Hanging Out With Shelley

Despite my brief appearance at the gardens this morning, it was a very busy morning with lots of staff and volunteer projects occurring immediately. Above is Kelley F. planting in the shade garden this morning. I headed up to Madison today to have lunch and meet with Shelley Ryan, producer and host of The Wisconsin Gardener show on Wisconsin Public Television. Shelley is a good friend and has featured RBG fourteen times in the 20 year history of her show! Her exposure of the gardens has brought many visitors to the gardens as she has a huge following for her show. We went over some details regarding an upcoming shoot at RBG and "talked a lot of shop". To the right is the flower bed that is maintained by Don and Pearl who were here for the second day in a row to finish planting this space. They then shifted over to the moss rose (Portulaca) collection and helped finish the planting of that area with Marianne. Kay and Renee worked on weeding and removing bulb foliage near the North point garden and Bev W. weeded her garden space in the sunken garden. Ron K. planted more perennials in the woodland walk garden as he also continued to tidy up the space. In the late morning, Mary, Gena, Myrt and Nancy came in and planted annuals in our display beds to the east of the English cottage garden. To the left are Marv and Terry planting potatoes near the Horticulture Center this morning. Dr. Gredler came to do some mowing this morning and I'm sure other volunteers showed up throughout the day. It was a nice turnout and I was barely able to keep ahead of the group before I had to leave. To the right is the new 'Guinea Fowl' dwarf goatsbeard (Aruncus hybrida) which tops out around 24" with finely textured foliage. I've recently promoted 'Misty Lace' dwarf goatsbeard which I like for many of the same reasons. However, 'Guinea Fowl' peaks two weeks later and helps carry over that same look as 'Misty Lace' starts to fade. This morning was also busy at the Horticulture Center as Becky N. facilitated the Container Planting Workshop for a group of five participants (which included Kris K., our education coordinator). Above is Bev, one of our volunteers, enjoying her arrangement and to the right is Dennis, one of our Grumpies, also taking the class. Shirley, another of our volunteers, was also a participant. Becky does a nice job and one of the perks of the workshop is that participants can pillage plants out of our holding yard which includes a vast selection of neat annuals.

After planting some spuds, Marv and Terry went on a road trip to pick up more plants including a large quantity of impatiens. The guys then worked on removing a large, downed tree branch, watering, pruning, irrigation and other projects of merit. Pat cut back bulb foliage, tidied up some areas, watered and did a nice job organizing flats in the yard to help Jenny out with labeling. Jenny spent most of the day matching labels to plants and also did some hand watering. Big John also went on a plant run (later in the day) but worked on planting containers, watering, running irrigation and other projects. Marianne was in later to plant, water and tidy up the entrance garden. To the left are the "close to ripe" berries of the Autumn Brilliance apple serviceberry (Amelanchier x grandiflora). Once the berries are ripe, the birds will clear these berries off easily in a day or two. This variety, and most serviceberries for that matter, offers the "trifecta" of interest with white spring flowers, colorful berries (great for wildlife) and a nice orange/red fall color. To the right is the showy foliage of the 'Jack Frost' false forget-me-not (Brunnera macrophylla). At the bottom are Gena (left) and Myrt in the distance planting with Nancy and Mary today. This is the All-American Selections garden and we continue to infill with more selections as they arrive from the nurseries. At the bottom is the fernleaf elderberry (Sambucus nigra 'Laciniata') in full bloom near the gazebo garden.