Rain (A One Word Summary!)

Plenty of precipitation today (see the parking lot of the Horticulture Center above). It rained most of the day and varied from a downpour to a light drizzle. It did stop raining around 2 pm for a bit and most of the gang headed out in to the gardens. The picture directly above is the Rock's peony (Paeonia rockii) bud poised for opening tomorrow. I sure appreciate peonies when they bloom and our tree peonies (Paeonia suffriticosa) are all strutting their stuff. Well, on a day like this, we tear in to indoor projects and actually went on three plant runs. Marv and Terry picked up a load from Ahren's Acres (Brodhead) with John and I doing the next run. John went back after lunch to pick up the last of our plants from them and we appreciate all that the crew at Ahren's Acres (Audra, Natalie, Linda, Richard, etc.) does for us. We have one plant run tomorrow and will finish our "pick-ups" next week. To the right is some creeping phlox (Phlox subulata 'Emerald Pink') that I saw at The Flower Factory yesterday. Creeping phlox sure is nice for a couple weeks in May before it fades. To the left is a cool "bottle tree" sculpture that was also at the nursery. You can't go wrong with plenty of blue in the garden.

Marianne and Big John started the day by helping clean the Horticulture Center and Marianne went on to help prepare handouts, potted up the last of our summer bulbs, tidied up here and there, made copies and collected some label information from our new perennials that will be translated in to new labels soon. John and Pat hauled some items to storage and did a nice job putting the last coat of red on our freshly painted obelisks (see bottommost photo). Pat also prepared labels, cleaned up the carts and kept busy inside. John did get some weeding done too out in the daylily collection where quack grass is preparing for a repeat performance from previous years. Marv and Terry, after their plant run, did some shopping for fertilizer, shovels and fuel and returned to fill up our mobile raised beds with their custom potting mix and helped with odds and ends. To the right is the cutleaf weeping peashrub (Caragana arborescens 'Walkeri') at The Flower Factory just starting to bloom with yellow flowers. We have one in front of our visitor's center as well. I didn't take too many shots today so am borrowing some from yesterday! Below is a white starflower (Ipheion uniflorum 'White Star') blooming up thru the patterned foliage of a deadnettle (Lamium maculatum). Nice combo! Above is the variegated Virginia creeper (vine). The Star Showers Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia 'Monham') has no two leaves alike and while it occasionally gets green reversions, it is quite showy, vigorous and also has a pinky/orange/red fall color. We did have some volunteers stop in today. Margaret popped by this morning but decided to put in her time on Friday as the weather will be more conducive for planting. Maury was in for a bit and Gary (see at bottom) came in to show Pat and John how to secure the new labels on their aluminum stakes. We also saw Bev D., Dr. Yahr, Bob T. and some others. The weather will be sour for the next day or two with some overnight lows in the upper 30 degrees F. UGH! That doesn't bode well for our tropicals but we have little recourse for protecting so many plants out in the yard. They will certainly be "hardened off" though. To the right are upright arborvitae (Thuja occidentalis 'DeGroot's Spire') at The Flower Factory that I remember being planted about 10 years ago at 3' in height. They are still quite narrow and are nice verticals along a tall wall that can use the visual anchoring and reference. We have some of this variety at the gardens as well. To the above left is the variegated Japanese kerria (Kerria japonica 'Picta') in bloom. I've featured some kerrias recently and like this one for the extended foliage contribution. This variety is not as vigorous as any of the green leaf varieties but is still quite showy. To the right are some plug trays (400 plugs) that we received today from Skagit Gardens. They were packed nicely in these mesh sleaves. You can see hints of chartreuse from these small golden Irish mosses (Sagina subulata 'Aurea') that we'll hopefully plant in our fern & moss garden tomorrow. Although not true mosses, Irish mosses (particularly the gold) will be a nice contributor for color and texture in the open gaps of this space.