Steady Tree Sale

Today was the start of our two days of Earth Day celebrations at the gardens. There was lots of action over at the Parker Education Center with activities, demonstrations (raptors too!), informative booths, etc. for the entire family (10 am until 3 pm). These same activities will occur again tomorrow over the same time frame. Held in conjunction with these activities is our Spring Tree Sale (8 am until 3 pm) over at the Horticulture Center. This is the second year we've partnered with the Blackhawk Golden Kiwanis Club for this fundraiser and it went quite well today. It seemed like a steady stream of customers arriving and plenty of our nine varieties of trees (see our website) were seen going out the door! The top two photos show the Golden K members working the sale today and unloading the 12,000 trees yesterday. These guys do a nice job with this event (thanks to Glenn, Maury, Gordy and all the other guys) and are quite organized. During the sale, we had a delivery of plants on two pallets that Marv made quick work of as seen above. There were lots of volunteers coming and going but out in the gardens, we had Kay weeding (after working on labels) and Pete helped Big John dig out a nice trench behind a retaining wall that needs to be disassembled and reset by our masons next week. Directly below is the new retaining wall extension that these same masons (Becker Brothers) built along the path leading down to the sunken garden. You can see the older (darker) wall to the left and the new extension coming uphill to the right. This significant improvement really completes the area and addresses a severe slope that was prone to lots of erosion.As it was a cold, misty, dismal day, I'll have to rely on some of my colorful photos from yesterday to augment the blog for today. Two photos above is the double-flowering Japanese kerria (Kerria japonica 'Pleniflora') cascading down with great flower impact. I've featured some close-ups of the blooms recently but this gives you a nice idea of the arching form of this tough and hardy woody shrub. Directly above is the golden foliage of the Gold Bullion pagoda dogwood (Cornus alternifolia 'Bachone') which is a nice golden leaf selection of this native by Kris Bachtell of the Morton Arboretum. I have one along the side of my house and it really glows. To the right is the bright foliage of 'St. Elmo's Fire' hosta (Hosta) which is one of my favorites as it is has a gold leaf with white margin. Our hostas are growing by leaps and bounds and hopefully the 30 degree F prediction tonight wont create too much damage for these or any other plants.

Marianne did another dynamite job keeping the tree sale running smoothly with our volunteers and all the Golden K assistance. She has all our plant sales down to a science and we'll look forward to her help tomorrow and appreciate her skills. All the grounds staff helped prepare for the tree sale this morning. Janice and Jenny also worked on all sorts of indoor projects related to the tree sale, spring plant sale, home garden tour and much more. Jenny also worked on labels and Janice is doing a nice job finalizing her Grains of the World collection information. Big John did quite a bit of mulching today (shredded bark), dug with Pete and lifted some of our plants that were "healed in" over the winter. Marv and Terry hauled some large trees out for planting, planted moss, sheared some large shrubs, went shopping and did some other odds and ends. Pat was in to cut back some vines that are in the way of his future painting project. We also saw Jean S., Mary W., Tina B., Bill O. and many of our great volunteers that were in to help facilitate the plant sale. To the left is a close-up of the fragrant bloom of the witch alder (Fothergilla sp. 'Blue Shadow') which later foliates with some nice gray/blue foliage. All of our witch alders are blooming now and many also have superior fall color late in the season (late October/early November). To the right is the beautiful cutleaf lilac (Syringa laciniata) which confuses a lot of our visitors. They recognize the fragrant blooms but the very fine-textured foliage is not typical of what you would usually observe on a lilac. Directly below is a close-up of the bloom of the black jetbead (Rhodotypos scandens). This totally underused shrub (in the rose family) is one of the toughest shrubs I've observed for part shade to shady conditions. It blooms nicely in spring with these clear white blooms and although they aren't overwhelming, they are showy enough. This shrub, native to Japan, China and Korea, forms black fruit clusters in late summer (hence the name) that hold on thru the winter. Fall color on this 4-6' shrub is chartreuse to gold. Unfortunately, black jetbead is becoming a concern in some Eastern states (NY and PA to name a few) for reseeding and creating thickets in native woodlands. I haven't observed that trait here (as of yet) and still like it as a tough plant. At the bottom is a close-up of the bloom cluster on the purple gromwell (Buglossoides purpurocaeruleum) which is quite a vigorous groundcover. We have it in a huge patch underneath some panicled hydrangeas (Hydrangea paniculata 'Tardiva') where it offers some solid blue/purple color before the hydrangeas have fully leafed out. Tomorrow is day 2 of Earth Day activities, the Spring Tree Sale and I'll also be involved with our training for tour docents and our Sunday watering teams.