Today was a beautiful day with plenty of sunshine. The showers waited until early this evening to come thru which allowed a full day out in the gardens. Tomorrow may be a different story. Above is one of the hybrid magnolias we have starting to bloom. I'm not remembering the variety off hand but we have about 30 fairly nice magnolia varieties including some of the yellow varieties like 'Butterflies', 'Elizabeth', 'Yellow Lantern', 'Yellow Bird', 'Solar Flair', etc. The yellow varieties will bloom later but we're seeing many others starting to open. Last week we were talking about how well our transplanted clubmosses from Marv last year had established in our moss "island". We were speculating about their rooting structures and today Marv brought back a sample (seen below) and it confirmed the masses of shallow roots on this interesting primitive plant.
It was another busy day at the gardens and I would say we're close to being in "full swing" for the spring. I was able to do another comprehensive tour and checked on our two big projects. To the left is our Japanes
e garden stream that should be renovated in the next couple of weeks. Recent rains have understandably slowed down that project but we did see more progress with the bluestone patio in the North Point garden today. Winifred and Mary Q. were back to help weed out in the color rooms garden. Karen, another volunteer, popped in to say she'll be back very soon and it's nice to have more hands out in the garden as our gardening needs become more apparent and timely
(mulching, composting, weed control, etc.). Karen M., our Japanese garden volunteer, checked in a well and had some neat ideas on pruning in that garden. Geesje brought in more goodies and we appreciate seeing her weekly. It was another full grumpy contingent with Dick P., Dick H., Ron W., Ron and Rollie all helping with getting our terrace furniture all hauled back out and set in place. The guys brought back our big fountain from storage and will get it cleaned up before setting it out in the pond next week. Nice shot to the right of the white grape hyacinth (
Muscari botryoides 'Album') that always looks so nice and is a "clean white". Pat watered the remainder of our tree sale trees and moved on to other projects. We have about 3,500 of the 10,000 trees left and will be extending the sale thru next Saturday, April 30th (8 am - 2 pm) and all trees are now $1.25 each. Still plenty left. Bob T. continued working on air edging and most of the guys shifted to some major composting shortly after the furniture set-up. Maury worked on many projects including cleaning, prepping and starting up our lady fountain (see below). Maury does a nice job keeping up with our smaller water features and is a much appreciated asset for the gardens in general. Further below is Bob C. who was spreading shredded bark with Del in the rose area behind the formal gardens pergola. Jim, Bob A. and Vern worked on the new 8' cedar benches (for the North Point garden) and were sizing up more Japanese garden fence repairs. Gary was in to create and mount more new labels for immediate use and is moving on to preparing the fern labels and entering in our woodland walk perennials.
Big John did a nice job composting one of our front beds and helped load some of the carts this mornin
g. Marv and Terry did some more work on the butterflies, hauled some Earth Day items back and really kept busy with a wide variety of projects. They're also preparing for a new project that involves installing some shorter rock walls. Marianne did a nice job going thru the details of the tree sale and had time to
get outside for clean-up, her cutting display, setting out daylily labels and dispersing close to 200 lbs. of worm poop (castings) throughout our fern & moss garden. Larry unpacked two huge pallets of plants and spent time repairing a broken pump, clearing out the yard for the upcoming spring plant sale (May 14 & 15, presale in the 13th for RBG members) and unloaded 300 'Brazen Brass' mustard (
Brassica juncea) that we'll use as a cool season green (actually dark maroon) for spring container interest. Janice continued her weeding in the formal gardens which involves removing a couple thousand ornamental onion (
Allium) seedlings that have become problematic. She also attended our Horticulture Therapy Commitee with Mike M., Kelli, Joan, Victoria, Karen, Darcie and me. We also saw Little Jerry and his daughter and were able to meet the new special events coordinator/fund development staff member, Amanda. She started today and we welcome her to the RBG family. Nice shot to the left of marsh marigold (
Caltha palustris) near our zig-zag bridge. To the right is the 'Mt. Hood' grape hyacinth (
Muscari armeniacum) with that "dusting of snow" on the "peak." Below are just a few of the tens of thousands of daffodils (
Narcissus) blooming around the gardens.
This time of year reminds me of that little snowball on a hill that continues to get larger and gain momentum a
s it hurtles downslope. This time of year is a juggling act of gardening, plant arrivals, labeling and special events preparations. Our spring plant sale is looming and will start exactly two weeks from this Friday. We'll actually have some plants arriving as early as next week. The challenge with our vegetables and herbs is that they are all arriving after being pampered in warm greenhouses. With any threat
of cold temperatures in the coming weeks, we are obliged to move plants inside at night. This would be easier if we didn't have to displace and account for all of our garden vehicles and other "obstacles" that need to be moved or relocated. The combination of the extended tree sale, our spring plant sale, two May evening presentations and the quick segway in to five sequential Saturday planting work days makes for a busy spring. There really shouldn't be any surprises but our successes are directly related to our volunteer commitments which are always so welcome and vital. To the left is another Japanese primrose (
Primula sp.) and to the right is the almost black, emerging foliage of the dark-leaved senecio (
Ligularia dentata 'Britt Marie Crawford'). The foliage will be more of a maroon/green later on but this is a nice perennial for a tropical texture and nice yellow daisies in early summer. Lots of water required for both perennials shown here. Directly below are some of our remaining tree sale offerings (arborvitae, Norway spruce, Colorado blue spruce, Black Hills spruce) still available and the beautiful cardinal at the bottom.
Today was a beautiful day with plenty of sunshine. The showers waited until early this evening to come thru which allowed a full day out in the gardens. Tomorrow may be a different story. Above is one of the hybrid magnolias we have starting to bloom. I'm not remembering the variety off hand but we have about 30 fairly nice magnolia varieties including some of the yellow varieties like 'Butterflies', 'Elizabeth', 'Yellow Lantern', 'Yellow Bird', 'Solar Flair', etc. The yellow varieties will bloom later but we're seeing many others starting to open. Last week we were talking about how well our transplanted clubmosses from Marv last year had established in our moss "island". We were speculating about their rooting structures and today Marv brought back a sample (seen below) and it confirmed the masses of shallow roots on this interesting primitive plant. 
e garden stream that should be renovated in the next couple of weeks. Recent rains have understandably slowed down that project but we did see more progress with the bluestone patio in the North Point garden today. Winifred and Mary Q. were back to help weed out in the color rooms garden. Karen, another volunteer, popped in to say she'll be back very soon and it's nice to have more hands out in the garden as our gardening needs become more apparent and timely
(mulching, composting, weed control, etc.). Karen M., our Japanese garden volunteer, checked in a well and had some neat ideas on pruning in that garden. Geesje brought in more goodies and we appreciate seeing her weekly. It was another full grumpy contingent with Dick P., Dick H., Ron W., Ron and Rollie all helping with getting our terrace furniture all hauled back out and set in place. The guys brought back our big fountain from storage and will get it cleaned up before setting it out in the pond next week. Nice shot to the right of the white grape hyacinth (Muscari botryoides 'Album') that always looks so nice and is a "clean white". Pat watered the remainder of our tree sale trees and moved on to other projects. We have about 3,500 of the 10,000 trees left and will be extending the sale thru next Saturday, April 30th (8 am - 2 pm) and all trees are now $1.25 each. Still plenty left. Bob T. continued working on air edging and most of the guys shifted to some major composting shortly after the furniture set-up. Maury worked on many projects including cleaning, prepping and starting up our lady fountain (see below). Maury does a nice job keeping up with our smaller water features and is a much appreciated asset for the gardens in general. Further below is Bob C. who was spreading shredded bark with Del in the rose area behind the formal gardens pergola. Jim, Bob A. and Vern worked on the new 8' cedar benches (for the North Point garden) and were sizing up more Japanese garden fence repairs. Gary was in to create and mount more new labels for immediate use and is moving on to preparing the fern labels and entering in our woodland walk perennials. 
g. Marv and Terry did some more work on the butterflies, hauled some Earth Day items back and really kept busy with a wide variety of projects. They're also preparing for a new project that involves installing some shorter rock walls. Marianne did a nice job going thru the details of the tree sale and had time to 
get outside for clean-up, her cutting display, setting out daylily labels and dispersing close to 200 lbs. of worm poop (castings) throughout our fern & moss garden. Larry unpacked two huge pallets of plants and spent time repairing a broken pump, clearing out the yard for the upcoming spring plant sale (May 14 & 15, presale in the 13th for RBG members) and unloaded 300 'Brazen Brass' mustard (Brassica juncea) that we'll use as a cool season green (actually dark maroon) for spring container interest. Janice continued her weeding in the formal gardens which involves removing a couple thousand ornamental onion (Allium) seedlings that have become problematic. She also attended our Horticulture Therapy Commitee with Mike M., Kelli, Joan, Victoria, Karen, Darcie and me. We also saw Little Jerry and his daughter and were able to meet the new special events coordinator/fund development staff member, Amanda. She started today and we welcome her to the RBG family. Nice shot to the left of marsh marigold (Caltha palustris) near our zig-zag bridge. To the right is the 'Mt. Hood' grape hyacinth (Muscari armeniacum) with that "dusting of snow" on the "peak." Below are just a few of the tens of thousands of daffodils (Narcissus) blooming around the gardens. 
s it hurtles downslope. This time of year is a juggling act of gardening, plant arrivals, labeling and special events preparations. Our spring plant sale is looming and will start exactly two weeks from this Friday. We'll actually have some plants arriving as early as next week. The challenge with our vegetables and herbs is that they are all arriving after being pampered in warm greenhouses. With any threat
of cold temperatures in the coming weeks, we are obliged to move plants inside at night. This would be easier if we didn't have to displace and account for all of our garden vehicles and other "obstacles" that need to be moved or relocated. The combination of the extended tree sale, our spring plant sale, two May evening presentations and the quick segway in to five sequential Saturday planting work days makes for a busy spring. There really shouldn't be any surprises but our successes are directly related to our volunteer commitments which are always so welcome and vital. To the left is another Japanese primrose (Primula sp.) and to the right is the almost black, emerging foliage of the dark-leaved senecio (Ligularia dentata 'Britt Marie Crawford'). The foliage will be more of a maroon/green later on but this is a nice perennial for a tropical texture and nice yellow daisies in early summer. Lots of water required for both perennials shown here. Directly below are some of our remaining tree sale offerings (arborvitae, Norway spruce, Colorado blue spruce, Black Hills spruce) still available and the beautiful cardinal at the bottom. 
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