A Successful Work Day

We had a nice turnout of dedicated volunteers this morning for our first official volunteer work day of 2012. As seen above, our team jumped right in to planting and we installed over 6,000 annuals this morning in the beds just east of the English cottage garden. These beds are part of our All America Selections (AAS) collection. This collection has also been entered in a "landscape design"competition thru AAS and involves submitting many photos of the "before and after" stages of this collection. Other gardens that display AAS winners will also be taking part in this competition. Tina, one of our primary volunteer photographers, was here to take plenty of pictures and also helped plant as well. A big thank you to Janice, Big John and Larry who helped facilitate the morning which also included our compost sale and many other garden preparations prior to some afternoon weddings. Our volunteers included Sue C. (to the left), Joanne L., Carol C., Renee, Betty, Mary W., Alfredo and his son, Marissa, Donna, Margaret Z., Patrick, Doris R., Mary D., Marv B. and possibly some others (I don't think I missed anyone). We also saw Dr. Gredler and Bill O. was in to help tidy with Larry prior to the weddings. Bev and Deb were at the Horticulture Center working on signs for the oak leaf garden project. Thanks to Maureen and Ron Y. for running the compost sale. Todd and Brandon from Nature's Touch were at the gardens continuing work on the koi pond water system. We did see plenty of visitors even this morning as it became quite warm as the mid-day approached. We were very pleased with the results and spent quite a bit of time hand watering all the new plantings just in case we don't get the promised rain (60% chance) tomorrow. Below are Tina (left) and Joanne who did a great job in the heat along with the rest of the crew.Since the plants had mostly been hauled and placed yesterday (Friday) for the work day this morning, we collected tools and other assorted supplies very quickly. As John and Janice gathered our routine supplies, Larry was a whirlwind of running irrigation as we really are getting quite dry out in the gardens. We try to run the majority of irrigation in the morning and today was no exception. I was able to catch a couple photographs this morning as time allowed. Directly above is the showy flower sphere (umbel) of the 'Ivory Queen' ornamental onion (Allium karataviense). This shorter species (12") also has wide, blue-green foliage and the flower size is impressive at 4-5" in diameter. I ran down to check out the improvements by "Mr. Moss" yesterday on the moss island (see to the right). He did a great job and was aided by the muscles of both Marv and Terry. Dale brought another large batch of mosses and the second section of this island is as impressive as the first. If you look closely, you can barely see the fine mesh that is temporarily placed over these new moss clumps. This mesh should deter birds and other critters that like to remove pieces and examine this new planting. Dale has done a superb job and we hope to have his continued efforts with moss in the fern & moss garden as well as the Japanese garden.

Some of the staff and volunteers commented on me getting my hands dirty and actually planting this morning. I was glad I hadn't forgotten how to do it! I did locate myself not far from the very fragrant, variegated shrub seen to the upper left. This is the variegated mockorange (Phildelphus coronarius 'E.A. Bowles') which I've featured before but just happened to catch peak bloom (and scent!) today. To the right is the showy apricot bloom spire of the hybrid mullein (Verbascum hybrida 'Clementine') in the English cottage garden. Note the lavender/blue center structures on these blooms. Speaking of blooms, many of the roses (Rosa) have started blooming early and we have observed blossoms for over two weeks now. Directly below is the showy (but small, 1" or so wide) blossom of the red-leaved rose (Rosa glauca) and at the bottom, the 'Morden Blush' shrub rose is looking quite exquisite in the French formal garden. More planting next week as well as trips to pick up more plants!