Nice To See A Crowd

As the first Wednesday of the month, it was a free admission day today and many took advantage of this opportunity on a slightly cooler day than what we've seen recently. This afternoon was still darn hot though! The top image shows some families on the zig-zag bridge and many of these visitors came earlier for our Story & Stroll program. This program has seen record attendance and it's nice to see so many children out enjoying the garden as well. The image directly above shows two guys from Nature's Touch continuing to work on the upper portion of the new waterfall in the Japanese garden. Progress has gone well and they think they'll be done by early next week. To the right are the prolific blooms of the threadleaf tickseed (Coreopsis verticillata 'Zagreb') which has a long period of flower power. To the left, the native rattlesnake master (Eryngium yuccifolium) is peaking and looking quite statuesque with those rigid stems and spherical flower clusters.

I was elated when I came to work this morning and saw Marv's truck. He (and Marianne) weren't supposed to be back working until tomorrow but we sure appreciate having Marv here today as it would have been just Big John and I taking care of all the watering, etc. Marv worked on setting up sprinklers, running irrigation, fertilizing, hand watering, weeding, etc. On these "free days", it's always a challenge trying to keep up with watering but to also not compromise access for the visitors. We had a photographer today that was irked that we were watering but what is the other option? I thought it an odd criticism of a garden that has had very little rain (overall) over the past six weeks. Big John also worked on setting up sprinklers, running irrigation, hand watering, fertilizing, etc. I was out watering and did a final purge on the yard which involved dicarding certain items and organizing those plants that we still have to plant yet this summer (mostly perennials and woody plants). While our flower beds are mostly full, we keep general "back ups" of plants for both sun and shade that can be used to not only fill a hole but certainly offer something visually. We'll actually take some of these back-ups out in the gardens next week and finish planting the English cottage garden and fill in some gaps that have formed due to fungal issues and/or severe rabbit and woodchuck nibbling. To the right is a shot of the terrace garden border with plenty of blue and yellow. Directly below is Rollie who was setting new memorial bricks in the sunken garden yesterday. He's done this task for 12 years + and is very organized. This caterpillar above was observed on our tomato plants right near the Horticulture Center. This is the tomato hornworm which is not unusual. However, the white "attachments" caught our eye. We sent this picture to Mike M. (UWEX) for some ID and he mentioned that they are parasitic braconid wasp cocoons. Interesting. We had a nice turnout of volunteers today. Kay was in to continue her weeding efforts in the reception garden and North American garden. She is one of the few that can be unleashed in an area and can quickly separate friend from foe (weeds of course) very quickly. We hope to see her Friday as well. Janice came in and worked with a new volunteer, Angie, out in the fern & moss garden and hosta hollow. Dr. Gredler was in to work on spreading some woodchips and some other minor projects. Vern came in to start a very time-sensitive carpentry project for Kris that is due early next week. He spent a good couple hours today cutting patterns for some neat signage that will go down in the Smelly Garden. Dick H. continued his work on constructing a brand new tail gate. We also saw Dave and Dorothy as well as Kris and some others. The image to the right highlights the use of golden Hakone grass (Hakonechloa macra 'All Gold) in a vertical wall or other non-traditional location. These grasses are also helping to mitigate erosion between those boulders and I think they look really cool too. To the left is the hybrid 'Ghost' fern (Atyrium hybrida) which is showing its stature and strong silver overtones. I like 'Ghost' as it has the best features of both of its parents. It has the height and vigor of the lady fern (Athyrium filix-femina) but the cool silvering of the painted fern (Athyrium niponicum var. pictum). To the right is some cool foliage too. This is the ornamental hot pepper (Capsicum annuum) called 'Purple Flash'. This variety was part of our American Garden Award program last year (come see the entries this year!) and we really liked the variable foliage that has almost a glowing quality to it. The fruits are quite dark, glossy and rounded. With the gardens really maturing, I thought I'd share some recent gardens shots below. Directly below is our red wall planting which is coming along very well. Remember, those obelisks were lavender to start with but we changed them to red to go with this last minute scheme. The bottom photo is of the Smelly Garden which will be featured prominently this month with many special programs. Tomorrow is our members only bus tour (Ball Seed Trial Gardens and Cantigny Park & Gardens) to the Chicago area and we then have the Horseradish talk that night at 7 pm by the Janesville Area Herb Society.