Seed Closure

I'll be delivering seeds to two more of our growers yet this week. I've been sorting the last of our seeds all day. These two growers are very generous in agreeing to grow and commit to so many varieties (and flats!) and we have appreciated our relationship and friendship with these families over the years. Every winter I call back and ask if they are interested in growing for us again. I'm always a bit nervous that they'll say "no" or that it's become too much of a burden. Thankfully, we have their support again. Collections like those above (All-America Selections) are only possible if seeds are started. This entire collection comes from our seed orders and most of the varieties aren't common enough that we could find them already as plants. In summary, our awesome seed starting arrangements have allowed us to display over 5,000 varieties of annuals over the past 15 years and we're happy to have those relationships. While the burden on the growers has certainly increased, it's also become more challenging to keep everything organized and sorted on our end as well. Regardless, we're looking forward to a great year of color and interest out in the gardens. Jenny is back in town and will start the arduous task of creating all the labels for these plants before they arrive. The picture to the left is a "snow cat" that my daughter built in the front yard. The snow is melting fast but may be replaced with freezing rain tomorrow...

We had a busy day at the Horticulture Center with lots of coming and going. Jim and Vern continued working on the repair of the garbage and recycling bins. They'll be done by next week and the "carpenter Grumpies" have a long list of additional projects. Dick W. was out cutting back more ornamental grasses throughout the gardens. Urban (seen to the right) put in some solid time applying the third and final coat of semi-gloss white on our culvert pipe planters. He later went out with Pat to continue some pruning duties out in the gardens. Larry had to pause his concrete operation (creating sign bases) as we ran out of aluminum for the stakes. He's already made close to 600 and we'll keep him moving on it sometime next week when more stake material arrives. Larry headed out later to prune a large honey locust (Gleditsia) in the Scottish garden and was joined by Bill in the afternoon. Maury was in and we met with some masons that will be working on some retaining walls in the sunken garden. Maury also ran plenty of errands. Luis was in making more tree/shrub signs and Dr. Gredler continued painting obelisks. Terry finished up his two pallet planters (see below) and they turned out quite nice. Janice came in to work on more plant sale details and we also saw Gary, Fred and some others today as well. Our Horticultural Therapy committee also met and we hope to continue momentum as it relates to a future garden space called our Wellness Garden.