Nice shot at the top of our ornamental hot pepper (
Capsicum annuum 'Chilly Chili') at the Horticulture Center starting to color up nicely. This variety is known for very little culinary heat and serious ornamentality
as the summer season progresses. This variety is also a vary common bedding plant. Our cucumbers and gourds are growing like crazy and it seems the tomatoes and peppers are starting to catch up with some hotter days coming along. Above is Ron W. yesterday with our umbrellas heading back to the terrace garden. Today was fairly light in terms of staff and volunteers but the morning was quite busy before it got real hot and muggy. Larry was in to push mow and work on some other projects for a portion of the
day while Big John worked on removing some perennials that have increased in girth and require total removal. He then moved to pushmowing as well. Bill was here to help with riding mowing with Dr. Gredler gone and Little Jerry was here to prune and mow as well. Margaret, Hal and Doris were all here to weed in various locations and we also saw Maury, Dick H. and some others. The shot to the left is a recent image of our ornamental edible wall planting (maintained by Tom K.). Plants are really starting to fill in well and our intent of both an ornamental and edible/functional planting has been achieved in my mind. To the right is a portion of our globe amaranth (
Gomphrena sp.) collection that is maturing nicely. Despite 50 or so different varieties, most of these fall in to pink, purple, lavender, magenta and white although there are some bright fuschia ones, red and orange too. Gomphrenas don't hit you over the head with overpowering color but are nice in compositions for their architectural, long-lasting blooms. I've mentioned the garden activity of "air edging" many times and thought I'd show as sample (below) of this process below. Bob T. is our resident expert and he does a bang up job creating a crisp edge of separation between turf and flower beds. Unfortunately this has to be done every year but adds a nice touch when done properly. One of the tricks is not to make the edge too deep or mowers will scalp that edge.
We continue to get ready for the upcoming iris sale (Aug. 28) and fall plant sale (Sept. 11-17, presale on the 10th for Frie
nds Members). In a couple of weeks we'll have our new laser engraver up and running after our consultant helps us set it up and iron out the bugs. We have Luis doing a new woody plant inventory that will help us jump right in to making new labels through the rest of the year. It is so tough to keep enough labels out there as they sometimes disappear, get obscured with expanding foliage or are never installed. Sometimes frequent questions from visitors will prompt us to create a quick label for that high interest p
lant. Marianne also targets these types of plants for her cutting display. One of those "high interest" plants is always the tropical Persian shield (
Strobilanthes dyerianus) seen to the left. The leaves are hard to describe but so memorable when you see them. We have this tropical in containers and throughout our part shade beds and borders. Purchased in 4" pots in spring, we'll get this plant up to 24" or so although I've seen it bigger. I'd like to experiment with trying to overwinter this annual as a houseplant for re-use the next year (and perhaps gaining greater size!). Another ornamental edible can be seen to the right. This is 'Fernleaf' dill (
Anethum graveolens) that was an All-America Selections winner and is known for its compact nature (30") and many flower umbels. Dill is a great bedding plant and quite showy as a cut flower. The flowers are edible and this plant could have a future in your dill pickle processing. Below is the foliage of the Ghost weigela (
Weigela florida 'Carlton') that while having the standard fuchsia pink trumpet blooms in spring, has notable lime green foliage in spring that fades to a ghostly buttercream in summer. We plunked this in as a baby many years ago (now 4'x4') and it continues to catch my eye simply from that foliage.
Nice shot at the top of our ornamental hot pepper (Capsicum annuum 'Chilly Chili') at the Horticulture Center starting to color up nicely. This variety is known for very little culinary heat and serious ornamentality 
as the summer season progresses. This variety is also a vary common bedding plant. Our cucumbers and gourds are growing like crazy and it seems the tomatoes and peppers are starting to catch up with some hotter days coming along. Above is Ron W. yesterday with our umbrellas heading back to the terrace garden. Today was fairly light in terms of staff and volunteers but the morning was quite busy before it got real hot and muggy. Larry was in to push mow and work on some other projects for a portion of the 
day while Big John worked on removing some perennials that have increased in girth and require total removal. He then moved to pushmowing as well. Bill was here to help with riding mowing with Dr. Gredler gone and Little Jerry was here to prune and mow as well. Margaret, Hal and Doris were all here to weed in various locations and we also saw Maury, Dick H. and some others. The shot to the left is a recent image of our ornamental edible wall planting (maintained by Tom K.). Plants are really starting to fill in well and our intent of both an ornamental and edible/functional planting has been achieved in my mind. To the right is a portion of our globe amaranth (Gomphrena sp.) collection that is maturing nicely. Despite 50 or so different varieties, most of these fall in to pink, purple, lavender, magenta and white although there are some bright fuschia ones, red and orange too. Gomphrenas don't hit you over the head with overpowering color but are nice in compositions for their architectural, long-lasting blooms. I've mentioned the garden activity of "air edging" many times and thought I'd show as sample (below) of this process below. Bob T. is our resident expert and he does a bang up job creating a crisp edge of separation between turf and flower beds. Unfortunately this has to be done every year but adds a nice touch when done properly. One of the tricks is not to make the edge too deep or mowers will scalp that edge.
We continue to get ready for the upcoming iris sale (Aug. 28) and fall plant sale (Sept. 11-17, presale on the 10th for Frie
nds Members). In a couple of weeks we'll have our new laser engraver up and running after our consultant helps us set it up and iron out the bugs. We have Luis doing a new woody plant inventory that will help us jump right in to making new labels through the rest of the year. It is so tough to keep enough labels out there as they sometimes disappear, get obscured with expanding foliage or are never installed. Sometimes frequent questions from visitors will prompt us to create a quick label for that high interest p
lant. Marianne also targets these types of plants for her cutting display. One of those "high interest" plants is always the tropical Persian shield (Strobilanthes dyerianus) seen to the left. The leaves are hard to describe but so memorable when you see them. We have this tropical in containers and throughout our part shade beds and borders. Purchased in 4" pots in spring, we'll get this plant up to 24" or so although I've seen it bigger. I'd like to experiment with trying to overwinter this annual as a houseplant for re-use the next year (and perhaps gaining greater size!). Another ornamental edible can be seen to the right. This is 'Fernleaf' dill (Anethum graveolens) that was an All-America Selections winner and is known for its compact nature (30") and many flower umbels. Dill is a great bedding plant and quite showy as a cut flower. The flowers are edible and this plant could have a future in your dill pickle processing. Below is the foliage of the Ghost weigela (Weigela florida 'Carlton') that while having the standard fuchsia pink trumpet blooms in spring, has notable lime green foliage in spring that fades to a ghostly buttercream in summer. We plunked this in as a baby many years ago (now 4'x4') and it continues to catch my eye simply from that foliage. 
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