Starting To Get Dry

Well, it was a hot one today (above is a shot of the formal gardens from the back porch last night). The combination of 92 degrees F with 20 mph winds can really dry things out quickly. All the grounds staff today (Marv, Marianne, Terry, Jenny and Janice) were all involved with watering at some point today. I had hoped that the chance of showers yesterday would have materialized and dropped a nice, slow "soaker." When I came in today, I started up our irrigation early and Marv continued running different zones throughout the day. We have four computer control boxes that collectively run about 50 irrigation zones or so (60% of the gardens) and we try to only run it when we have to and preferably early in the morning if possible. Hand watering is also in our arsenal and was used today extensively. Before I talk about today, I'd like to say how enjoyable Joanne Ekena's presentation on Genetically Modified Organisms was last night as the fourth installment of the Rock Prairie Master Gardener Thursday evening lecture series. Joanne (to the right) did a great job and the question and answer portion at the end was quite engaging. The one bummer about the evening was that we had only 17 people attend which really surprised me. Regardless, it was a nice talk and we appreciate Joanne's time and expertise. Aside from her career as a scientist at UW-Madison, she is a solid volunteer at the gardens as well. Directly below is the nice orange foliage of 'Amber Waves' coral bells (Heuchera) that is always so striking in the spring. 'Amber Waves' was one of the first orange coral bells and while I still like it, I've moved on to some of the others as well. The summer leaf coloration of 'Amber Waves' after our summer WI heat can look a little tired. Look for 'Caramel' and you can't go wrong.... With a Saturday work day (the third of five sequential...) tomorrow (8am-12 noon), I spent a lot of time getting plants situated for the start of our planting day. My focus is on our "Smelly Garden" which is really a two year theme for the Nancy Yahr Memorial Children's Garden. We'll have well over 150 varieties of plants with scented blooms and/or foliage. Terry, Marv and Marianne all helped haul plants down for me and Jenny did a nice job sending labels along with them. I go thru our vast yard of plants and place colored flags in various flats for specific collections. That allows me to say, "Hey, let's grab all the flats with blue flags and haul them to the Smelly Garden." This flagging system also allows me to have back up plants ready to go (green flags tomorrow, just in case...). Jenny spent another day in the yard organizing and matching labels. What a monumental (and much appreciated) effort. Marv did a great job rototilling two large areas in preparation for planting tomorrow, ran irrigation, hauled plants, set up sprinklers, watered new trees and kept darn busy. Terry mowed, watered containers, hauled plants and tidied up before our many weddings this weekend. Marianne did some significant planting in the entrance garden today that included our three patio beds and four containers. She also fertilized the entrance garden annuals, helped water the yard, haul plants and put together another nice cutting display. Janice mowed, watered, fertilized, cleared bulb foliage and got all of our tools, etc. ready for tomorrow. To the right is the interesting variegated foliage of the Citrus Swizzle forsythia (Forsythia viridissima 'McKCitrine') that was selected out of the WI-based McKay Nursery. While I've not seen this small shrub bloom, the foliage is quite nice. Below is a tour that Audrey (in the blue shirt pointing) was giving last night. I also saw her giving a tour today. Our docents have been very active and all do a very nice job with their tours and representing RBG. I hope Audrey's periodically foul language was overlooked by the group. That lady on the left didn't seem real enthused about the photo either....
Directly above is the 'Remember Me' plantain lily (Hosta) that really catches my eye with such neat leaves. This variety was named after an employee at Walter's Garden (a large and popular wholesale perennial provider in MI) and proceeds from all of these that are sold from Walter's go to a foundation established in her name. I think I've had some of my best hosta shots this year with such nice growth and clean leaves (for now). To the right are the jointed stems of our horsetail (Equisetum) that can be found along the shoreline between the alpine garden and arched bridge. This primitive plant (with a 100+ million year history) was here before the gardens were started by Dr. Yahr. We've not received an official ID of the species as these are about 3-4' tall and most visitors think they're some sort of bamboo. To the left is a vivid blue false indigo (Baptisia australis 'Caspian Blue') selected in Europe that received the Award of Garden Merit from the Royal Horticultural Society (UK) and can be found near the new North Point garden.

We had another nice volunteer turn out today. Ariel, our new intern, inventoried the perennials in the shade garden and continued with her data entry portion of the information this afternoon that will later become new and improved labels. I placed some plants this morning for Roy and Mary to plant and they did a nice job putting in a couple hundred more annuals and their space is looking great. Rose and Urban were in early to paint a major gate that really needed help and will be moving on to other projects. I really appreciate their initiative as I have little time to observe those spaces let along facilitate. Little Jerry came in and did a nice job mowing and also had time for pruning some small trees that were overgrowing one of our paths. Dr. Yahr came in and did a nice job planting about 20 containers in the formal gardens. Dr. Gredler was also in to mow, prune and work on turf repair. We had a productive meeting of our Home Garden Tour Commitee with Bill, Jean, Janet and Cora. We also saw Ron W., Myrt, Chuck, Carol, Audrey, Steve S., Maury, Polly, Lori, Vern, Beth and many others. Fridays are always crazy! We'll see how the work day progresses tomorrow. To the above right is the serrated foliage of the 'Jaws' stonecrop (Sedum sp. 'Jaws') that will later have the pink flower umbels in late summer. The blue/green foliage with that "shark teeth margin" is fetching as well. Below is a foliage close-up of 'Majeste' lungwort (Pulmonaria) and the engaging blooms of the alpine soapwort (Saponaria hybrida 'Oliviana') that is all of 2" tall or so and nestled in our alpine garden.