Tail End Of The Heat?

Today was another hot, sticky one but it looks like it will be a lot more tolerable starting tomorrow. I was able to get around the gardens this morning and was impressed with how well our displays look despite some of the tough weather we've had this summer. The color combinations and overall "look" of the garden is the best I've ever seen it. The top picture above shows the arbor structure in the North Point garden. With the turf, plantings and containers all growing well, this garden will be utilized for its first outdoor wedding ceremony this Friday. We still have some tidying up to do around that garden but it will be ready to go. The view from that garden area is quite impressive and we're happy with the way this garden developed. Directly above is the 'Green Jewel' coneflower (Echinacea purpurea). Now that is unique! To the left is some cardoon (Cynara cardunculus) filling in nicely in the reception garden and offering a bold, silver look to that predominantly pink garden. Speaking of bold, to the right is the 10" diameter blooms of the 'Kopper King' hibiscus (Hibiscus hybrida) which is one that dies to the ground each year with new shoots emerging the following June. Note the dark, maroonish-green foliage and the distant arched bridge in the upper right corner of that image.

Larry and Janice came in early today to get a jump on the heat. Larry has been the maestro of irrigation and has been running zones over the last couple of days and supplementing with handwatering and/or sprinklers as needed. There is a 40% chance of rain tonight although that's never a very reassuring percentage. We're still trying to maintain the nice moisture from last week. Larry also worked on pruning/thinning a weeping willow (Salix alba 'Niobe') tree near the North Point garden and pushmowed as well. Janice worked on the cutting display, weeding, watering and also had a meeting. Big John also pushmowed and moved on to extensive fertilization of our largest annual beds. This is something we do twice each summer and today involved fertilizing about 8,000 square feet of annual beds (which is not even a third of the square footage of our annual beds). I worked on a couple projects including some herbicide applications around the horticulture center. To the left are the increasingly bright stems (petioles) of the 'Pink Lipstick' Swiss chard (Beta vulgaris) that can be found in the reception garden. Wow! Now that is a bright color. To the right is the yellow monkshood (Aconitum lamarckii) that has very unique, pale yellow blossoms in mid-summer. I've not seen our specimens (shade garden) bloom until this year. Neat. Not far from this monkshood was Kay (seen below). Kay did a nice job weeding her section of the shade garden (far east end) and she also planted 30? or so new perennials in that space as well. We greatly appreciate her talents (and her biker bandana). Above is a nice shot of the formal annual sections which are all mirror-imaged, identically planted beds. The large maroon grass in the center of all of these eight sections is the purple elephant grass (Pennisetum purpureum 'Prince'). There are three specimens in each of the sections and based on past observations regarding this annual grass, we should see these top out at well over 8' tall by the end of the summer. This red/maroon theme seen here is an echo of the theme from last year. Marv and Terry are responsible for shearing/shaping the boxwoods (Buxus 'Green Velvet') defining this space and while they did this in June already, they'll shear again later in the month to keep a nice tight form for the remainder of the year. To the right is our little orange border that is looking nice with primarily foliage appeal. Note the orange-stemmed Swiss chard (Beta vulgaris) and the 'Freckles' coleus (Solenostemon scutellarioides). The Potter Daylily Collection is still looking quite nice south of the arboretum. The variety of daylily (Hemerocallis) to the left is 'Lullaby Baby' with very soft pink/cream blossoms that have a slight fragrance. Lisa, our volunteer who has managed this collection, has also photographed, inventoried, confirmed, categorized and otherwise organized all these daylilies as well. To the right is the brilliant yellow blooms of 'Voltage Yellow' African Daisy (Osteospermum sp.).

Despite the heat, we did have a nice volunteer turnout. Mary H. and her daughter came in to tidy up their berm and did a top notch job. Dick H. came in to work on building a new tailgate for one of our utility vehicles. His welding skills have made him very "multi-dimensional" (not to mention valuable) for us! Vern was in to prepare some carpentry projects and both Deb G. and Bev D. were here to evaluate our butterfly artwork and cover some details for other events. Bill O. came in to plant a bit and tidy up. Dr. Gredler was in to mow and Dr. Yahr was in as well. I hope a return to cooler temperatures will also equate to more weeding volunteers out in the gardens! I also spent some time with Tony and Londa, two new volunteers that we welcome aboard! Directly below is the double bloom from one of our Rose of Sharon (Hibiscus syriacus) shrubs. We're not sure of the variety but this large shrub is now about 10' tall and flowers well every summer. At the bottom is another shot of the reception garden taken this morning.