A Normal June Day

The weather was perfect today in my mind. It was nice and sunny and not too humid. This heat coupled with our damp soils will really get our plants moving along (weeds included). Nice shot above of the Endless Summer hydrangea (Hydrangea macrophylla 'Bailmer') that is usually purchased with blue blossoms but will rarely keep that blue without some soil pH assistance for acidity. I actually think that the pink is quite nice though. Many our our hydrangeas are starting to bloom and I'm quite fond of most of them.

Great day again today with a strong volunteer turnout. Larry helped get the Grumpies going and worked on mowing and watering our containers, which is a two hour task. Many were in need of attention despite the recent rains. Little Jerry was here doing more pruning and planted two small trees in the Japanese garden to replace some that were lost due to flooding in 2008. Janice helped coordinate some of our volunteers, fertilized and worked on other tasks. It was Jenny's last day as we only get her in spring for two months. She finished most of her label placements and has done another great service to the gardens with her organization and label making skills. We'll see her throughout the year though and look forward to her continued work at the gardens. Nice shot of a new copperleaf (Acalypha wilkesiana) to the left called 'La Bamba'. The variable, copper, tan and cream leaves offer great visual interest and we've used this variety in many of our containers. We seem to use many of the copperleaf varieties (all annuals) every year and count on them to get in the 18" range and contribute as a foliage plant. To the right is a new coreopsis (tickseed) called 'Jive' that while not hardy here as a perennial, can be used as an annual as it produces abundant flowers the first year. This is a color breakthrough for coreopsis and looks great. Above is a shot of Shirley, her grandkids and Magda in the foreground weeding one of our flower beds. After we plant our major beds, we try to weed the gaps before they fill in with plant growth. This task is essential as it is a lot more difficult to be retroactive with our weeding after the beds have filled in and the weeds have gained a foothold. We also have a couple million cottonwood (Populus deltoides) seedlings to cull out of these gaps. We also had Marilyn, Suzy, Mary and Laura helping weed three other primary areas. Big John was here as a Grumpy and dug out some old elderberries (Sambucus) to be replaced with 'Tiger Eyes' sumac (Rhus typhina 'Bailtiger'). John went with me later to pick up some donated plants from a very supportive nursery. Pat, Bob T., Ron B. and Bob C. worked on air edging while I also saw Roger and other Grumpies working on projects. Del helped move plants around the yard and watered for us. Dr. Gredler was here as was Dr. Yahr. I rarely lose track of our volunteers but had meetings that affected my time out in the gardens today. It sure looked like a lot of work was accomplished. I was able to spray herbicide over the brick walkways in the sunken garden that were over-run with purslane. Below is a new margeurite daisy (Argyranthemum frutescens) that we're trialing for Ball Seed. This is the variety 'Madeira Deep Pink Improved' and should offer solid color season-long on a compact, 15" plant. I like the various shades of pink (flower age being the factor). Beneath the daisy is another trial plant, a strawflower (Bracteantha sp.) called 'Dreamtime Jumbo Light Pink'. This plant is quite compact but the flowers will hold color for quite some time and will show a golden center once the petals totally unfurl. Looking forward to vacation next week and after my blog tomorrow, I'll be offline until July 5th.