Plant Arrival & The Jenkins Arboretum

Nice shot above of the 'Mocha' coral bells (Heuchera villosa-type) with large, chocolate leaves (height around 20"!). Today was one of the few days that I didn't take any pictures as I actually wasn't out in the gardens more than a couple hours to spray some herbicide in select locations to help thwart the latest advances of countless weeds and unchecked grasses. I was off picking up plants (more on that later) for the entire morning. Weeding was a priority today with Jenny weeding most of the day in the North American garden. This area has our All-America Selections (AAS) and Fleuroselect displays and we were tidying up prior to a visit tomorrow from three AAS staff members. Their home office is in the Chicago area (Downers Grove, IL) and they'll visit RBG in the morning and Boerner Botanic Gardens (Hales Corners, WI) as well. Kay was back in action the past two days (Amen) and helped Jenny weed that area after doing some clean-up in her assigned section of the shade garden. Marv was here a half day and weeded and watered (including all of our containers) while Janice also weeded and did a nice job planting in the gazebo garden (caladiums, begonias, New Guinea impatiens). Larry ran irrigation which became more difficult to accomplish with many visitors today including a youth art class that was sketching/painting out in the gardens. They don't appreciate being hit by sprinklers for some odd reason. Larry also began pruning in the woodland walk garden to open the space up a bit while still maintaining shade cover. Big John worked on clearing more daffodil foliage and weeds and also push mowed. He went on a "plant procurement" trip with Pat later in the day too. After Pat did some weeding and mowing, he and I went out for plants as well (that being my second trip of the day with three trips total). These were trips to nurseries that were donating some surplus plants to the gardens that help augment our final plantings. Marianne tidied up the front of the building and did an awesome job planting 19 flats by herself in the sunken garden. That is a lot of plants and a lot of holes to dig! That might be a single day record at RBG! We continue to water as the next chance of rain is this Friday but of course we never count on it! We also saw Rose, Kris, Ariel, Vern, Bill O. (mowed the arboretum), Maury, Rollie, Ray and many others.

The pictures below are from the Jenkins Arboretum (Devon, PA) that I visited last week (Wednesday) as part of the APGA conference and I was really blown away. See http://www.jenkinsarboretum.org/ for more information on this 46 acre botanic garden (20 accessible acres to the public) that has an interesting history as well. The woodland setting including awesome ferns, groundcovers, trees, shrubs and lots of art incorporated out in the gardens (see the "metal clothesline" below and the "birches" in the bottommost picture). Near the visitors center was a neat art project of huge ceramic watering cans (see below) decorated by various artists. I could tell that spring at this garden would be fabulous too with so many huge rhododendrons, etc. The setting was really engaging and I hope to visit again in the future. As with every garden I visited, the hospitality of staff and volunteers was amazing and I also met other conference attendees during this trip and garden visit. The second and third photos down feature the neat Indian pink (Spigelia marilandica) that we have tried many times at the gardens to no avail (Zone 5 hardiness). It was thriving in moist, well-drained, organic soils at the arboretum where I caught many pictures of this North American native at peak bloom.