A Decidedly Pleasant Day

Above is the Sunny Knockout rose (Rosa 'Radsunny') that is another shrub rose in that wonderful Knockout series. This specimen is in our "rose crescents" in the French formal garden. Our rose collection did fairly well despite the unwanted attention from the Japanese beetles. Our French formal garden is currently filled with a wide assortment of shrub roses. The majority of these are shrub roses from the Easy Elegance series developed at Bailey Nursery (MN). We've since added all the Knockout series, Buck roses and some other select shrub varieties. I truly love roses but not those that are overly needy. I feel our low-maintenance collection will be better received by a gardening public that has less and less time to actively garden each year with increasingly busy schedules and conflicts. I remember the days where I would have Larry rope off the rose garden with warning signs and I would then don the white chemical suit, strap on my Solo 450 mistblower and head out with a substantial dose of chemicals every Wednesday. The roses actually looked pretty good but truly, what was the impact on the environment (and my health?). I'm good with the shrub roses as all we do is provide supplemental watering when needed and fertilize a couple times over the growing season. Our intent is to observe these roses as well and see which varieties are toughest. To the left is a neat, unique French marigold (Tagetes patula 'Solan') that is a selection from the Fleuroselect (European award winners) program that we are proud to be involved with for the past six years. We are actually one of only six institutions in North America that displays extensive Fleuroselect sections. What a neat annual and still glowing out in the cooling garden. To the right and below is turtlehead (Chelone obliqua) which is a good mid-summer blooming perennial that likes lots of moisture. This 30" tall perennial has a long bloom period and would be considered on any of my top 20 lists of perennials I would have to have in my garden (and I do). The flower shape lends itself to the common name. Look for the variety 'Hot Lips' for a more vivid pink and there are darker leaf varieties and white blooming turtleheads as well. It was another nice day and we had a dedicated group of staff and volunteers working out in the gardens and in the plant sale (day 5 of 9). Marianne came in to get the sale started and was going to leave at 9:15 am. Well, I think she was there until close to 3 pm as I had three long meetings today so she ran the show (very much appreciated). Janice came in to work on various projects while John removed plants, spruced up some containers and started trimming some juniper hedges. Both Janice and John went to the horticultural therapy workshop at the gardens that is part 1 of 4 talks that will address much of the background and approaches to successful horticultural therapy. I'm the fourth speaker and will talk about plants for horticultural therapy (Nov.? or maybe Dec.?). Larry ran irrigation and did significant weedwhipping. Little Jerry was out pruning and did a nice job shaping up our weeping ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba 'Pendula'). I worked on various project including some presentation preparations. I have two talks at the Upper Midwest Master Gardener conference on Friday and it looks like a tour will be coming up on Thursday morning of this week as part of that same event. Nice shot to the left of the candy corn vine (Manettia luteorubra) that I took at Big John's garden recently. The seed capsules from his 'Carmencita Pink' castor bean (Ricinus communis 'Carmencita Pink') can also be seen to the right. What a showy seed capsule but the seeds inside (three per rounded capsule) or deadly poisonous.

We had many volunteers help out in the plant sale and Mary brought two RECAPPERS to help us out with watering and unloading more mums (among other duties). Kay was out tidying up in the gardens then worked the next shift of the plant sale. We had many over at the horticulture center for meetings but saw Gary, Vern, Maury, Dr. Gredler and so many others that my memory is failing. Nice shot below of the 'Black Pearl' hot pepper (Capsicum annuum 'Black Pearl') that has really come in to its own late in the season with colorful fruits and almost black leaves. The young fruits are the "black pearls" that will age to the red at the bottom. Although primarily for ornamentation, the fruits are edible but hot! What a neat plant though at 24" tall.