Nice shot of 'Sophistica Lime Bicolor' petunia above in our annual berms. This is a new variety from Ball Seed. What you don't see is the carpet of purslane carpeting this bed and another 2 acres of planted beds around the gardens. I'll need to really time the application of pre-emergents next ye
ar to keep the purslane out of the beds. Though edible and nutritious, this weed (herb) is a notorious self-seeder and hard to eradicate. We'll be trying to cull it out of all the gaps in our annual beds before the flowers grow together. Ugh! Nice shot to the left of the maidenhair fern (Adiantum pedatum), one of the hardiest and most delicate looking of our native ferns. I took this shot at Maquoketa Caves State Park in Iowa. The caves were neat but I was impressed by the diversity of native flora in the woodlands and relative absence of invasives like European buckthorn, honeysuckle and garlic mustard. I imagine it's a matter of time but I really enjoyed their trails and despite copious amounts of rain, we had a great time.Sorry I missed the blog yesterday. It was extremely busy playing "catch up" and we're still working on finishing our "spring" planting and are shifting to some major weeding. Marv, Terry, Marianne, Jerry, Larry and I all worked on various projects and we ran for the last of our plant orders until September. We are accumulating some nice donations from area nurseries that help fill in our gaps and are great "back ups" for those spaces that develop for various reasons. Nice shot of butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa) starting to bloom below. What a brilliant orange color on this native, perennial milkweed.
Today was hot and fairly miserable. Marianne came down early (as a volunteer) to finish weeding the front of the building (bless her heart) and we had Heidi, Luis, Magda, Sara, Mary W., Roy and Mary J. come in to help plant and weed in the heat. Everyone was soaked thru to say the least. Little Jerry mowed and worked on pruning and collecting debris. Larry weedwhipped, hauled debris and did a lot of watering. Jumbo Jim helped the 4H Cloverbud camp kids plant annuals and Dr. Yahr and Dr. Gredler were here as well. Bill came in to prune boxwood "meatballs" this afternoon and I was able to unload 9 gallons of Round-up in our worst weed-stricken areas. More of the same heat tomorrow but we'll manage. We get lots of questions this time of year about the big trees with large, heart-shaped leaves that have large white clusters of fragrant blooms. The picture below is of the Northern catalpa (Catalpa speciosa) which has beautiful, orchid-like white blooms with maroon speckles in the throat and some yellow highlights. The flowers are fluttering to the ground now but will be later replaced with long pods. Catalpa is a neat tree and we have many of the Southern catalpa (Catalpa bignoniodes) varieties including golden, variegated and speckled. I love the tropical look of a catalpa and the wood has many historical uses.
Today was hot and fairly miserable. Marianne came down early (as a volunteer) to finish weeding the front of the building (bless her heart) and we had Heidi, Luis, Magda, Sara, Mary W., Roy and Mary J. come in to help plant and weed in the heat. Everyone was soaked thru to say the least. Little Jerry mowed and worked on pruning and collecting debris. Larry weedwhipped, hauled debris and did a lot of watering. Jumbo Jim helped the 4H Cloverbud camp kids plant annuals and Dr. Yahr and Dr. Gredler were here as well. Bill came in to prune boxwood "meatballs" this afternoon and I was able to unload 9 gallons of Round-up in our worst weed-stricken areas. More of the same heat tomorrow but we'll manage. We get lots of questions this time of year about the big trees with large, heart-shaped leaves that have large white clusters of fragrant blooms. The picture below is of the Northern catalpa (Catalpa speciosa) which has beautiful, orchid-like white blooms with maroon speckles in the throat and some yellow highlights. The flowers are fluttering to the ground now but will be later replaced with long pods. Catalpa is a neat tree and we have many of the Southern catalpa (Catalpa bignoniodes) varieties including golden, variegated and speckled. I love the tropical look of a catalpa and the wood has many historical uses.
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