Trudging Progress

The shot above was taken last week and shows a portion of one of our educational programs/tours. There were more kids around the gardens today as well. It's nice to see these young minds experience the gardens and get some fresh air. To me, this is one of our most important target audience. We love gardeners and plantspeople to visit, but we also like to encourage and inspire the "young potentials." We thought we would get rain today but it was sunny and 70 degrees F all day. We had a very productive day and are trudging thru planting, weeding, pruning, watering, fertilizing, mowing, etc. It is truly a juggling act and I think June is our most challenging month. Nice shot to the left of perennial salvia (Salvia x sylvestris 'May Night') in our formal gardens. There is some debate as to the species of this salvia but I am a big fan of both perennial and annual salvias and we plant the blue flowering varieties en masse. My favorite annual salvias are the mealycup sages (Salvia farinacea) and the best varieties include 'Victoria Blue' or 'Evolution'. For a white/blue bicolor effect, go with 'Strata' or 'Fairy Queen' or a pure white is 'Victoria White'. When a perennial salvia starts to finish blooming, we cut it down to 6" to encourage another wave of blooms. Why just enjoy this plant in June when you can extend the color with another flush of mid-summer flower spikes? Be aggressive with this "major deadheading." Nice shot to the right of the beautiful blooms of the variegated sweet iris (Iris pallida 'Albo-Variegata') that also has white streaked foliage. Look for 'Aurea-Variegata' for golden variegation. The visual interest of this iris occurs before and after blooming whereas most irises only have an impact during the 2 week bloom period.

Marianne cleared and prepped some beds in our terrace garden today in preparation for our planting work day on Saturday. She then moved in front of the visitors center and planted more annuals with Shirley and Terry. Marv and Terry planted shrubs, rototilled, prepped beds and continued to work on their edging around the iris beds. Larry hauled our new trees in to place, rototilled, watered and planted some containers. Little Jerry worked in the Japanese garden all day and did a nice job pruning and tidying up. Luke helped him out a bit and both Jumbo Jim and Karen also volunteered in the Japanese garden. Sue planted her area and both Hal and Doris came in to finish theirs. We have a couple groups coming in tomorrow to plant and the progress continues to be impressive. I'm gathering plants in advance of planting so we can haul everything out as needed. I did sneak in some herbicide spraying in our worst areas and am preparing for our Home Garden Tour in July. Other volunteer sightings today included Dick H., Gary, Maury and Vern. Sweet shot below at Dave W.'s house of his 'Caramel' coral bells (Heuchera villosa).