Hot And Sunny

Today was sunny, warm and breezy. I suppose that since we had May weather in April, we should expect June weather in May! Nice shot to the left of the red buckeye (Aesculus pavia) in the woodland walk garden. This small tree is native to 16 states, primarily in the Southeast (not WI). The tubular blooms are just starting to open and we hope to see some hummingbirds visiting this specimen. I saw some great buckeyes and horsechestnuts (Aesculus) at Longnecker Gardens this weekend and enjoy them all (be wary of leaf scorch issues however). When I worked at Fernwood Botanic Garden in Niles, MI (www.fernwoodbotanical.org/), we had a 20' red buckeye that was abuzz with hummingbirds.

We had another nice day out in the gardens. Janice worked on getting containers prepared for planting, planted and accomplished her "weed of the day" project (bindweed, ugh!). Jenny did a nice job matching and creating labels for many of our plants, including some new daylily additions for our collection that she later planted. She is one organized person! John dug out shrubs, planted shrubs, mowed and did some major composting. He is working out quite nicely and I'm sure sleeps well at night after a full day here. Larry also mowed, picked up cardboard flats (with John) and retrieved another order. Larry is also currently troubleshooting some of our water features that are having issues. Kay and Margaret worked together again (a great team) and did a nice job weeding a large portion of the shade garden. We later saw Bill, Little Jerry, Dr. Gredler, Mike, Julie, Polly, Dave and Mike P. I spent a good portion of the day making sure everything is set while I'm gone. The grounds crew is very capable and my preparations are to minimize the inevitable "curve balls" that occur around here daily. Below is a nice shot of the woodland walk garden this spring. Lots of color but some weird weeds popping up daily....The benches were just installed by Marv and Terry. Below is the bearded iris (Iris germanica) 'Alliteration' looking great in the iris beds. We're starting to get calls about the "peak time" for the irises. While we had hoped that early June would be the peak for the convention attendees, the reality is a peak between May 15-22. We'll just enjoy it and our 13 volunteer photographers are already taking shots of this collection as they did last year. To the right is the cowslip primrose (Primula veris) blooming in the Scottish garden. This perennial, native to temperate regions of Europe, has done very well in our garden and is actually the "county flower" of four counties in England. Having a long list of historical uses, we simply appreciate the hardiness and flower power of this plant. Down below are the blooms of the black chokeberry (Aronia melanocarpa) in the woodland walk, the beautiful variegated Jacob's ladder (Polemonium reptans 'Touch of Class') and at the bottom, the aggressive but "gorgeously textural" (and native) ostrich fern (Matteuccia struthiopteris) in my backyard. And for the "Bear", look at the bottom for Grandpa being handy yet again around here. Hopefully my upcoming blogs will include my experiences at the Chicago Botanic Garden...