Retreat Not An Option

I actually was out in the gardens today looking at some potential spring projects with Larry and Todd. I noticed the garden hyacinths (Hyacinthus) starting to poke up in the "hot spots" in front of the Parker Education Center. These warm locations with surrounding walkways and lots of reflective heat usually give an early boost to bulbs but this is ridiculous! This hyacinth should normally pop up in 4-5 weeks and bloom in late April. Of course, more snow cover will help insulate this tender growth although the flower bud is still nicely protected. I'm worried about too many warm days duping our bulbs in front of the building in to early budding (followed by a hard frost). There are other bulbs popping up here and there as well. This really isn't all that unusual and our hope is that average temperatures will occur this month to keep everything on track.

I worked on various events like our lecture series and the Home Garden Tour (July 23rd) in between plant ordering and myriad other duties. I had a meeting at the other building so was able to see some of the garden and always am smitten with the Korean fir (Abies koreana 'Horstmann's Silberlocke') needles (recurved with a silver underside) on the specimen in front of the building (seen to the left). Marianne was in to sort more pictures and we'll work on the last of our seeds on Thursday. Urban and Dick W. were out pruning in the Japanese garden and Larry went out to prune for a bit as well. Dr. Gredler and Pat continued the last of their obelisk painting and we also saw Kay (more plant sale label work), Dick H., Big John and Bob A. Nice shot to the right of another nice conifer. This is the golden falsecypress (Chameacyparis pisifera 'Golden Spangles'), also in front of our visitor's center. The bright yellow foliage is a real landscape asset 365 days of the year and we've had lots of success with falsecypress here although it is more marginal just further north.

2011 will be the third year that we participate in the American Garden Award program. RBG is one of only 23 gardens selected to be part of this unique opportunity to display select flower varieties for garden visitors to view and vote on their favorite. This year there will be seven entries and voting can be accomplished by text messaging, going to the website (www.americangardenaward.org) and voting or using postcards provided on site here in the gardens. The American Garden Award program is administered by the All-America Selections Display Garden program. RBG has always enjoyed it's realtionship with AAS as a display garden as well. We're excited about this program and look forward to displaying these beautiful garden plants. This year's entries include Dahlia 'Dahlinova Hypnotica Lavender', Dianthus 'Kahori', Ornamental pepper (Capsicum) 'Uchu', Petunia 'Easy Wave Neon Rose', Petunia 'Picobella Rose Star', Scaevola 'Surdiva Light Blue' and variegated impatiens 'SunPatiens Variegated Spreading White'. Do check out the website above for more information (coming soon) regarding the American Garden Award program and the 2011 entries.