As I toured the gardens this morning, I really felt that we are peaking with our summer color, particularly with ann
uals. The sunken garden was looking great and the image above is along the north side of that space (taken care of by Bob, Chris and August). The tall, arching plants in the back with violet pink flower clusters is the 'Gateway' Joe-pye weed (
Eupatorium maculatum). By saying that we are "peaking", I'm certainly not stating that it's downhill from here. We maintain our seasonals until frost and the next 10 weeks should still be quite colorful with plenty more perennials and woody plants adding interest. I'm glad we've had some nice, recent rains and it's raining right now as I type in the evening. We've been amazed by the bumper crop of weeds this year but are starting to catch up. Wet soils allow for some nice pulling of our undesireable woody tree seedlings (cotto
nwood, honeysuckle, buckthorn, hackberry, elm, etc.). To the left is another plant in the sunken garden. This is a neat new amaranth (
Amaranthus paniculatus) called 'Autumn Palette'. Although we've grown many amaranths in the past, this one is new to me and I'm glad it is coloring up like its description (cream and biscuit tones). Most amaranths are a solid color so this is a neat effect on a 5' tall+ plant. To the right is another collection of cucumbers picked by Janice's volunteers this past Saturday. Bev D. hauled these to the local food bank today where I'm sure there were comments about the weird looking cucumbers. Below is a close-up of the marbled nasturtium (
Tropaeolum majus 'Alaska Mixed') with variable creamy mottling in the leaves and an assortment of yellow, orange and red flowers. This plant has edible leaves and flowers and is always part of our ornamental edible displays. Further below is the hybrid gloriosa daisy (
Rudbeckia hirta 'TigerEye Gold') that I've featured in past blogs. It sure looks good
en masse and I find that gold color tone quite agreeable.
We had another productively busy Monday. Marv and Terry bounced around between regraveling, removing
some plants, fixing irrigation, watering and other tasks. Marianne did a good job tidying up the front garden, weeding the terrace, putting together her cutting display and some spot hand watering. Little Jerry did some nice pruning and worked on projects in the Japanese garden. We're without Larry for a bit and Dr. Gredler and Janice are gone this week so we'll be a bit thin on staff but will manage. We had a nic
e Grumpy morning with Gary, Charlie, Ron B, Urban and Dick K. working on regraveling projects. Ron W., Pat and Bob C. put our terrace furniture, umbrellas, etc. back in place after a big wedding this past Saturday and moved on to some other tasks. Bob T. worked on air edging and the "carpenter quartet" of Vern, Bob A., Dave and Jim worked on starting to replace rotting lumber along our Japanese garden fence. They ran in to a ground hornet nest which caused some excitement and only one sting. Mary and Winnifred were here weeding and the fence crew of Dick P., Dick H., Maury and Big John did a nice job installing more fence but were slowed down a bit after they hit an irrigation line. Dr. Yahr was here helping out and we also saw Mike, Dave, Polly, Carol C., Tom U. and others over here. The shot to the left is our ornamental millet (
Pennisetum glaucum 'Purple Majesty') starting to go to seed and being quite attractive to the yellow finches. This species of millet is also called pearl millet and is a very important food crop, particulary in Africa. We are growing four varieties of this species known for a more ornamental leaf coloration ('Purple Majesty', 'Jester', 'Purple Baron', 'Jade Princess') and as an annual grass, they are all effective in the border or container (research their variable heights though). To the right is the 'Bull's Blood' beet (
Beta vulgaris) that we use in our ornamental border and in our maroon/red theme. With edible beets (later) and edible foliage, this is a beautiful, yet utilitarian plant for the home garden and container. Speaking of our maroon and red theme, we had more compliments today and even those that don't like the overall color combinations have conceded that it is impressive in scale and texture (I'll take that). Below we have the 'Cherry Brandy' gloriosa daisy (
Rudbeckia hirta) that is planted throughout our gardens and the bottom photo is the terrace border after Marianne's ruthless weed purging.
As I toured the gardens this morning, I really felt that we are peaking with our summer color, particularly with ann
uals. The sunken garden was looking great and the image above is along the north side of that space (taken care of by Bob, Chris and August). The tall, arching plants in the back with violet pink flower clusters is the 'Gateway' Joe-pye weed (Eupatorium maculatum). By saying that we are "peaking", I'm certainly not stating that it's downhill from here. We maintain our seasonals until frost and the next 10 weeks should still be quite colorful with plenty more perennials and woody plants adding interest. I'm glad we've had some nice, recent rains and it's raining right now as I type in the evening. We've been amazed by the bumper crop of weeds this year but are starting to catch up. Wet soils allow for some nice pulling of our undesireable woody tree seedlings (cotto
nwood, honeysuckle, buckthorn, hackberry, elm, etc.). To the left is another plant in the sunken garden. This is a neat new amaranth (Amaranthus paniculatus) called 'Autumn Palette'. Although we've grown many amaranths in the past, this one is new to me and I'm glad it is coloring up like its description (cream and biscuit tones). Most amaranths are a solid color so this is a neat effect on a 5' tall+ plant. To the right is another collection of cucumbers picked by Janice's volunteers this past Saturday. Bev D. hauled these to the local food bank today where I'm sure there were comments about the weird looking cucumbers. Below is a close-up of the marbled nasturtium (Tropaeolum majus 'Alaska Mixed') with variable creamy mottling in the leaves and an assortment of yellow, orange and red flowers. This plant has edible leaves and flowers and is always part of our ornamental edible displays. Further below is the hybrid gloriosa daisy (Rudbeckia hirta 'TigerEye Gold') that I've featured in past blogs. It sure looks good en masse and I find that gold color tone quite agreeable. 
some plants, fixing irrigation, watering and other tasks. Marianne did a good job tidying up the front garden, weeding the terrace, putting together her cutting display and some spot hand watering. Little Jerry did some nice pruning and worked on projects in the Japanese garden. We're without Larry for a bit and Dr. Gredler and Janice are gone this week so we'll be a bit thin on staff but will manage. We had a nic
e Grumpy morning with Gary, Charlie, Ron B, Urban and Dick K. working on regraveling projects. Ron W., Pat and Bob C. put our terrace furniture, umbrellas, etc. back in place after a big wedding this past Saturday and moved on to some other tasks. Bob T. worked on air edging and the "carpenter quartet" of Vern, Bob A., Dave and Jim worked on starting to replace rotting lumber along our Japanese garden fence. They ran in to a ground hornet nest which caused some excitement and only one sting. Mary and Winnifred were here weeding and the fence crew of Dick P., Dick H., Maury and Big John did a nice job installing more fence but were slowed down a bit after they hit an irrigation line. Dr. Yahr was here helping out and we also saw Mike, Dave, Polly, Carol C., Tom U. and others over here. The shot to the left is our ornamental millet (Pennisetum glaucum 'Purple Majesty') starting to go to seed and being quite attractive to the yellow finches. This species of millet is also called pearl millet and is a very important food crop, particulary in Africa. We are growing four varieties of this species known for a more ornamental leaf coloration ('Purple Majesty', 'Jester', 'Purple Baron', 'Jade Princess') and as an annual grass, they are all effective in the border or container (research their variable heights though). To the right is the 'Bull's Blood' beet (Beta vulgaris) that we use in our ornamental border and in our maroon/red theme. With edible beets (later) and edible foliage, this is a beautiful, yet utilitarian plant for the home garden and container. Speaking of our maroon and red theme, we had more compliments today and even those that don't like the overall color combinations have conceded that it is impressive in scale and texture (I'll take that). Below we have the 'Cherry Brandy' gloriosa daisy (Rudbeckia hirta) that is planted throughout our gardens and the bottom photo is the terrace border after Marianne's ruthless weed purging.
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