Nice shot above of the 'Fireworks' goldenrod (
Solidago rugosa) taken at Olbrich Botanical Gardens this past Tuesday night. You can see how this tough perennial received such an appropriate name. We have lots of 'Fireworks' at RBG and it offers nice color and visual texture at a time of year when
many other plants are just looking plain tired. It was a real skeleton crew today with Terry and me here and John coming in for a couple of hours. Janice, Marv and Marianne are all out of town enjoying a well-deserved respite. Terry and John took care of the mowing and watering duties along with some re-graveling projects, plant removal and composting. Dr. Gredler was here to do his Friday mowi
ng and Kay came in to tidy up the sunken garden and continue her clean-up efforts in the shade garden. I ran irrigation today and was able to start on an important presentation. I'm doing five talks (same topic) this fall on "Plants for Horticultural Therapy: Choosing Plant Materials for Sensory Stimulation." This will be a substantial talk (3 hours!) so I'm starting to get my pictures together and my "ducks in a row." We also saw Dr. Yahr, Nancy and Hal. To the left is a shot along our ornamental edible wall. That's nasturtium (
Tropaeolum) and sweet potato vine (
Ipomoea batatas) in the front row with the silvery cardoon (
Cynara cardunculus) stealing the show in the back of the border (centrally located). Flanking the cardoon to the left is the 'Black Pearl' hot pepper (
Capsicum annuum) and annual hibiscus (
Hibiscus acetosella 'Maple Sugar') to the right. The photo to the right shows some early fall color of the sugar maple (
Acer saccharum) which is one of the best for consistently good fall coloration. Although I've featured the plant below in many previous blogs, my close-up leaf shot turned out well. This is the 'Coffee Cups' elephant ear (
Colocasia esculenta) and is one of the most "asked about" out in the gardens where it ranges in height from 5' to 9' tall! When we dig these after frost, we'll see if they have much of a bulb for storage and reuse next year.
Next week will involve lots of work out on "the point" as we hope to get the posts set in concrete for the new arbor structure. Our carpenters will then take it from there. We'll also have the last of our fall planting of
perennials and woodies to accomplish and bulb planting will start on Saturday, October 9th (8am-noon) and continue thru the month. With the cottonwoods (
Populus deltoides) dropping leaves and twigs every day, it is a perpetual chore to continue to pick up the leaves and debris. We hope to keep up with our fall duties as other challenges appear. I'll be here next week but travelling the last le
g of my Chanticleer scholarship funded trips the following week (Oct. 11-15). I'll be heading to New York City and will visit the New York Botanical Garden, Brooklyn Botanic Garden and Queens Botanic Garden. I'll meet with staff at these institutions and get some tours. My primary interest is to see their children's gardens and ask questions about displays and programs. I'm saving $ by staying with my brother in NJ but am also looking forward to seeing Central Park at peak fall color. Cool! Nice shot to the left of our shoreline border in the wishing well garden. We planted that border with annual leftovers but they did a nice job filling in that space. To the right is the annual variegated giant reed (
Arundo donax 'Versicolor) that looks so sharp in bright sunlight. Also called giant cane, this annual grass can get over 8' tall in our Wisconsin summers. It is a nice screening grass and/or focal point with a quick growth rate in richer soils. Below is the new and improved moss island filling in despite the constant barage of falling leaves. As I type, Marv is probably collecting more moss (legally!) from his land further north for this project. The bottom photo shows our wishing well garden in full autumn glory (which may be affected with CHILLY, 34 degrees F temperatures this weekend!).
Nice shot above of the 'Fireworks' goldenrod (Solidago rugosa) taken at Olbrich Botanical Gardens this past Tuesday night. You can see how this tough perennial received such an appropriate name. We have lots of 'Fireworks' at RBG and it offers nice color and visual texture at a time of year when 
many other plants are just looking plain tired. It was a real skeleton crew today with Terry and me here and John coming in for a couple of hours. Janice, Marv and Marianne are all out of town enjoying a well-deserved respite. Terry and John took care of the mowing and watering duties along with some re-graveling projects, plant removal and composting. Dr. Gredler was here to do his Friday mowi
ng and Kay came in to tidy up the sunken garden and continue her clean-up efforts in the shade garden. I ran irrigation today and was able to start on an important presentation. I'm doing five talks (same topic) this fall on "Plants for Horticultural Therapy: Choosing Plant Materials for Sensory Stimulation." This will be a substantial talk (3 hours!) so I'm starting to get my pictures together and my "ducks in a row." We also saw Dr. Yahr, Nancy and Hal. To the left is a shot along our ornamental edible wall. That's nasturtium (Tropaeolum) and sweet potato vine (Ipomoea batatas) in the front row with the silvery cardoon (Cynara cardunculus) stealing the show in the back of the border (centrally located). Flanking the cardoon to the left is the 'Black Pearl' hot pepper (Capsicum annuum) and annual hibiscus (Hibiscus acetosella 'Maple Sugar') to the right. The photo to the right shows some early fall color of the sugar maple (Acer saccharum) which is one of the best for consistently good fall coloration. Although I've featured the plant below in many previous blogs, my close-up leaf shot turned out well. This is the 'Coffee Cups' elephant ear (Colocasia esculenta) and is one of the most "asked about" out in the gardens where it ranges in height from 5' to 9' tall! When we dig these after frost, we'll see if they have much of a bulb for storage and reuse next year. 
perennials and woodies to accomplish and bulb planting will start on Saturday, October 9th (8am-noon) and continue thru the month. With the cottonwoods (Populus deltoides) dropping leaves and twigs every day, it is a perpetual chore to continue to pick up the leaves and debris. We hope to keep up with our fall duties as other challenges appear. I'll be here next week but travelling the last le
g of my Chanticleer scholarship funded trips the following week (Oct. 11-15). I'll be heading to New York City and will visit the New York Botanical Garden, Brooklyn Botanic Garden and Queens Botanic Garden. I'll meet with staff at these institutions and get some tours. My primary interest is to see their children's gardens and ask questions about displays and programs. I'm saving $ by staying with my brother in NJ but am also looking forward to seeing Central Park at peak fall color. Cool! Nice shot to the left of our shoreline border in the wishing well garden. We planted that border with annual leftovers but they did a nice job filling in that space. To the right is the annual variegated giant reed (Arundo donax 'Versicolor) that looks so sharp in bright sunlight. Also called giant cane, this annual grass can get over 8' tall in our Wisconsin summers. It is a nice screening grass and/or focal point with a quick growth rate in richer soils. Below is the new and improved moss island filling in despite the constant barage of falling leaves. As I type, Marv is probably collecting more moss (legally!) from his land further north for this project. The bottom photo shows our wishing well garden in full autumn glory (which may be affected with CHILLY, 34 degrees F temperatures this weekend!). 
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