AAS Collection Planted (..and then some!)!!!

With today being our third of six consecutive scheduled volunteer work days (for planting), I was concerned when there was a morning drizzle.  With a threat of sporadic rain over the coming three days, I thought the morning would be clear but arriving to the gardens in the rain made me worry about our volunteer work day attendance.  Above is Magda who was our "first to arrive" with a daunting task of putting in over 3,000 plants representing over 150 All America Selections (AAS) winners in our AAS Display Garden.  We've been a Display Garden for AAS for many years and have won two national awards from them (2004 Exemplary Education Award and last year, the 2012 Landscape Design Competition - 1st Place for our category).  Jenny and I had these plants spaced out on Thursday and I was worried we wouldn't have enough help today.  Well, we sure ended up with a great team (see below) that included Magda, Terri, Mary W., Margerite, Ava, Marv B., Dennis, Gena, Savannah, Cheryl, Mason, Kay, Keith, Jodi, Ron W., Bev W., Renee, Gary, Tina, Leslie B., Cathy H., Dr. Yahr, Linda S., Bruce S., Del and Maggie.  What a great team!  They not only finished the AAS Display Garden but moved to three entrance garden beds after break.  I think we put in close to 7,000 annuals today which is awesome. Big John, Janice and Larry were a big help as grounds staff hauling plants, containers, hoses, tools, etc. to and fro all morning.  Del was a big help too with processing garbage and recycling.  Bill O. did a nice job tidying up the wedding site (sunken garden) and elsewhere (see him in the bottom photo).  Pat and Pete worked the last Saturday of the Spring Compost Sale and the Janesville Area Herb Society had a nice work day.   We also saw Nancy M., Marilyn B., Ellie K. and many others.  Yay team RBG!  Below are more photos of our productive morning that was cool but dry until at least mid-day.  The next three work days will be just as intense with many large areas still left to plant.

Gena, Savannah and Dennis

Big John with PVC pipe planters

Cathy H.

Cheryl and Mason

Great Teamwork

Terri and Ava

Ron W.

Bill O.

Planting Preparations

Today was a day of planting, pre-planting preparations and post planting care.  The weather was beautiful with blue skies and a cool day in the 60 degrees F.  We had some cold temperatures last night but no observable frost.  However, some of our tender plants in the yard looked a little bedraggled but should be fine.  Directly above are the formal annual sections filled with ornamental onions (Allium) and punctuated with these obelisks.  I was amazed how many visitors were out in the gardens today.  I spoke with many visitors and it was nice to see the place "hopping."  This should be a busy weekend and the gardens are still looking quite colorful.  Directly below is one of the fuchsias (Fuchsia sp.) in our hanging baskets.  This shot was taken from underneath the hanging basket.  Those flowers are certainly showy in both color and form.  The next photo down shows some perennial flax (Linum sp.) looking nice in the herb garden.  The Janesville Area Herb Society has maintained our three herb garden sections (originally four) for many years and are a great group that is very supportive of the gardens too.

We had a nice turnout of volunteers today including a group of nine students and their teacher from Edison Elementary School here in Janesville.  The kids can be seen below planting the beds on the south edge of the terrace garden.  The kids were all hard workers and did a great job and much thanks to Janice for help facilitating the group.  The next photo down shows Mary and Roy in their assigned garden section of the shade garden.  I placed about 300 plants out there for them to install and they made quick work of that project and did some significant weeding too!  Pat C. (third photo down) was mobile out in the gardens and continued trying to match our new labels to replace the older style.  She also continues to catalog labels that come back (dead plant, etc.) so we can use them again in a timely fashion.  Jumbo Jim had four RECAPPERS helping in the Parker Education Center with clean-up duties and he also brought the guys out to help in the gardens. Dr. Gredler was out mowing and we also saw Dr. Yahr, Del, Bill O., Barry, Mary W., Becky and many others.  Marv B. was also in (fourth photo down) and spent some major time turning our massive compost pile.  He also helped Terry with some gardening projects.

We had a smaller grounds staff today and everyone kept busy.  Pat push mowed, mulched in the arboretum and worked on some other projects.  Cindy tidied up in the sunken garden, gazebo garden and spent much of the afternoon watering our yard.  Terry also push mowed but spent time preparing a flower bed (with Marv), accomplished shearing/shaping duties and watered containers (and a tree).  He also set up a sprinkler to water in the new plants installed by Mary and Roy.  We try to keep up with watering although it looks like there is a chance for more rain this weekend.  Janice did the cutting display, had a meeting and spent the afternoon with our new volunteers from Edison.  I spent time hauling out plants and preparing areas for planting tomorrow.  For the planting work day, depending on the turnout, I have one major area ready to go and three others prepared as "back up" areas to plant.  I hope we have a nice turnout.  Directly below are more images of interesting plants out in the gardens although the last photo was taken at my home.

yellow fumitory (Corydalis lutea)

chocolate vine (Akebia quinata)

variegated hedge maple (Acer campestre 'Carnival') in the Fern & Moss Garden

the start of seed heads from pasque flower (Pulsatilla vulgaris)

fragrant flower clusters on the 'Twisty Baby' black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia) at my house

A Return To Early April

Today felt like a return to early April with chilling winds and drizzle all morning.  It was fairly brutal although the rain never became heavy enough to force us inside.  Overall, it was a productive day that turned sunny after lunch although the high temperature was only around 60 degrees F.  Above is the variegated Japanese kerria (Kerria japonica 'Picta') with single golden flowers above nice, white-edged foliage.  This is a durable shrub for sure.  Directly below are the white flower clusters of the native nannyberry or blackhaw viburnum (Viburnum lentago) which also has colorful fruits and a showy fall color.  We have a couple specimens out in the gardens and they will become small trees in time.   The next photo down shows the fresh spring foliage of the tricolor European beech (Fagus sylvatica 'Roseo-Marginata') which catches the eye from a great distance.  We positioned ours to receive afternoon shade which helps protect (and extend) the light pink edges of the leaves throughout the summer.  The next photo down shows the nice maroon foliage of the 'Rosita' European filbert (Corylus avellana).  The maroon will fade a bit with the heat of summer but the spring color is quite rich.  Unfortunately, Japanese beetles enjoy the leaves as well and they wont look this good late in the summer. Ugh.

The weather did understandably affect our volunteer attendance but we still had some tough old salts like Gene and Bob (below) that hauled mulch out around the gardens.  Pat M. was also in for mulching.  Dr. Gredler and Bill O. did much of the riding mowing for the weekend and Dick H. (second photo down) helped with many projects including hauling debris to the dump.  Vern and Jim D. worked on some carpentry projects and Ron W. was in to help secure benches among other projects.  Sue C. was our sole "Grumpette" and she helped Janice pot up some impatiens (third photo down) for our trial garden and later moved to some planting out in the gardens.  Bob T. worked on more air edging.  Dick P. installed more bricks and Gary worked on some labeling projects.  We also saw Maury (ran errands), Chuck S., Bill F., Mary F.P., Rose N. and many others.  Dale S. ("Mr. Moss") was in today as well and installed more moss and tidied up the Fern & Moss garden.  We appreciate his expertise and commitment to the gardens.  

The grounds staff didn't have to do much watering although we had hoses out and poised in case of need.  We did water some new plantings however. Janice (above with Sue) worked with "Mr. Moss", tidied in the gardens, watered, etc.  She had a full day.  Big John helped get hoses set up, installed more obelisks, went on a plant run, edged and worked on myriad other projects.  Larry finished repairing the damaged water line, push mowed, ran irrigation and worked on other projects as well.  Cheryl was in for a half day and did a nice job weeding in two areas near the Parker Education Center.  Jenny did a dynamite job organizing all of our All-America Selections (AAS) varieties for our AAS Display Garden (seen below).  This collection will be heavily promoted and should be a nice historical representation of 150+ varieties of AAS winners.  This collection is also entered in a design competition hosted by AAS and we're interested in keeping our 1st place title from the same competition last year.  Jenny and I placed these flats in a chronological order based on their year of introduction.  This space will be quite colorful and Jenny's organizational skills are second to none.  We will plant these on Saturday as part of our volunteer work day (8 am until 12 noon).  I bounced between various tasks including some desk work as well.  Further down are some other fun sights out in the gardens.  Note the last two photos shared by Marsha Mood.  Both were taken at the gardens.  Thanks Marsha!

hybrid false indigo (Baptisia hybrida 'Carolina Moonlight')

'Silver Falls' Japanese painted fern (Athyrium niponicum)

pansy containers in the English cottage garden

Lunch is served!  Courtesy of Marsha Mood

Cute!  Courtesy of Marsha Mood

A Precipitation "Teaser"

It's been cloudy most of the day and a bit cooler and in the low 70 degrees F.  There was a promise of sporadic rain throughout the day although we've only had some very "light stuff" on and off which hardly did any good.  Perhaps we'll get an overnight "soaker" that will have some benefit.  I'm glad John ran irrigation today which took care of some of the areas that were starting to get dry or had new plantings.  Directly above is an unknown bearded iris (Iris germanica) which is a remnant of the big iris collection from many years ago (600+ varieties) that were featured as part of the American Iris Society National Convention (held in Madison, WI).  I sure do enjoy irises when they are in bloom (who doesn't!).  Directly below are a few of our tens of thousands of ornamental onions (Allium 'Purple Sensation') blooming throughout the gardens.  These bulbs are blending nicely with a small, 'Jade Butterflies' ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba) overlooking the zig-zag bridge which is still under repair by our Grumpies although they should be done by tomorrow.

I was deciding on indoor projects for the rainy periods today but as it never became more than a light drizzle, the gang was able to work outside all day.  Above is Terry who insisted on being photographed with flowers in the shot.  He's definitely high maintenance but a great worker.  Terry edged the sunken garden, mowed, went on a plant run with Pat and continued edging progress in the future All-America Selections (AAS) display garden.  Big John (directly below) did a nice job rototilling, running irrigation, helping Terry with edging and many other tasks.  Pat did some nice edging work in front of the Parker Education Center and moved on to mulching in the arboretum.  He and Terry picked up some of our elephant ears (Colocasia) from winter storage which we'll re-plant back out in the gardens shortly.  Cindy did a nice job in front of the building clearing tulips (Tulipa) and weeds.  She helped with some other duties too and put together a nice cutting display yesterday.  Cheryl spent some serious time weeding down in the sunken garden and later came up to help Jenny with some watering in the yard.  She is a very thorough weeder!  Jenny never left the Horticulture Center yard as she spent major time organizing plants and labels (mostly for the soon-to-be-installed AAS display) and later watered.  I worked on various projects including placing plants for planting today and tomorrow.  I'll try to keep a step ahead of the volunteers over the coming weeks!

There is color around every bend in the gardens.  In the sunken garden, the meadow rue (Thalictrum aquilegifolium 'Alba') seen above was at peak bloom and looking nice.  This is a transitional time from peak spring color in to the combination of later spring interest and the shift to summer color with all of our annuals.  Some areas will be addressed later as we wait for bulb foliage to die back and go dormant.  The weeds are coming up quickly too but this time of year is no surprise in terms of juggling our duties; we just hope to have enough hands to keep up!  Directly below is a wild hyacinth or quamash (Camassia cusickii) which is a nice shade of the palest blue (almost white).  This spring blooming bulb (planted in fall) loves wet soils and we have many species and varieties of camassia out in the gardens.  The next photo down shows the classic peony (Paeonia) and ornamental onion (Allium 'Purple Sensation') mix featured in a bed along Palmer Drive.  The early peonies are peaking but many more are still getting ready to bloom in to early June.

Despite the threat of a rainy day, we had many stalwart volunteers help out today.  Above are Mary H. (right) and her daughter Kathy out taking care of their assigned garden.  Our condolences go out to both of  them as Mary's husband Dave just passed away and had long been involved with the gardens as a volunteer.  Kathy and Mary are a great team and will continue to keep up the high quality of care in their family garden space.  Directly below is Stan who spent significant time "candling" or shaping our pines (Pinus) in and around the Japanese garden.  He has a nice eye for detail; here working on layering a Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris).  The next photo down shows Patrea who was a whirlwind in two garden areas where she removed spent bulb foliage and weeded as she went along.  She did a great job.  Dr. Yahr helped her a bit this morning as well.  The third photo down shows (from left to right), Mary, Gena and Myrt planting near the gazebo garden.  They were joined by Nancy and the four ladies did a great job planting over 500 annuals in this garden bed.  They are a productive and efficient crew to say the least.  Dr. Gredler was out mowing and we also saw Mary W., Elsa, Ron W. and many others.  The fourth photo down shows Shirley S., an education volunteer, helping facilitate youth programming at the gardens today.  We saw many children and our talented education volunteers.  Further down are some more colorful images from today.

hanging basket on the pergola (1 of 8)

English bluebells (Hyacinthoides non-scripta)

doublefile or Japanese snowball viburnum (Viburnum plicatum 'Popcorn')

late tulips  (Tulipa) - unknown variety