Above is a beautiful dragonfly shot taken by Santos here at the gardens. He's quite talented at catching wildlife and has a superior eye for a good photograph. We appreciate him sharing so often. It's hard to beli
eve that tomorrow is the first day of fall already! The temperatures are supposed to be over 85 degrees F which seems more like August! The rains yesterday were welcome and it's nice to have the garden uniformly watered and soaked as we were developing some very dry spots out there. It was overcast early, blue skies in the afternoon,
now cloudy again. Temperatures made for a nice day out in the gardens and much was accomplished throughout the day. To the left is the leaf of the perennial sea kale (
Crambe maritima) in our Scottish garden laying on a bed of bugleweed (
Ajuga pyramidalis 'Purple Crispa). Yes, this is a "staged" shot! Incidentally, the leaves and flowers of the sea kale are edible. This zone 4 perennial loves full sun and is quite durable. I like the powdery blue, "cabbagey" look they provide. To the right is a close-up of the flower and fruiting structure of the tomatillo. Also called husk tomato, these plants have set copious amounts of fruit this year and we're looking forward to the bounty.
The grounds staff impressed me greatly today as they really sunk their teeth in to many important projects. Larry had to leave early and we did see Little Jerry briefly (on his day off!). Marv and Terry can be seen above in the Scottish highlands (alpine) garden. They have spent many hours redesigning the rock work in this space. They've removed older, crumb
ling rocks and added many new ones as well. We chose to remove all the plants out of this space as it was an overgrown mess of 10% good and 90% bad. We'll start replanting native Scottish alpine plants this fall and finish up next sprin
g. The fellas did a nice job and also worked on sod removal, graveling and other projects as well. Big John finished his juniper hedge shearing project (seen to the right). The last two hedges involved the most work as they hadn't been pruned in over two years and John had to cut out some thick branches. All four hedges look great and really re-establish the formality of that garden. Marianne did lots of tidying up out in the gardens and helped with some label creation, the cutting display and continued to "in fill" our plant sale plants in front of the visitors center. Janice continued to plant perennials, caught up with some labeling and did some moss work as well. Everyone really did well and we had some great volunteers as well. Kay was here and continued her remarkable progress out in the annual beds with weeding and clearing out unsightly annuals. It's not hard to see where she's worked as those areas are immaculate. Dr. Gredler was here to mow a bit and we also saw Julie, Jumbo Jim, Vern and Dr. Yahr. Above and to the left is Rose working on painting our Japanese fence yesterday with Urban. Maury and Gary have also been actively involved and it is looking great.
I took more pictures today and am observing the start of fall color throughout the gardens. Those hints of yellow, orange, red and purple are just starting up. However, I was smitten with the overwhelming b
right pinks out there as well. I think the lighting this time of year really makes the pinks glow. Above is the new 'Fireworks' fountain grass (
Pennisetum hybrida 'Fireworks') in the sunken garden although we have 400 of these scattered around the gardens, including throughout our maroon/red theme. My talk on Ornamental
Grasses went well at Olbrich Botanical Gardens last night and I featured this grass along with many of our other seasonal grasses. The primary topic was neat perennial grasses but we're starting to use so many cool annual grasses that I've become a huge promoter of their usage in the border and container. The annuals to the left and right were shown in early blogs but I can't stop photographing them each week as they continue to look better and better. To the left is the 'Haight Ashbury' annual hibiscus (
Hibiscus acetosella 'Haight Ashbury') with variable pink in the leaves. This tropical will get almost 5' tall in our summers and while it rarely blooms, the foliage (edible by the way) speaks for itself. To the right is the 'Red Cathedral' amaranth (
Amaranthus cruentus 'Red Cathedral') with gorgeous arching plumes of color. Even when it starts to flop, the arching blooms lend visual texture and interest. Below is an eyecatching perennial sedum (
Sedum spectabile) called 'Neon' that really is aptly named. This specimen is tucked in a cranny between boulders near our observation pier and is as vivid as pink can be out in the garden. I'm going to get more next year and tuck them in other adjacent pockets for this late season effect. Today was day 17 straight for me at work so I'm off tomorrow but might be able to sneak in a blog if the wife doesn't notice......
Above is a beautiful dragonfly shot taken by Santos here at the gardens. He's quite talented at catching wildlife and has a superior eye for a good photograph. We appreciate him sharing so often. It's hard to beli
eve that tomorrow is the first day of fall already! The temperatures are supposed to be over 85 degrees F which seems more like August! The rains yesterday were welcome and it's nice to have the garden uniformly watered and soaked as we were developing some very dry spots out there. It was overcast early, blue skies in the afternoon, 
now cloudy again. Temperatures made for a nice day out in the gardens and much was accomplished throughout the day. To the left is the leaf of the perennial sea kale (Crambe maritima) in our Scottish garden laying on a bed of bugleweed (Ajuga pyramidalis 'Purple Crispa). Yes, this is a "staged" shot! Incidentally, the leaves and flowers of the sea kale are edible. This zone 4 perennial loves full sun and is quite durable. I like the powdery blue, "cabbagey" look they provide. To the right is a close-up of the flower and fruiting structure of the tomatillo. Also called husk tomato, these plants have set copious amounts of fruit this year and we're looking forward to the bounty. 
ling rocks and added many new ones as well. We chose to remove all the plants out of this space as it was an overgrown mess of 10% good and 90% bad. We'll start replanting native Scottish alpine plants this fall and finish up next sprin
g. The fellas did a nice job and also worked on sod removal, graveling and other projects as well. Big John finished his juniper hedge shearing project (seen to the right). The last two hedges involved the most work as they hadn't been pruned in over two years and John had to cut out some thick branches. All four hedges look great and really re-establish the formality of that garden. Marianne did lots of tidying up out in the gardens and helped with some label creation, the cutting display and continued to "in fill" our plant sale plants in front of the visitors center. Janice continued to plant perennials, caught up with some labeling and did some moss work as well. Everyone really did well and we had some great volunteers as well. Kay was here and continued her remarkable progress out in the annual beds with weeding and clearing out unsightly annuals. It's not hard to see where she's worked as those areas are immaculate. Dr. Gredler was here to mow a bit and we also saw Julie, Jumbo Jim, Vern and Dr. Yahr. Above and to the left is Rose working on painting our Japanese fence yesterday with Urban. Maury and Gary have also been actively involved and it is looking great. 
right pinks out there as well. I think the lighting this time of year really makes the pinks glow. Above is the new 'Fireworks' fountain grass (Pennisetum hybrida 'Fireworks') in the sunken garden although we have 400 of these scattered around the gardens, including throughout our maroon/red theme. My talk on Ornamental
Grasses went well at Olbrich Botanical Gardens last night and I featured this grass along with many of our other seasonal grasses. The primary topic was neat perennial grasses but we're starting to use so many cool annual grasses that I've become a huge promoter of their usage in the border and container. The annuals to the left and right were shown in early blogs but I can't stop photographing them each week as they continue to look better and better. To the left is the 'Haight Ashbury' annual hibiscus (Hibiscus acetosella 'Haight Ashbury') with variable pink in the leaves. This tropical will get almost 5' tall in our summers and while it rarely blooms, the foliage (edible by the way) speaks for itself. To the right is the 'Red Cathedral' amaranth (Amaranthus cruentus 'Red Cathedral') with gorgeous arching plumes of color. Even when it starts to flop, the arching blooms lend visual texture and interest. Below is an eyecatching perennial sedum (Sedum spectabile) called 'Neon' that really is aptly named. This specimen is tucked in a cranny between boulders near our observation pier and is as vivid as pink can be out in the garden. I'm going to get more next year and tuck them in other adjacent pockets for this late season effect. Today was day 17 straight for me at work so I'm off tomorrow but might be able to sneak in a blog if the wife doesn't notice......
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