Hooded Sweatshirt Weather

We had an 80% chance of decent rainfall last night and we missed it! We did have some mist for about an hour this morning but it didn't amount to much at all. A soaking by Mother Nature would have been very timely and much appreciated. The day was overcast and it was a cool, breezy day around 75 degrees F. This cold weather pattern continues to emerge but it looks like we'll get some hotter days later this week. The garden was very vivid in this lighting though as seen by a portion of the formal gardens above and the Adirondack chairs and surrounding plantings below (in the Nancy Yahr Memorial Children's Garden). We didn't have a lot of volunteers today but had quite a few grounds staff out in the gardens. Unfortunately, watering dominated the day for many although the overall weed population continues to quake in fear and is reduced in numbers daily! Further below are some additional shots from the garden this morning.

Adirondack chairs in the Nancy Yahr Memorial Children's Garden

part of our red-themed wall planting - the grass is 'Princess' elephant grass (Pennisetum purpureum) which is an annual for us

the Jungle Garden (above) continues to fill in nicely

the copper cheese vat planter above looks great with 'Thailand Giant' elephant ear (Colocasia gigantea) and 'Blazin' Rose' bloodleaf (Iresine hybrida)

Three of our volunteers can be seen above. I took this photo after watching them chat for 10 minutes and prodded them to get out there! From left to right are Kay, Kathy and Eva. The ladies had a busy morning out in the gardens and thankfully the cold mist didn't dissuade them from all their wonderful progress. Kay weeded multiple areas and collected quite a bit of debris from the color rooms and sloped gardens near Palmer Drive. Kathy (seen below too) and Eva did weeding near the formal gardens and addressed multiple areas. Ron K. was in to tidy in the woodland walk and helped Urban with some serious shrub and tree pruning along the shoreline adjacent to the arched bridge. Bill O. was in for mowing duties and Gary S. did some label work. Our Garden Development & Maintenance Committee met this morning as well and included Big John, Iza, Dick P., Maury, Gary, Christine R. and Dr. Yahr. We also saw Chuck, Mary W., Dick H. and many others today.

Larry started the day by running irrigation and he moved on to more watering, weed whipping and other duties. Big John put out many sprinklers, push mowed, pruned, worked in the Cosmos Collection and had other duties as well. Pat also push mowed, weeded and watered most of the containers. Cindy had early watering duties, tasks in the Nancy Yahr Memorial Children's Garden and did a nice job primping the red-themed wall planting. Cheryl started with some planting and moved on to weeding duties, primarily in the Japanese garden. Janice weeded, watered, collected produce and did the cutting display. My tasks were basically indoors although I did get a good walk around the gardens and must say that we've accomplished the goal of making the 25th Anniversary our best year yet! Come visit! Below are some more plant photos from this morning.