A Busy Day At RBG

It was a busy day today both out in the gardens with volunteer & staff progress but also over at the Parker Education Center with a huge gathering. The image directly above is of a portion of the crowd (280+) people that attended the Mercy Health System Volunteer Recognition Lunch. The parking lot was full and people were parking up and down Palmer Drive (our frontage road). I gave a presentation to the group on Healing Gardens that seemed well-received and it was interesting to see about 30 or so of our own volunteers in this crowd as well. The image at the top is the red fall color of one of our cranesbill geraniums (Geranium x cantabrigiense) in the alpine garden. Peak fall color for perennial geraniums, those that "color up", isn't usually until November and it sure can be vivid. To the right is a neat container that Vern brought in to show me. Now that container has character! To the left is the orange fall color of the Snow Fountains weeping Higan cherry (Prunus hybrida 'Snofozam'). This orange fall color is only rivaled by the masses of light pink blooms in early spring.

We had an amazing amount of volunteers here today with Grumpies, Grumpettes and our afternoon volunteer crews. Vern, Dave, Bob A. and Jim continued work on an accessible planter and are coming up with some "mock ups" for our art project next year. Tom C. and Dick P. finished installing some new electrical connections to the storage shed at the other building. Larry was out collecting leaves and debris while Gary and Bob C. did the same but moved on to woodchip mulching as well. Dennis and Dave (directly below) continued working on their woodchip project while Pat was in the rose garden collecting and removing an old mulch layer from around the roses. Ron and Bev were back in to help with Holiday Lights Show (HLS) set-up and continued decorating our arches with twinkle lights. Dick H. came in and ran many loads to the dump and picked up our repaired utility cart (with Big John). Urban was in pruning (see picture further below and to the left) the crabapples (Malus sp.) in front of the Parker Education Center and worked well in to the afternoon. Suzy did a nice job cleaning up debris in the woodland walk garden while Maury ran to Madison to pick up the big screen for our symposium this Saturday. Gena, Mary and Myrt came in after lunch and continued cutting back perennials, collecting leaves and in general, doing a nice job of fall clean-up. Janice's volunteers were in as well and did a great job in the Scottish garden with the same activities. Mary W. was in to help her out and we also saw Kelli, Val, Dorothy, Mike P., Chuck and Rollie (came in to mow) today. To the right is a nice shot of the south entrance to the Japanese garden. Directly below (second picture down) is the orange fall color of the variegated Japanese zelkova (Zelkova serrata 'Goshiki') which normally has green leaves with the white margins. I haven't noticed this combination of color (almost a "tricolor" look) in past years and thought it quite striking. Zelkovas are in the elm (Ulmaceae) family and are tough trees but have hardiness issues further north. The day was drizzling to start but it stopped raining shortly although it was dark and cloudy all day (despite promises of later sunshine). The grounds crew kept hopping as well. Big John worked on putting up lights on the gazebo and helped Larry in the reception garden. He also helped Dick H. with the utility cart pick-up this morning. Janice continued some work on the upcoming symposium this weekend, helped get some of our morning and afternoon volunteers oriented to their projects at hand and worked with her afternoon volunteers collecting debris. I continue to work on items for the symposium on Saturday but was glad to be the presenter at that luncheon today to help promote awareness of the gardens and mention our future Wellness Garden (just starting to plan for it). It's so nice to spend time with volunteers in general as they all donate such valuable time to the organizations that they support. To the right is the increasingly orange fall color of the Japanese stewartia (Stewartia pseudocamellia) in the Japanese garden. I featured a picture of this a couple weeks ago when it was a light melon color but wow! that is a brilliant orange. This is a marginally hardy woody plant for us and I sure hope it makes it in its protected location... To the right is the flame grass (Miscanthus sinensis 'Purpurascens') in the parking lot islands. Most Miscanthus' get a yellow coloration in late fall before turning brown. This variety goes thru a pink/orange stage that further develops to an orange/red in November (then goes brown by December). Ornamental grasses really are becoming "front and center" in the November landscape and their merits become very conspicuous this time of year with texture, fall color and inflorescences (flower/seed heads). Directly below are the fruits of the Harvest Gold crabapple (Malus hybrida 'Hargozam'). These fruits are at least 1" in diameter and are really showy right now. The birds clean them off over the winter but here is a classic case on how fruits can be ornamental as well. At the bottom is more of our Boston ivy (Parthenocissus tricuspidata) changing a nice fall color. Some of our ivy in sunnier spots is already red and dropping leaves. This batch on the north side of one of our buildings is going thru this pinkish red transition right now. Very colorful.