Preparation For Another Busy Weekend

Above is the scene at the Horticulture as I left this afternoon. The windstorm last week damaged a very large hackberry (Celtis occidentalis) along the entrance road to the Horticulture Center. The main trunk was splitting and the split had actually widened over the last week. This was an accident waiting to happen and one wind storm away from splitting. LP Tree Service came to take it down and had to use a crane to help lower the larger sections. They did a nice job and made quick work of this unsafe tree. The weather became very muggy this afternoon and there is a threat of rain over the next four or five days. To the right is a foliage close-up of the variegated greenstem forsythia (Forsythia viridissima var. koreana 'Kumson'). To the left are the showy bloom clusters of a nice yarrow (Achillea hybrida 'Pretty Belinda) in the formal gardens. The shades of pink are variable and related to the duration of the bloom (brighter pink = younger blooms). I've observed many visitors getting a closer look at this one.

Volunteers today included Dr. Yahr who helped plant in a couple different locations including the North Point garden. Dr. Gredler was in to mow, make a dump run and work on some other projects. Vern was in to work in the carpentry shop and Maury came in to look at a fence problem and ran some errands to pick up supplies. Roy and Mary came in to weed their portion of the shade garden and accomplished the fourth and final wave of planting in their space. Janet also planted out in the gardens and we saw Nancy and many others. We also saw Pingting and the volunteers that came for our Home Garden Tour Meeting (Jean, Janet, Barb and Cora). Chris, Bob and August further planted and cleaned up the north side of the sunken garden. They've all done such a nice job, we hope they'll absorb the south side too (which needs some help! hint hint Bob!). Dave W. also stopped by and brought some nice donated plants (primarily hostas). We had a very solid week of volunteer help out in the gardens and hope the trend continues for the planting work day tomorrow (June 18th) from 8 am until 12 noon. These volunteer planting days have been very well attended and we accomplished all of our planting goals thus far. The holding yard actually looks very picked over to me (still 35,000 plants)! To the right is the showy Armenia basketflower (Centaurea macrocephala) out in the formal gardens. Below is the bloom closeup of a neat foxglove (Digitalis purpurea 'Camelot Cream') that is still in our holding yard awaiting planting in the English cottage garden. It's hard to imagine that those spots don't play some role in attracting pollinators in to those showy blooms. The blog yesterday featured the pink Maltese cross and I mentioned the straight species (Lychnis chalcedonica) which is a nice red seen above (English cottage garden). The grounds staff did a great job today and we were quite busy sans Janice. Marv, Terry and Marianne started the day by clearing the remainder of weeds and bulb debris from the "comma berm" which is our reference name for the arching border surrounding the gazebo garden. Marv did a nice job rototilling it out as Terry smoothed it for planting. Marv touched up the gravel pathway adjacent to this border while Terry moved on to some pushmowing, fertilizing and his blower work in the primary wedding gardens. With more Friday night weddings (including tonight) we spend significant time tidying up the wedding sites. Marianne moved on to tidying up the front garden and she did a nice job dealing with a weedy mess around our "everflowing urn" (not currently operational). Marianne also watered and pulled together all our tour needs for tomorrow. Jenny prepared and matched more labels, pushmowed and watered. Aside from one meeting, I hauled plants all day in preparation for the planting workday tomorrow. To the above right is a close-up of the bloom for the crimson scabious (Knautia macedonica) that we have in many areas and enjoy its long bloom period (May until frost). Watch out for reseeding with this one though! To the left is just a fraction of the flats we accumulate as we plant. Interesting that each flat held 48 plants and that is one of many piles! This truly is a record for the number of plants in the ground by mid-June. We're at least 80% planted and I recall years (at the same time of June) where we have only been 50% planted, To the right is one of four signs that Larry installed yesterday in strategic locations. I feel it's like stating the obvious but sometimes that's what you have to do. Directly below is some of the progress in the lower pool (new) in the Japanese garden. The weather has finally been conducive to progress in this space and the contractors have some nice loads of rock to continue working on our new and improved wate feature. We all look forward to the end result! Tomorrow is one of three "perfect Saturday storms" at RBG with the Rotary Pie Ride (Lion's Beach), four wedding and our planting work day (maybe rain too). We'll get thru it.