A Day in Madison, WI

Late night for blogging so I'll minimize the text before the zzzzzzz set in! I was at RBG for about 1 hour this morning to touch base with the ground staff and I then headed up to Madison. I was scheduled to do a presentation on "Hosta Neighbors" for the Midwest Regional Hosta Society conference. I went up early and met Ed Lyon at Allen Centennial Gardens (ACG) on the UW-Madison campus. Ed, former Executive Director at RBG, is the director at ACG. When I arrived at ACG, Ed was giving a tour to the Olbrich Botanical Gardens grounds staff and interns. I inserted myself in the group and gave Ed a surprise when he finally saw me. It was good to see Jeff, Mark, Sam, Samantha and others from Olbrich. ACG looked great and I took plenty of pictures and was able to tour around with Ed L. and Ed G. They need the rain as much as we do. My talk was well-received at the conference and we had a packed room. I think some of the conference attendees will drive down to RBG this weekend after seeing some of my enticing slides.

Marv, Marianne, Terry, Janice and John took care of the gardens today and I'm sure did a nice job with their tasks (lots of watering!) and our normal Friday checklist of standard activities. Before I left, Kay and Shirley came in and teamed up on some serious weeding out in the gardens. Good job everyone! I'm officially on vacation but have some loose ends to take care of before Monday. The bottom picture is of Jumbo Jim who did a great job at his presentation last night. We had 37 attendees and we all appreciated Jim's gardening expertise and tips. It's his birthday today too! More blogging as time allows. See Allen Centennial Garden photos throughout this blog and specifically below.