Frosty Start But Quickly Pleasant

This morning was quite frosty and involved more windshield ice scraping. However, it warmed up nicely and the daffodils above appreciated the thawing value of sunshine this morning. Years ago we planted over 300 varieties of daffodils (Narcissus) in our parking lot (8,000 bulbs total). It continues to be a nice display although we've lost track of many of the varieties. Our collection represents all 13 "divisions" which vary in their flower characteristics for the most part. The only drawback of daffodils (in my mind) is waiting for the foliage to go dormant after blooming. This usually occurs by late June but that foliage is easy to obscure with other emerging plants, grasses and woody plants. If you are "in to" daffodils, check out the American Daffodil Society (http://www.daffodilusa.org/) and the Midwest Daffodil Society (http://www.midwestdaffodil.org/) that incidentally, is having their flower show at the Chicago Botanic Garden on April 24th and 25th. Daffodil competitions include cut blooms, floral design and photography. Don't ever pass up the opportunity to go to a flower/plant show for anything as you get to see some neat things and talk to the plant geeks that have devoted their gardening lives to that specific plant. Mark down June 5th and 6th to come to RBG to see the cut peony judging as part of the American Peony Society national convention. Marv and Terry can be seen below working on their brick project today. The guys did a nice job leveling off this walkway and really took the time to do it right. It was another skeleton crew today but we accomplished quite a bit of work. Marv and Terry worked further on composting after their brick project and I spent time laying out where our obelisks and "pillar planters" will be located. I also worked on pricing for our spring plant sale. Dr. Gredler spent the day on reseeding many of our lawns. Jumbo Jim brought down four RECAPPERS and the guys did an excellent job composting the Japanese garden which is a monumental task that requires carrying in buckets of compost by hand due to access constraints. We also saw Maury, Urban and Dick P. here as well. Lots of plants continue to emerge and bloom out in the gardens. To the left are the leaves of bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis). This native perennial has neat leaves and the white flowers (blooming now) are quite showy, particularly for the double-flowering variety 'Multiplex'. Ants distribute the seeds of this plant and the red dye from the roots was mixed with animal fat and used by Native Americans as war paint. The plant to the right is twinleaf (Jeffersonia diphylla) starting to bloom. The root of this plant, named after Thomas Jefferson, had many herbal uses but note the interesting "double leaflet" look of the foliage.

The continued emergence of new spring foliage is quite refreshing. Note the tuber oat grass to the left (Arrhenatherum elatius) which has a nice clean variegation and prefers part shade for best effect and appearance (18" height). As a cool season grass, this plant resents summer drought so keep it irrigated and realize it looks the best in April thru June and turns brown quickly in July and August without proper watering. We have many clumps of this grass in the woodland walk garden and fern & moss garden (both partly shaded situations). The tree peonies (Paeonia suffruticosa) are foliating very quickly and are beautiful to observe as they go thru the process of unfurling leaves and blooming in a month or so. While they may look a bit ragged in late summer, the tree peonies are one of the few plants with a very short bloom window that are worth the space (and expense). We probably have 50+ tree peonies out in the gardens and they get bigger and better each year. See below for two other daisy entries. We hope to have the remainder next week so all can be sealed and prepared for positioning and installation out in the gardens.