Seeing Some Raised Eyebrows...

The culverts above at the Horticulture Center have generated some recent interest after they were picked up and delivered by the Grumpies. The larger sections (24" diameter) are 10' in height while the smaller culverts (18" diameter) are 6' in height. The definition of a culvert is "a transverse drain or waterway of masonry, metal or other material under a road, railroad, canal, etc..." Our definition is different. We look at these culverts as "an opportunity for vertical, upright planters that will be interesting focal points and conversation pieces". Come see what happens to these this spring. I enjoyed my trip to the Chicago area on Wednesday and Thursday. My younger daughter and I visited my parents and were able to swing by The Morton Arboretum in Lisle, IL. I had a nice talk with some of their grounds and collections managers and was able to take many pictures. What a great place to visit. My daughter enjoyed the children's garden with grandpa while I took pictures of ornamental bark, berries, winter containers, grasses, etc. To the left is a nice shot of the ornamental bark of the Gingerbread maple (Acer griseum x nikoense 'Ginzam') that might do ok here. The bark really stood out to me as did the blocky bark of persimmon (Diospyros virginiana) to the right. I doubt most people notice ornamental bark unless it is extremely bright (i.e. red-stemmed dogwoods) but it really is neat to see the variations in bark color, patterns, texture, etc. Arboretums are great places to visit and examine the variable winter interest of woody plants. Conifers come in to their own glory as well. My favorite arboretums include The Morton Arboretum, Holden Arboretum (west of Cleveland), The Arnold Arboretum (Boston) and the UW-Arboretum (Longenecker Gardens). I'd love to see the J.C. Raulston Arboretum (Raleigh, NC) in the near future as well. As always, I hope to visit at least 10 new botanic gardens/arboreta this year for ideas and inspiration. Finding the time is the tough part!Above is a sample of what Marianne has been doing with our seeds. The color coded labels have meaning as well. All those red ID labels will be inserted in those plant flats that, when returned, will go to our entrance garden. We hope to have all our seeds organized and distributed by next Thursday and will then move to preparations for other plantings and label creation. Janice is plugging away at plant sale needs and we had Kay here today to work on peeling and separating some of our 20,000+ vegetable labels by variety for the sale. Dr. Gredler and Dick W. worked on painting today and we saw both Urban and Rose finished their painting project as well. Janice was here for a bit and we saw Vern, Nancy, John, Dick P., Dick H., Maury and Bill here too. I'm working on more ordering, sponsorship solicitations for special events and am heading in to crunch time for preparing for looming presentations. February hasn't been leisurely but at least the pace will be full speed when spring hits. Nice shots below from the Morton Arboretum of winter containers and some interesting root sculptures. See www.mortonarb/press-room/steelroots/16364.html for more information on these interesting sculptures.