Today was another one with perfect weather with partly cloudy skies, 80 degrees F and a slight breeze. There w
as a bus load of young children that came today with chaparones and they were touring the gardens and doing various activities here and there. Above is our volunteer, Suzy (in the center), with a group near the prairie. It's so nice to see the kids enjoying the gardens and learning! We have great education volunteers (and volunteers in general!) that are a real asset to the gardens and help us pursue that Mission of "providing horticultural education and appreciation for everyone." Directly above is a shot I took in the 
reception garden this morning. Now that is a true "ornamental edible"! The maroon-leaved plant is the 'Soldier' beet (Beta vulgaris) and it works so well in this pink-themed garden; not to mention that the leaves and root structure (beet) of this plant are also edible and very nutritious. We have this variety in many locations around this garden. To the left is a leaf shot of elephant ear (Colocasia esculenta) taken from behind with some nice sunlight shining thru. This specimen is in the gazebo garden where they have filled o
ut nicely. The heat and rain (+ supplemental irrigation) combined with plenty of fertilizer have made for vigorous growth on all of our elephant ears (Colocasia sp.) this year. It's hard to believe that these 6-8' tall tropicals came to us as "softball-sized" bulbs less than five months ago! To the right is a shot of the north side of the sunken garden which always looks colorful! This border is maintained by Chris and Bob G. with other portions maintained by Bev W. and Mel & June R. The sunken garden is a prime wedding location and certainly one of our showier gardens. To the left is the golden elephant ear (Colocasia esculenta 'Elena') that is on four of the sunken garden containers and in many other locations around the gardens (including the blue and yellow theme areas).
Similar to yesterday, we had another great showing of volunteers. Dr. Gredler came in to work 
on some odd projects and we were fortunate to have Kay, Mary and Ruth out working in the North American Garden where they weeded, deadheaded and purged crummy looking annuals. The ladies did a dynamite job and brought many cartloads of debris back with them this morning. I wish we had more volunteers during this time of year to keep up with the "fine tuning" gardening as I put it. We also saw Maury, Mary Kay, Mary H., Dr. Yahr and many others. Ellie and Peggy were out in the herb garden cleaning up as were Elsa and Lois yesterday. I met with Luis O. and we worked on identifying some woody plants as part of his mammoth project to catalog and map every woody plant in the gardens. He's doing a great job and his attention to detail is second to none. I also met with Lisa I. and we took a look at the daylily (Hemerocallis) collection that she has been immersed with over the past two years. Thanks to Lisa, we should have a fully planted, identified, labeled and mapped daylily collection by the end of the season. Yay! August is a good month for the Joe-pye weed (Eupatorium sp.) to bloom. To the right is the 'Gateway' Joe-pye weed (Eupatorium maculatum 'Gateway') located in massive drifts in the sunken garden. Those huge clusters attract lots of bees and can get a bit floppy with rain. I love this native plant but be wary of some reseeding issues, particulary in wetter soils (which it prefers). The beetles are pretty bad this year and will make short work of a rose bloom as seen below.... 
I meant to include the shot directly above in an earlier blog. Last week, some Grumpies organized our containers and did a great job. Imagine these scattered and pi
led "willy nilly" and that's what the "before picture" would have looked like! We do re-use many of these containers or donate them. This is just a fraction of what we produce in a year. We have enough guilt about throwing away a certain amount of our plastic and it's a tragedy that the "green industry" is not "green" at all when it comes to low-cost petroleum-based plastics which are very difficult to recycle. We're looking in to recycling options or initiatives but are also encouraged by developments in biodegradable and compostable nursery containers. To the right is the dinosaur kale (Brassica oleracea 'Lacinato') with such nice color and texture. We have sizeable clumps of this plant throughout the blue and yellow theme this year. To the left is the 'Golden Sunshine' runne
r bean (Phaseolus coccineus) starting to bloom. This variety has nice golden foliage which combines well with the blue obelisk. This specimen is in the Ornamental Edible / Compact Vegetable collection this year but we've grown it every year for the bright foliage (and tasty beans).
4th) to fill our gaps in that collection area. Directly below is a neat false-forget-me-not (Brunnera macrophylla) called 'Looking Glass' which has lots of silvering on the leaves. The blue flowers in early spring are neat too but this is a superior foliage plant for part shade during the rest of the summer with adequate moisture. At the bottom is the "Devil's Dipstick" (Mutinus elegans) which is a fungus that we see appearing primarily in wet, decaying wood mulch in shaded areas around the gardens. It is also called elegant stinkhorn, devil's stinkhorn and some less appropriate names. The Latin name derives from an early Roman god of fertility. What's interesting about the reproductive process of this stinkhorn is that it doesn't release spores as a typical mushroom would thru "gills". The spores are mixed in that brownish, stinky slime at the tip that will attract flies who will then "track" the sticky substance (with spores) to new locations. Flies are an essential part of the equation. This is a condensed and simple way of describing it but it makes sense and these stinkhorns appear almost overnight and their appearance I'm sure was prompted by the recent rains.
on some odd projects and we were fortunate to have Kay, Mary and Ruth out working in the North American Garden where they weeded, deadheaded and purged crummy looking annuals. The ladies did a dynamite job and brought many cartloads of debris back with them this morning. I wish we had more volunteers during this time of year to keep up with the "fine tuning" gardening as I put it. We also saw Maury, Mary Kay, Mary H., Dr. Yahr and many others. Ellie and Peggy were out in the herb garden cleaning up as were Elsa and Lois yesterday. I met with Luis O. and we worked on identifying some woody plants as part of his mammoth project to catalog and map every woody plant in the gardens. He's doing a great job and his attention to detail is second to none. I also met with Lisa I. and we took a look at the daylily (Hemerocallis) collection that she has been immersed with over the past two years. Thanks to Lisa, we should have a fully planted, identified, labeled and mapped daylily collection by the end of the season. Yay! August is a good month for the Joe-pye weed (Eupatorium sp.) to bloom. To the right is the 'Gateway' Joe-pye weed (Eupatorium maculatum 'Gateway') located in massive drifts in the sunken garden. Those huge clusters attract lots of bees and can get a bit floppy with rain. I love this native plant but be wary of some reseeding issues, particulary in wetter soils (which it prefers). The beetles are pretty bad this year and will make short work of a rose bloom as seen below.... I meant to include the shot directly above in an earlier blog. Last week, some Grumpies organized our containers and did a great job. Imagine these scattered and pi
led "willy nilly" and that's what the "before picture" would have looked like! We do re-use many of these containers or donate them. This is just a fraction of what we produce in a year. We have enough guilt about throwing away a certain amount of our plastic and it's a tragedy that the "green industry" is not "green" at all when it comes to low-cost petroleum-based plastics which are very difficult to recycle. We're looking in to recycling options or initiatives but are also encouraged by developments in biodegradable and compostable nursery containers. To the right is the dinosaur kale (Brassica oleracea 'Lacinato') with such nice color and texture. We have sizeable clumps of this plant throughout the blue and yellow theme this year. To the left is the 'Golden Sunshine' runne
r bean (Phaseolus coccineus) starting to bloom. This variety has nice golden foliage which combines well with the blue obelisk. This specimen is in the Ornamental Edible / Compact Vegetable collection this year but we've grown it every year for the bright foliage (and tasty beans).
The grounds staff did another great job today. Big John worked on a lot of smaller projects including cutting back perennial geraniums, mulching, watering containers, weeding, etc. His edging job in the English cottage garden yesterday turned out quite nice. Marv and Terry worked on weeding, planting, shearing, watering and many other projects. They didn't have to do any watering today (surprise!) as the soil is still quite wet from earlier rainfall. Marianne weeded and tidied up in some areas but left early as she didn't feel well. We hope she feels better soon! In going thru the daylilies (Hemerocallis) with Lisa this afternoon, I snapped some more pictures and really liked the shade of orange on 'Countess Carrots' (to the right). Although most daylilies are done blooming, some late bloomers and repeat bloomers are still offering color. Lisa will be picking up some new varieties (40+) from the Wisconsin Daylily Society daylily sale this weekend at Olbrich Botanical Gardens (10am-3pm on Saturday Aug. 13th and 11am-3pm on Sunday Aug. 1
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