The Last Best Day For Awhile?

Today was another warm one with temperatures around 49 degrees F. Tomorrow looks like highs in the mid 20 degrees F with some snow coming in over the next two days. The Janesville Gazette ran a nice front page article this morning on the recent weather trends and the article featured photos of snowdrops (Galanthus sp.) and hellebores (Helleborus sp.) poking up at RBG. Bill O. (a RBG volunteer too) took those nice shots. While I'm not excited about imminent shoveling exercise, I'm glad we can get back to temperatures that are better for the garden. I had many people today update me on what was poking up in their gardens too. The top photo is Dr. Gredler wrapping up lights amongst the reindeer. We had a great volunteer turnout today and I think many showed up for outdoor work knowing that tomorrow will be less enticing with the snow and high winds. To the left is the rough, ornamental bark of the Turkish filbert (Corylus colurna) which is unfortunately not very well known. This is a great urban tree with a conical form early, ornamental bark and few insect/disease problems. While Japanese beetles have been nibbling on other filberts, we've only seen minor damage on this species. To the right is a variegated wood rush (Luzula sylvatica 'Marginata') which is a close relative of true grasses. This perennial stays evergreen thru the winter and has done very well in partly shaded areas with dry soil. We have many varieties of this species including other variegated forms and a gold-leaf variety as well ('Solar Flair'). To the left is my stack of catalogs to still go thru and create orders. The stack is growing, not shrinking as I can't keep up with the postal service as more arrive daily! The seed heads to the right are on the Rose-of-Sharon (Hibiscus syriacus) which is a woody shrub for us that can get 10' tall or so with late season (August-October) blooms in a wide range of whites, pinks and blues. I thought these capsules looked tulip-shaped as I walked by a couple days ago.

Aside from Dr. Gredler, we had Ron W. and Larry H. out in the gardens hauling back the white pine (Pinus strobus) trees that were part of the Holiday Lights Show (HLS) display. The bottom photo shows the growing stack with Larry H. in the distance on the gator. Pat and Urban were out doing more pruning while Terry and Marv continued taking down and bringing in lights. They ran in to some challenging lights that were wrapped intensely around trees and were difficult to collect. We'll have to really establish some quality control and set-up standards for decoration as we have so many people involved but want to make sure we can streamline both set-up and take down. To the left is the ornamental bark of the Sikhote pine (Pinus funebris) which is native to Korea and growing quite well for us not far from the rose garden.

Marianne was also in today and finished peeling more labels for our laser engraver. She also did a nice job cleaning up the office and break room. Maury was also here briefly and he took me to his weekly Golden Kiwanis meeting where I did a short presentation on RBG for a group of about 70. I had presented to this group on two previous occasions but it was nice to touch base again and talk about last year (while promoting 2012 plans, potential volunteer involvement and memberships too!). Five of our Grumpies were in the room (Maury, Dick P., Dick H., Gary and Dick K.) and it was nice to recognize them too. We also saw Mary W., Dick W., Pat H. and others as well. Dick W. purchased a brand new STIHL hedge trimmer for us that will be quite handy for not only shearing but cutting back grasses and other duties. To the right are Gena and Myrt who continued efforts today on removing lights off pvc pipes that formerly served as lit arches in the HLS. With snow on the way, we'll focus on some indoor projects and I'll see how many seed catalogs I can get thru tomorrow!