Plant Sale Prep

Nice shot above of the 'Yellow Fever' magnolia (Magnolia hybrida) in bloom near our east gate. While some magnolias are finished blooming or past peak, the "yellow bloomers" start to steal the show later in the season. The arrival of such warm temperatures (another scorcher today), everything is being pushed along faster in terms of a quick maturing of the blooms. I'm bummed out that just as our tulips out front have started to peak, their "duration of impact" window has been condensed because of the heat. Oh well. As the day started, I took a quick hour and toured the gardens end to end. I really should do this more often for a couple of reasons. Every tour gives me ideas on priorities but also confirms how darn nice it looks out there. I was glad to see so many things looking good and had my handy camera with me too. To the right is the Japanese wood poppy (Glaucidium palmatum) in bloom in the woodland walk garden. This hellebore relative is quite rare and the single lavender blooms are similar to a peony blossom. We have maybe five of these around the gardens and they get more sizeable each year and unfortunately these neat blossoms are gone all too quickly. To the left are the blooms of one of the barrenworts (Epimedium x versicolor 'Sulphureum') in full bloom. Perhaps more aptly called bishop's hat, this "tough as nails" perennial is great in shade and part shade and while the spring flowers are gone quickly, the clean foliage (left alone by disease and insects) has a reddish tint in both spring and fall. To the right is one of the bottlebrush blooms of the 'Beaver Creek' dwarf witchalder or fothergilla (Fothergilla gardenii 'KLMtwo') in the woodland walk garden. The blooms have some fragrance but you have to get pretty close to catch it. I've featured this specific shrub in the past for not only the neat spring blooms but the superior late fall color (red/orange).

After my tour, I helped a bit with the plant sale but then attended the Education Committee montly meeting with Chris, Karen, Jane, Kris, Kelli, Bev, Mary Kay and Julie B. Kris ran a nice meeting and we talked about past, present and upcoming educational opportunities. Aside from the programs already set in place, we'll have some new offerings as well and are already looking in to 2012. Today was the first day of our Plants Program and the Youth Education volunteers facilitated a nice experience.Today was another day of plant sale preparations. Above are Don and Pearl (spouses) who not only help with special events but also do a nice job planting and maintaining a large annual bed at the east end of the shade garden. They are great volunteers but their public displays of affection can be border line nauseating... Other helpers included Janet, Nancy, Audra, Cathy (to the left), Mary W., Sally, Shirley, Kay, Margaret and Alice. I hope I did't miss anyone. Our "pricing gang" continued work on the herbs and worked on our tomatoes, peppers and compact vegetables as they arrived. They were awesome helpers and were flexible with side projects (weeding, sign preparation, etc.) between labeling needs. Janice and Marianne again coordinated the efforts out there and kept everyone moving along. We have another crew of volunteers helping tomorrow to finish pricing and to assist with final layout of the sale. We'll need the Grumpies to help tomorrow morning with the final set-up of two tents and some tables for the sale. Other volunteers included Jumbo Jim and four RECAPPERS, Lois, Elsa, Maury, Dick P., Dick H., Dr. Gredler and Dr. Yahr and many others. Christine R. and Sue M. were on hand to tape a podcast out in the plant sale for promoting that event. There was a lot of coming and going but we have all the plants in for the sale and just need to finalize our set-up and preparations. With the "Members Only" sale on Friday (9 am - 5 pm), we'll need to be ready to roll. With the heat, some of the ornamental onions (Allium) like 'Purple Sensation' are starting below. I love the rounded umbels of violet blooms on this variety and frequently refer to them as "puffballs on a stick". This variety is one of the most cost effective larger alliums (planted in fall) and is highly sought after each September and October for planting. Beneath the allium is the leaf of 'Looking Glass' false-forget-me-not (Brunnera macrophylla) that has the most silver to the leaf. The third picture in sequence captures the peak blooms of the golden bleeding heart (Dicentra spectabilis 'Goldheart') out in the gardens.
The grounds crew was very busy today and I think everyone lost 5 lbs. in sweat. Larry and Pat went on our first trip for plants and came back with many flats of tomatoes and peppers for the sale. Their timing was perfect as our taggers went right to work and Terry and Marv then headed back for the remainder of that order. Larry also worked on mowing, weedwhipping and plenty of unloading of our incoming orders. Terry and Marv also hung and secured all of our hanging baskets, worked on setting some boulders (see picture above with the guys and their shovels...) and tidied up a border. These guys work well together and also planted the first of our annuals. They planted annual vines on our blue obelisks and I wont say what they are as you'll have to come see for yourself. John continued the conversion of a tough area from woodchips and poor soil to a nice, rich composted soil that will have annuals for the first time ever. Pat helped later and moved on to some other projects while Big John also watered all of our earlier mustard/pansy plantings (getting dry) and went on a plant run with me in the afternoon for lots of coleus (Solenstemon scutellarioides) and other tropicals. Marianne was in the plant sale most of the day coordinating the volunteers and pricing with Janice. Marianne did get her cutting display refreshed and both Janice and Marianne will be on hand tomorrow morning for day 3 of 3 for tagging. To the above right is another barrenwort (or bishop's hat) in the woodland walk. This variety of epimedium (Epimedium grandiflorum var. higoense 'Bandit') has crystal white, spurred blossoms that are quite fetching. To the left is another windflower (Anemone nemerosa) in the Scottish garden which will finish up shortly. The Scottish garden has lots of neat perennials and woody plants but is one of only two gardens without any annuals (the Japanese garden being the other one). Spring color is great though (in both those gardens). Also in the Scottish garden are the cowslip primroses (Primula veris) as seen to the right. Directly below is a diligent bumble bee working over some lungwort (Pulmonaria) blossoms. The bottom picture is of the Nancy Yahr Memorial Children's Garden from the terrace garden.