Del took down more of our older split rail fence to make room for the new fence when our fence crew gets back in action on Monday. Maury and Gary also kept busy with odds and ends. Little Jerry and Jumbo Jim worked on pruning and tidying up and we saw Mary and Roy out there as well as Dan cleaning up their respective assigned gardeners. Janice floated around with plenty of hand watering duties. Boerner highlights below...

Hot & Sunny

The morning was pleasant enough but it became quite hot by lunch time. I really shouldn't complain as this is one of only a handful of days thus far this summer that have become "uncomfortable". There is still a nice breeze but now with the sun and heat, our watering duties have increased. Little Jerry and I ran irrigation all day to keep things damp. We hate seeing visitors having to avoid sprinklers but the other option is having visitors look at shriveled plants... Nice shot above taken this morning of a view in to our Japanese garden. I love that Tiger Eyes sumac (Rhus typhina 'Bailtiger') on the left that will also get a nice reddish/orange fall color. It does spread and get tall but is a great textural and colorful addition around the gardens. Below is a shot of our rose garden with pergola in the background. This is a very popular wedding site.
Today was fairly light in terms of staff and volunteers (as are most Tuesdays) but we accomplished many tasks, not the least of which was significant watering. Janice watered early, did all the push mowing and worked on some weeding. Little Jerry mowed the arboretum and larch area then worked on some other pruning projects. Jenny came in today and worked over six hours on catching up with labels for various garden areas. She has really perfected her label making and we think alike in terms of layout. She is a huge asset. Rose worked on repainting the bench lettering while Kay and Barb weeded in separate areas and later worked together in the shade garden. Barb really did a nice job refining a bed while Kay went thru our annual beds near the building and caught the third wave of weeds. Mary, Dr. Yahr, Dr. Gredler, Maury and Gary were here to help and the "fence crew" (Dick P., Dick H., John and Rollie) continued their project with very visible progress. A little rain would sure be nice. I'm presenting (container gardening) at a UW-Extension field day at Boerner Botanical Gardens (Hales Corners, WI) all day tomorrow but will return for our public "open house" and tours. Nice shot of the perennial black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia fulgida var. sullivantii 'Goldsturm') below. What a strong performer. Be wary in damper soils as it does form a significant colony but is easy to divide and relocate in my opinion.

That's More Like It...

Today was a bit more like what a WI summer should be: hot, sunny and plenty of wind. Plants like the gloriosa daisy (Rudbeckia hirta 'Cherokee Sunset') here at the gardens have been waiting for some nice summer heat. Apparently we had a lot of visitors this weekend and were happy to hear some of their positive comments. Today was filled with lots of irrigation and hand watering to keep certain gardens, containers, etc. from drying out. We missed some rain this morning with a drizzle ending quickly but I'm still hoping for a nice rain in the next 24 hours (30% chance). Nice shot of another of our annual gloriosa daisies (Rudbeckia hirta 'Irish Spring') starting to peak. This collection has over 50 varieties of this stalwart, summer annual.
We had another solid Grumpy crew this morning with guys working on fence installation, painting, clean-up, air edging and other duties. Our new volunteer Joyce came in to put in 4 solid hours of weeding in our shade garden. She does a nice, thorough job and is definitely a "keeper". Marv and Terry leveled some benches and both had extensive annual beds to fertilize and/or water. Marianne kept busy with weeding, tidying and plenty of watering as well. We kept the irrigation going all day and hope to catch up in those drier areas tomorrow. Little Jerry helped run irrigation zones and worked on pruning a ginkgo and tidying up. With Larry gone all week, we'll have to keep up with his system of irrigation zones which in theory, should minimize any conflicts with our mowing or weeding schedule. This Wednesday is a "free admission day" that corresponds to the first Wednesday of every month. The Rock Prairie Master Gardeners have organized an event for the public to come to the gardens in the evening, have a tour, wander around, enjoy refreshments, etc. We hope this event is well-attended and enjoyed by many. Nice shot of the rudbeckia variety 'Cherry Brandy' below. This collection is quite colorful and gets better every day (see bottom image).

Fantabuluous Friday!

The weather was partly sunny but quite pleasant today. We did have a smidge of rain yesterday and didn't have to water quite as much today. Nice shot above from this morning. The formal gardens look great and are particularly "sharp" with the great pruning from Marv and Terry. The pink hanging baskets are the not-so-subtle repetition of our pink theme from the front of the building (as seen below).
We had a very productive day. Volunteer activities included Bill mowing and tidying up, Kay weeding like a demon in the shade garden, Dan doing the same in the woodland walk and Nancy/Tom weeding and planting in the gazebo garden. It would be tough to list the various tasks accomplished today by Janice, Jerry, Marv, Terry and Marianne but they were numerous and significant. We get so much done when Larry isn't here! :). Fridays are again, the opportunity to primp the gardens before the weekend "onslaught' of wedding attendees, visitors, tours, etc. Leaving shortly so will finish with some more pictures from this morning.