A Reluctant Spring

I have to give Janice credit for the blog title as she just coined that phrase as we talked about all the looming showers and cool temperatures. The spring color is exceptional but we'd like a little more heat to get things moving along. Now if we could only slow down the weeds... Nice shot of more peonies (intersectional hybrids) above that are located near our sunken garden. The weather was overcast today with some slight showers here and there. We had a very productive day out there and are looking forward to another Saturday planting day tomorrow. I also will be giving a tour for the Wisconsin Woody Plant Society in the afternoon and look forward to having their membership enjoy the gardens. To the left are the crisp yellow blooms of globe flower (Trollius europaeus 'Superbus') that always catches my attention this time of year. You need damp, well-drained soils for this one and the example here (in our Scottish garden) is going on 10 years old!

Kay did a great job continuing her weeding in the reception garden. There are some odd carpet weeds in there and I appreciate her dedication as most gardeners would have gone insane dealing with the nightmare she tackled. Dr. Gredler did his mowing and other tasks while Bill was a huge help with clean-up and tidying around the gardens. Little Jerry did some mowing and working on limbing up some trees in the arboretum. Janice worked on weeding, pushmowing and many other tasks. Marianne did her usual Friday duties that including tidying the entrance garden, freshening up the cutting display and helping prepare for the work day and compost sale. Marv and Terry helped haul plants, mowed and rototilled an enormous area in preparation for next Saturday's(June 6th) planting work day. To the right is a closeup of the blooms of red buckeye (Aesculus pavia) that is a real eyecatcher in our woodland walk garden. See
www.mobot.org/gardeninghelp/plantfinder/Plant.asp?code=J210 for more information on this small tree. I love the emerging blooms of Sargent viburnum (Viburnum sargentii 'Onondaga') as they open from the outer edges first, making the blooms look bicolor with the darker buds in the center. Viburnums are such a great group of garden worthy woody plants and deserve more attention and utilization.