Tough Odds

We did get 3/10 of an inch of rain last night which is always better than nothing. There is a slight chance of rain this evening and in to the morning. Although, with considering our recent odds, I wouldn't bet on it. The recent winds though were so severe that we spent a good portion of the morning just picking up branches, twigs and other debris. I even noted plants that had damaged/dry foliage from the winds as well. We were surprised to only find two major branches down although the clean-up efforts were significant regardless. The top photo is of one of our 'Henry Kelsey' climbing roses (Rosa) on the pergola in the French formal garden. This variety also has a light fragrance. We spent some time in this space today as there is a wedding there tomorrow. Directly above is Ron who is our new assigned garden volunteer in the woodland walk. He's been doing a great job with clean-up/weeding in that space and installed 100 or so perennials today throughout that garden. Not far from where Ron was planting today was another nice patch of the 'Misty Lace' goatsbeard (Aruncus hybrida) as seen to the right. Kay was in all morning and helped clean up the significant debris from the windstorm which was very helpful. We were a bit "short staffed" today (Terry, Janice and myself) but made it thru the day. Pat was in to paint the gazebo (lower right) all morning as well. Dr. Gredler did his mowing rounds and we also saw Dr. Yahr, Chuck S., Deb G. and Bob D. (red t-shirt below). Bob worked on rototilling some of the vegetable beds around the Horticulture Center. To the left is one of the larger branches (in the gazebo garden) that we'll have to deal with tomorrow. It looked like a nice crowd of visitors around the gardens today and I spoke with quite a few that had questions. One group of visitors was really smitten with our horizontal, PVC pipe planters out in the gardens and we had quite a chat about how to best use these for vegetables. The second photo down is the 'Hakuro Nishiki' dappled willow (Salix integra) showing off that pink & white new growth. This is a grafted form and the image is from Rita's garden in Fitchburg. We also have one looking nice out in the gardens with a strong foliage contribution.

Our skeleton crew kept quite busy today. Janice worked on hauling out and placing the moss rose (Portulaca) collection that we hope to plant tomorrow as part of our Volunteer Work Day (8 am until 12 noon). She also worked on organizing the vegetable collection that will be planted at the Horticulture Center, pushmowed and did quite a bit of watering. Terry also pushmowed but additionally did a nice job rototilling and preparing three areas for planting (hopefully next week). He also mounted one of the oak leaf art projects and spent time watering as well. To the right is a Portland rose (Rosa) called 'Jacques Cartier' which I think looks neat and it also has a very nice fragrance. Our roses are really starting to offer some serious bloom interest.

I spent most of the day hauling plants out to the gardens for installation. I placed plants in the shade garden for Kelley and Sue although they needed to reschedule. After placing perennials for Ron in the woodland walk, I started hauling over annuals for the reception garden. We'll have a very blue component in that space this year with minor hints of silver and white. I believe I hauled out four cart loads (double rack) of plants for this space. I hope we get 30 people tomorrow as that will reallly help us out and it will be reasonable to assume we'll get everything planted that I placed today. To the left is the always impressive orange bloom of 'All the Rage' shrub rose (Rosa sp.). This variety is one of many out of the Easy Elegance series from Bailey Nursery (MN) that we've been trialing for the past five years. We do have some replacement roses yet to be installed in the French formal garden but we'll do it shortly to fill in some of the openings and locations where roses were removed. To the right is another delphinium (Delphinium sp.) in the English cottage garden looking great. Below is our biggest patch of goatsbeard (Aruncus dioicus) in the sunken garden that is really staring to bloom nicely. At the bottom is a shot of our archway leading from the reception garden to the sunken garden. Note the climing hydrangea (Hydrangea anomala ssp. petiolaris) filling in over the arch. This archway was the part of the entrance to the original Parker Pen company here in Janesville.. Big Volunteer Workday tomorrow!