Rain, Clouds and Plenty Accomplished

Above is an unknown variety of water lily (Nymphaea) that just needed to be photographed in our koi pond (formal gardens) today. Our aquatics are finally starting to perk up and we have more tropicals to add very shortly. There was some overnight precipitation that lasted in to the early morning hours with promises of continued rain throughout the day. However, it really was a fairly dry day and everyone was able to get outside for planting and other gardening tasks. The rains were welcome (maybe more tonight...) and should give everything a nice burst of growth. Janice's squash seeds are germinating nicely over at the Horticulture Center (see below) and it will be nice to see the end result of our squash (both winter and summer) displays. She has a sturdy crew of volunteers enlisted to help keep this collection weeded and watered as needed.
Above is a close-up of the hybrid, crested painted fern (Athyrium hybrida 'Ocean's Fury') that is a cross between the Japanese painted fern (Athyrium niponicum var. pictum) and the crested lady fern (Athyrium filix-femina, variety?). There is a crested Japanese painted fern (Athyrium niponicum 'Applecourt') that looks cool too but is only 15" tall. 'Ocean's Fury' can top out at 32"-36" and has the benefits of both parents. We planted about 30 of these in the woodland walk years ago as little plugs and they're really sizing up now and I have a decent picture (finally!). To the left is the Lady In Red ninebark (Physocarpus opulifolius 'Tuilad') in bloom with flower clusters arching on cascading branches. I love "open grown" ninebarks for their form but you have to account for their dramatic and variable width. While they can be cut back severly in winter to keep them a little more "sized" the next year, shearing/shaping during the growing season is a true travesty as all ninebarks should be left to show their natural form!

With the rainy morning, I spent a couple hours catching up with all my invoices (3 weeks worth), desk work, phone calls, etc. I later went out to lay out plants for tomorrow's work day (8 am - 12 noon). I placed plenty of annuals along our entrance gardens slope that are ready for the attention of 25-35 volunteers (hopefully). See the bottom picture. Marv and Terry fueled up our vehicles, hauled plants for me (to the front slope), collected more debris, rototilled and tidied up in general. The guys also helped plant in the sunken and shade gardens respectively. Marianne also helped haul plants this morning, planted, tidied, did her cutting display and worked on the daylily collection labels. Janice also planted and spent time working with Ariel on putting out our new labels in both the fern & moss garden and the woodland walk garden. To the right is Janice's replanted vertical wall with herbs. Janice also prepared all our tools, etc. for tomorrow and is off on a well deserved vacation for the week. Jenny was in for a half day to complete her labeling, shifting and inventorying of the remainder of our plants out in the yard. While the image below looks like a spent bloom going to seed, it's actually the emerging flower cluster (will be yellow) for the Armenian basket flower (Centaurea macrocephala) which is in the same genus as bachelor's buttons. I'll take a picture of this perennial in bloom in a couple weeks and you'll be impressed. Further below is a bee working over the Jerusalem sage (Phlomis tuberosa 'Amazone') that has such nice tiered, violet blooms this time of year. This bee hardly noticed me and was quite intent on the flower.
We saw some progress out in the gardens with our contractors working on some rock work near the North Point garden. It was a bit damp to continue in the Japanese garden although the guys shifted over there in the afternoon. Dr. Yahr came in to do some weeding and Dr. Gredler was in to mow the vast majority of the gardens. We held off on pushmowing as it was very damp and the grass hadn't grown too much and can be addressed early next week. We did tidy up all the wedding sites which was quite timely as a wedding showed up in the gazebo garden early this afternoon and we had heard nothing about it. Whereas we've traditionally hosted Saturday weddings in the past and will typically accomodate between 2 and 7 outdoor weddings during a Saturday, we're seeing more weddings on Friday and Sunday. It is challenging to keep the gardens tidied up for these events, particularly after a wind storm of the caliber that came thru our area on Wednesday evening this week. Today we also saw Kay D., Maggie, Chris, Elsa, Ellie and Maury was in to run some errands for us too. To the upper left is an interesting ornamental onion (Allium) aptly called 'Hair'. These (Allium 'Hair') are fall-planted and while not real showy from a distance, they are quite interesting close up and reach a height o 24"-30" or so. To the right is the start of our golden silver fleece vine (Fallopia aubertii 'Lemon Lace') starting to work up our blue pyramids in the entrance garden. The conversion from blue to yellow has begun! I hope for a strong turnout of volunteers tomorrow and decent weather. Next week will be crunch time for planting as I'm gone the following week (with Kelli) to the American Public Garden Association annual conference in Philadelphia. Directly below is Marv tidying up after some expert rototilling.