Steady Drizzle

I have to admit that I didn't take any pictures out in the gardens today but all of these included shots were from the past couple of days. It was a dismal day with cold temperatures and drizzle most of the day. I was able to catch up on all sorts of desk work and didn't lack for tasks to accomplish. The photo at the top is the drying fruit structure (called a syncarp of dehiscent capsules) from our sweetgum tree (Liquidambar styraciflua) near the arboretum. While not as potent of a projectile as the black walnut (Juglans nigra) fruits, these can be tough on bare feet for sure! The ornamental, perennial grasses at RBG are really looking good and many are going thru their fall transformation. Many perennial grasses have decent fall color, including the Japanese silver grass (Miscanthus sinensis 'Blondo') seen directly above. From November thru March is a great time to evaluate the winter landscape and look for areas that could benefit from the impact and appeal of an ornamental grass(es) and colorful conifers for color and form. To the right are Marv (left) and Terry (right) preparing lights yesterday for some of their set-up tomorrow. That table has been used for Holiday Lights Show (HLS) related work since September although we do see light at the end of the proverbial tunnel with progress occuring daily. To the left are the fruits on the Royal Raindrops crabapple (Malus 'KFS-KW5') that also has maroon foliage in the summer that turns this bright red in fall.

Big John, Larry and Janice started the day with indoor projects which included finishing decorating obelisks, repairing lights and bringing out some older wreaths and garlands with lights that needed to be replaced. Pat came in to help with this process and repaired lots of lights as well. Del was in briefly to work on his deer cutout project too. Larry helped organize the cluttered Horticulture center and hauled some of our "cluster" back out to the garage for storage. Larry later went out and ran cords for me. John was out in the garden pounding more stakes for incoming trees (Monday), buried cords and ran cords to some displays. Bill O. went out in the drizzle too and had no trouble finding more debris (leaves, twigs, etc.) to haul back. We saw Gary, Maury, Joanne, Chris, Iza, Hal and Big John for our Garden Development & Maintenance Committee meeting over here today. We also saw Don, Joella and Jenny E. today. To the right is the start of the maroon fall color of the Korean greenstem forsythia (Forsythia viridissima var. koreana 'Kumson'). Though not a strong bloomer, I love the white "netting" look on each leaf which becomes even more pronounced in late Autumn with the deep maroons. We butcher this variety back as needed as it tends to sprawl and sucker a bit. The leaf coloration is such a great asset. Below are two shots (courtesy of Kris K.) from the Market Mingle event held at RBG this past Friday night. I stopped by with Jim Nau, one of our symposium speakers, and I was amazed not only the volume of traffic but the quality of all the vendors. I hear it was a huge success and I hope we do more events like this in the near future.