HLS Preparations In Full Swing

Today was another beautiful continuation of a great weekend for warm weather and sunshine. Despite the warmth today (near 80 degrees F again), our thoughts are shifting to the colder months with continued progress on our Holiday Lights Show (HLS) set-up and preparations. Above is the arched bridge already decorated by John and Terry with icicle lights. We had more progress on this popular event out in the gardens with plenty of preparations (lights testing, repair, processing) going on at the Horticulture Center as well. The gardens continue to look more "Autumn-ish" daily but there is still plenty of color and our best fall color trees and shrubs are just starting up! Below are some additional images from this morning.

willow-leaf bluestar (Amsonia hubrichtii) getting yellow fall color - perennial

mums in the English cottage garden

brilliant fall color on the Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia) - woody vine

'Scarlet Runner' runner bean (Phaseolus coccineus) - annual

The grounds staff kept busy today with a wide range of tasks. Above are Big John (left) and Terry putting icicle lights on the zig-zag bridge. The guys do a nice job and are targeting structures for early decoration that wont conflict with weddings or other late season events. The guys also set up sprinklers, watered containers, etc. Larry ran irrigation today, mowed and finished testing all of our larger lights displays, some of which need some light repairs. Cindy did quite a bit of watering as we had a warm weekend and have lacked rain over recent weeks. Cindy also worked on primping the Nancy Yahr Memorial Children's Garden and some other areas as well. I continue to get ready for fall clean-up efforts, the HLS and looming presentations.

Above is Alan, a new addition to our Grumpy group. After a brief tour and orientation, Alan jumped right in to leaf clean-up efforts with Ron R. and Larry (both seen directly below with Ron in the foreground). Gary B. worked on some projects at the Horticulture Center and was out later to collect leaves. Gary S. created some new labels and helped with leaf collection. The second photo down shows Eva (left) and Kathy tidying in the entrance garden (when they weren't casually posing for this photo...). The ladies later shifted to leaf collection in various areas. Dr. Gredler was in for some mowing duties and Maury ran more errands for us. Dick H. ran to the dump and repaired one of our carts in need of his attention. Jim, Bob K. and Ron Y. worked on some carpentry projects while Pat M., Ken and Patrea made progress with lights testing, repair and processing. The fourth photo down shows Nancy N. lettering one our newest quote benches for the garden. Jumbo Jim and four RECAPPERS did some nice work in the Japanese garden and Vicki and Fran continued to collect leaves from various areas. Urban did some afternoon pruning and we also saw Marsha, Shirley, Joe and many others today as well. Further below are more images from this morning.