A Good Day For Flannel

Today was frigid with highs around 6 degrees F (although the wind chill was a major factor too). Needless to say, there wasn't any action out in the gardens today but the Horticulture Center was quite active with about six projects going on at once. At the top are Dick W. (left) and Dick H. (smiling to the right) sporting their flannel shirts today. Directly above is an awesome winter shot that Tina B. shot yesterday. In fact, all of the winter shots in this blog and the "water color" shot of the gazebo at the bottom of this blog were shared by Tina today (thanks Tina!). Tina, Bill O., Kris K. and I had the first meeting of our Photography Contest Committee today that is working on some details for a fun photography contest this spring that will ultimately result in some awesome photos of the gardens being considered for use in our 2013 calendar. Details will be finalized by mid-February but we hope to really promote amateur photography as we know that many people take great pictures of the gardens and this is a way to share with others. We also hope to feature all submittals in some fashion and will include categories for children, youth and adults. Anyway, details to follow soon. To the right is the Bosbag which is a convenient and durable carrying contraption for garden debris, etc. I've been obtaining different products like this (as well as fabric type planters) as I want to evaluate these personally. In regards to this Bosbag, I want to observe durability and will greatly value the opinions of our volunteers. Many of the best garden tools we use at the gardens started as a demo that became more and more popular with our garden staff and/or volunteers. Directly below are more of Tina's nice shots. Sounds like we'll be adding a load of snow to these landscapes tomorrow (100% chance)! As I mentioned, we had lots of action going on inside today. Pat (to the left) and Dr. Gredler continued painting obelisks. The carpenters (Vern, Bob A., Dave and Jim) worked on repairs for our garbage and recycling bins and continued work on our new pvc pipe planters. Bob A. can be seen to the lower right smoothing out some plywood circles that are being secured in the ends of the 8" diameter pvc piping. This will hold the soil in and all these "pipe planters" will be painted next week by Rose (who also popped in with her "better half", Urban). Maury went on a paint run, replaced light fixtures and helped as needed. Dick H. helped with some of this work today and finalized repairs on the truck we'll be selling (hopefully soon!). Del and Dick W. worked on processing more plywood deer and sleigh cutouts and getting them ready for painting. Our carpentry shop was as crowded as ever! Larry and Bill worked on a bunch of project together including replacing the choke cable on our Grasshopper snowblower which will need to be ready tomorrow. The guys also picked up some nice donations from a local vendor that will be quite valuable out in the gardens next year. Marianne came in and worked on processing some seed orders, preparing woody plant stakes and lots of beneficial "purging" of outdated references, seeds, etc. from the break room. We also saw Janice, Gary and many others today. Mary Kay T. (MKT) came in early to talk to me about our recent DNR grant that will allow for new trees in our parking lot islands. MKT is associated with the Janesville Shade Tree Advisory Committee and will be spearheading some efforts regarding education on the implications of Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) in our area. MKT is also a RBG volunteer and Master Gardener. This discussion related to our grant but also some other educational opportunities that will be coming up this spring (Earth Day and Arbor Day). We had 21 attendees at the Bonsai Basics program last night and Karl Bethke did a top notch job. Don't miss Orchids for Everyone on Wednesday, February 15th (6:30 pm - 8 pm) at the Parker Education Center. Gary started officially as Interim Executive Director today and we appreciate his efforts and commitment to keeping everything running smoothly. I sure like Tina's gazebo shot at the bottom!

Farewell To Kelli

Today was Kelli's last day and we wish her the best with her new position as Foundation & Alumni Director at Blackhawk Technical College. We had an informal gathering this morning and I presented her with the visor you see above (not the wine) and a RBG T-shirt (VOLUNTEER on the back) for her to wear when she comes back for all our work days this year. We do appreciate her efforts and hope to maintain the momentum that she helped develop over the past 10 months. To the left is what is on top of my "to read" stack at home. It's nice to see this magazine finally appear after hearing about its development over the past couple of months. Wisconsin Gardening looks like a great publication and I was pleased to see the contributions of many that I know in this publication. I believe we'll be selling this in our gift shop but a subscription might also be worthy of consideration. This magazine is from the publishers of Chicagoland Gardening which is another good read. The picture to the right was given to me by my daughter (12) yesterday. She normally sketches animals but has seen me at home buried in catalogs looking at vegetables. She's quite a gardener herself and not a bad artist either. Peruse your catalogs for a wide variety of carrots and beets with the understanding that while they are obviously very nutritious root crops, they always taste better when grown at home! Below is Dr. Gredler continuing his painting project. His painting clothes should ultimately be retired for posterity as they give a long testament to the full color range of our painting conversions over the years! We had a fairly busy day of volunteers coming and going at the Horticulture Center. Nancy was in to continue her work on organizing our reference library. Doreen Howard, a good friend and well-known garden writer/author, stopped by with some donated seed packets that we'll distribute at Earth Day and for various functions. We had a nice lunch and talked "shop". Doreen presented at our spring symposium last spring and continues to write for a wide range of magazines, blogs, etc. Maury was in for various projects and Vern popped by for some carpentry work which included helping Del continue to cutout more plywood deer. Pat and Urban were in to continue pruning trees and shrubs outside and we did a mini-tour to identify some of the next target specimens and focus areas. Dick H. was in to work on finalizing some electrical work on one of our pick-up trucks that we'll be selling shortly (see directly below). Bill O. came in and took the snowblowers out to tidy up some of the primary paths and around the building. We also saw Big John and Mary Kay T. To the left is the weeping Norway spruce (Picea abies 'Pendula') in front of the visitors center. It looks good with some snow on it and those lights you may notice will be removed Monday after our last event in need of the lights is this Saturday. With high temperatures near 40 degrees F early next week, we may lose all our snow cover. To the right is just some of our recent recycling efforts. With metal prices being so good, it's worth the effort to recycle lights, etc. and we thank Chuck S. for taking care of this for so long (including all the aluminum cans we recycle each year). At the bottom is some quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa) that my wife and younger daughter prepared last night. I took a quick shot as I thought it would be a great way to promote our "Grains of the World" component of the Ornamental Edible & Compact Vegetable Display in 2012. Quinoa has a 5,000 year history of being used for food and we'll display a nice patch this year along with some other nutritious grains.

White Out

We had snow all morning but only accumulated about 3" of fluff. Larry and Bill kept up with snow removal around the main building but there was no activity out in the gardens. With dropping temperatures, I'm more worried about ice as things freeze up over the next few days. The image above of our Japanese garden is in reference to our first Volunteer Soup Social which is scheduled for January 24th from 5 pm until 7 pmish or so. We did three of these last winter and they were very well attended. I typically do a presentation at the each of these and will focus on Japanese gardens (including our own!) at this event. I've organized photos of many of the Japanese gardens I've seen around the country and am looking forward to presenting the topic. If you are a current, past or potential volunteer at RBG, consider joining us that evening. I'll also be talking about 2012 plans out in the gardens. You can call our gift shop at (608) 752-3885 (ext. 0) and RSVP. There is no charge for this event although donations are welcome. The pyramidal yew (Taxus sp.) to the left was taken today and gives a better indication of our current weather pattern. We'll start checking the gardens over tomorrow for deer tracks to see where they are coming in and nibbling. Larry and Bill put out some deer repellants this past week in the hopes of keeping them away from some of the tastier specimens. Below is a shot of my current project which is the continuation of major seed ordering. This is one of my larger seed orders which will include many of the specialty annuals, ornamental edibles and many of our plants for the Smelly Garden. The second photo down shows my spreadsheet which will also be utilized for organizing the seeds by grower, quantity, garden destination and also for label production. I used to write descriptions for all of the annuals but now that we have over 800 varieties each year, I just don't have the time. We had a couple volunteers trickle in today. Bill O. helped with snow removal but he and Larry also continued hauling processed Holiday Lights Show (HLS) items up to the garage for storage. Dr. Gredler was in to continue his painting conversion (pink to blue) of his first eight obelisks. Del was here to work on creating more plywood sleighs and deer for the HLS. We have more room this time of year in the Horticulture Center so he prepares many of these items early in the year. Janice came in briefly and we talked about our vegetable order for the spring plant sale. I hope to have all those seeds ordered in the next two weeks. If you want a 'Sweet Banana' bell pepper to go with your 'Hawaiian Pineapple' heirloom tomato, 'Bolivian Rainbow' hot pepper and 'Lemondrop' basil....we'll have what you need! We should have all the plant sale lists and descriptions up on our website (www.rotarybotanicalgardens.org) by the end of February. I still need to order our additional herbs but we'll have no trouble offering a wide selection. To the right is snow on a dwarf concolor fir (Abies concolor 'Compacta') in front of the Parker Education Center this morning.

At the bottom is a bonsai specimen that I photographed at The Huntington Library, Art Collections & Botanic Gardens in San Marino, CA. Tomorrow evening, January 18th, is the Bonsai Basics talk by Karl Bethke of the Badger Bonsai Society (6:30 pm - 8 pm). RBG Members are $5, all others are $10. We hope for a great showing at this lecture and all our educational events at RBG. Check out our website for additional information on our spring symposium which is themed as "Create An Engaging Garden".

Seed Orders, Etc.

I spent a good portion of the day continuing my seed ordering efforts. My hope is to have all the seed ordering complete by the end of the month so we can organize our seeds with custom labels and sort them by grower in early February. With temperatures warming to around 40 degrees F and some sporadic sunshine, we had a pretty good turnout of volunteers as is typical for a Monday. The top image is a portion of our entrance sign that was removed to make room for the new digital sign. This symbol was created before I started at RBG and still exists in a couple locations around the gardens. I always liked that graphic and note the arched bridge and gazebo on there. Years ago Rotary International had some issues with RBG using their cog wheel logo (center of that symbol) and we had to stop using it in any way at the gardens after being strongly "discouraged" from doing so (long story). Nice shot of the arched bridge to the left.

The image directly above shows Larry H. (left) and Dennis (right) out in the gardens removing stakes that were part of the Holiday Lights Show event. Larry and Dennis are relatively new Grumpies but have fit in quite well and work nicely together. Marv and Dick W. were also out in the gardens bringing back some HLS remnants for processing. Rollie helped the guys out in the gardens as well. Urban and Pat were out doing more pruning and we'll do another "tour" shortly to identify more pruning priorities. Bill O. helped tidy up after the pruning team and also helped repair our snowblower with Dick H. and Larry (right). We've had recent issues with both our snowblowers but they are now ready to rock and roll. To the above right is Luis who has started assisting Gary with producing woody plant labels for the collection that he just inventoried. Gary and Luis caught up to me quickly today and the labels continue to consistently churn out. Marianne was in to organize some brochures and she also helped prepare some label stakes in advance of sign installation. Del was working on some carpentry tasks while Vern, Bob A. and Jim continued to cut and process the large pvc pipes for my elevated, horizontal planters. Further below and to the left is Vern continuing this work. We'll paint these pipes very shortly. We also saw Maury (ran many errands for us), Kelli, Polly, Chuck S. and others today. Directly below are some geese in their 'V' formation headed over the gardens. The other image shows all the trash and recycle bins from the gardens that will be repaired and painted before going back out in the gardens this spring. I would estimate that we have about 85% of the HLS show taken down and processed. There are still some items (mostly frozen in the ground) out there but we also have lights left up around the main building for a function this weekend. We'll try to get those down early next week if the weather cooperates. That warm weather allowed for a pretty good run of takedown efforts for the show although we know it could have easily been the opposite side of the weather spectrum too. We're starting to prepare for more indoor work as we continue with winter weather. We brought in the first eight obelisks (right) for a new coat of paint (blue). Dr. Gredler has started this conversion already although he pointed out the bottom of the obelisks (seen directly below) and noted they have already been blue and orange in the past! I think some of our oldest obelisks are going on their fifth color! We'll keep up with repainting and staining efforts over the coming months knowing that spring isn't as far away as it might seem. The Bonsai Basics lecture will be held this Wednesday, January 18th from 6:30 pm - 8 pm at the Parker Education Center. Karl Bethke of the Badger Bonsai Society will be giving the lecture. RBG Friends Members are $5 while others are asked for a $10 participation fee. Kris has put together a nice lecture series and a dynamite spring symposium (March 24). Check out www.rotarybotanicalgardens.org for more information. At the bottom are some of our HLS displays awaiting final storage.

Fun Up North

It's hard to believe that I left yesterday for my speaking engagement and am back and even more inspired about our upcoming spring after presenting up in Amherst, WI for the Garden Dreams symposium sponsored by the Portage County Master Gardener Volunteers. More on that later but I should mention that all of these photos were taken yesterday at Ed Lyon's home in Oregon, WI. I picked him up and we travelled together as he was also a speaker this morning at the symposium.

Not much to report from Friday. After our 5" of snow the night prior, I spent most of the morning with a snowblower and shovel. Thankfully Bill O. came in and helped out and despite having to tow back our Grasshopper (with large snowblower attachment) due to a broken choke cable, we took care of the snow removal efforts. I also saw Maury and Dr. Gredler but left around lunch time to go pick up Ed. Ed's home garden is on a residential lot on a major street in Oregon (WI) and is packed solid with plantings from front to back. I've enjoyed visits in the past during the growing season but didn't hesitate to grab my camera yesterday as he truly has a "four seasons" garden with plenty of winter interest. Note the dried arrangements in the top photo near his front door. What a great use of grasses, hydrangea, sedum, etc. To the right is one of his winter containers and the kale (Brassica) is still offering some interest. To the left is his neat "dragon" arch that leads up the front walk. Ed has an unbelievable variety of perennials and woody plants in his small garden (mostly shade) and I'm sure it has plenty of curb appeal as well.

Travel conditions up to Amherst, WI (just east of Stevens Point) were fine both going and coming back today. Amherst is also home to Central Waters Brewery and they make some yummy brews. We arrived at the Amherst Inn (www.amherstinn.com/) which is a nice B&B run by Bob and Tom. Both Ed and I had stayed their previously and enjoyed the hospitality and catching up with the fellas. This morning we had an early start to head over the the symposium. It was a great crowd (198 attendees) and Ed and I both mentioned how energetic and engaged the crowd was for the topics. I had some awesome conversations with some of the attendees and love speaking at that event. My talk on "Late Blooming Perennials" and Ed's talk on "Ornamental Grasses" were well received and while we didn't stay long enough to hear Samantha P. (from Olbrich Botanical Gardens) talk about "Container Gardens", I'm sure she had a great talk as well. Olbrich has some of the most creative container arrangements I've ever seen. We had a safe trip (2 hours) back to Oregon and talked about all things horticulture and the time went quickly. To the right is another of Ed's winter arrangements and the two photos below show the drying fruit of the beautyberry (Callicarpa dichotoma 'Early Amethyst', I believe) that I didn't think would grow in our climate but was doing fine in Ed's yard. I'll be trying this one at RBG next year. Lots coming up on the RBG schedule including the Bonsai Basics talk next Wednesday evening (January 18th, 6:30 pm - 8 pm, $5 for Friends Members, $10 for others). Check out our website at www.rotarybotanicalgardens.org for information on other upcoming opportunities including our Spring Symposium (March 24).

A Winter Wonderland Arrives

Visually add another 3" of snow to the image above (taken around 9:30 am) and that is the snow we've received thus far today. As I type, it's still coming down and I think the prediction is for about 5" of snow ending tomorrow morning. The roads tomorrow afternoon should be good for my trip up north with Ed Lyon for the Garden Dreams symposium in Amherst, WI on Saturday. I've developed an anxiety about travelling on icy roads after a "white knuckle" incident years ago with the RBG truck and trailer on my way up to the Garden Expo in Madison. I hit black ice at about 60 mph and am not sure how I avoided a potentially fatal roll over in the worst location to slide off the road. Whether divine intervention or blind luck, I'll take it (and never forget it). While I'm glad we're getting the snow, that insulating blanket has much more value when the ground is already frozen as it helps keep the soil frozen and minimizes fluctuations and root damage/heaving. However, snow on unfrozen ground will insulate the unfrozen ground and slow that process. Oh well, no use worrying about it but we may see some repercussions in terms of plant damage in spring. Time will tell.

Despite the weather, we had a great group of volunteers come in today. The next three images show some of the new "grow bags" that are essentially reinforced fabric containers that will hold soil and can be placed on the deck, patio, balcony, etc. I've seen these over the past couple of years and we thought we'd experiment with some of these and evaluate how well they work as compared to a standard clay or plastic container. We'll plant and display these out in our Ornamental Edible and Compact Vegetable display and are interested in how they perform and what visitors think about them. In theory they appear effective but the "proof is in the pudding" as they say.

Larry H. and Dennis headed out in the snow to continue hauling back the white pines (Pinus strobus) from the Holiday Lights Show (HLS) for imminent chipping in to our mulch pile. Both guys were pretty soaked by the end of the morning as was Pat M. who went out to continue pruning. Dick H. and Dick P. hauled all manner of items to our storage shed (off site) and helped with some other projects. We welcomed a new Grumpy today (John M.) who helped with some of the indoor work that was prevalent today. Dr. Gredler continued wrapping up lights as Dick W. took them off the pvc arches (lower right). Bill O. continued to wrap up the larger cords while Larry kept a constant stream of processed HLS supplies moving up to the garage for 9 months of storage until they're dragged out again for testing and set-up! The carpenters (Dave, Bob A., Vern and Jim) continued repairing and repainting our garbage bins (see Bob A. in the second photo from the bottom). To the left are Jim and Dave processing our 10' long, 8" diameter pvc pipes for elevated, horizontal planters. I'm excited about this and the guys will prepare 10 of these that will be painted before we get them out in spring for planting. Gary continued printing out more tree & shrub labels on the laser engraver, almost completing our woodland walk area. He and Luis will meet Monday to start work on the woody plant labels for the Scottish garden. Maury was in working on various projects and we also saw Tom C., Amanda, Janice and others today.

I only finished two seed orders today but was drawn in some different directions as we're preparing for our newsletter, finalizing 2011 expenses and some other event preparations. I may not have time to blog tomorrow but will catch up Monday if not sooner. Janice and I talked about veggies for the spring plant sale and she has a nice assortment including some very showy hot peppers (Capsicum sp.) like 'Pretty in Purple' as seen at the bottom.

The Last Best Day For Awhile?

Today was another warm one with temperatures around 49 degrees F. Tomorrow looks like highs in the mid 20 degrees F with some snow coming in over the next two days. The Janesville Gazette ran a nice front page article this morning on the recent weather trends and the article featured photos of snowdrops (Galanthus sp.) and hellebores (Helleborus sp.) poking up at RBG. Bill O. (a RBG volunteer too) took those nice shots. While I'm not excited about imminent shoveling exercise, I'm glad we can get back to temperatures that are better for the garden. I had many people today update me on what was poking up in their gardens too. The top photo is Dr. Gredler wrapping up lights amongst the reindeer. We had a great volunteer turnout today and I think many showed up for outdoor work knowing that tomorrow will be less enticing with the snow and high winds. To the left is the rough, ornamental bark of the Turkish filbert (Corylus colurna) which is unfortunately not very well known. This is a great urban tree with a conical form early, ornamental bark and few insect/disease problems. While Japanese beetles have been nibbling on other filberts, we've only seen minor damage on this species. To the right is a variegated wood rush (Luzula sylvatica 'Marginata') which is a close relative of true grasses. This perennial stays evergreen thru the winter and has done very well in partly shaded areas with dry soil. We have many varieties of this species including other variegated forms and a gold-leaf variety as well ('Solar Flair'). To the left is my stack of catalogs to still go thru and create orders. The stack is growing, not shrinking as I can't keep up with the postal service as more arrive daily! The seed heads to the right are on the Rose-of-Sharon (Hibiscus syriacus) which is a woody shrub for us that can get 10' tall or so with late season (August-October) blooms in a wide range of whites, pinks and blues. I thought these capsules looked tulip-shaped as I walked by a couple days ago.

Aside from Dr. Gredler, we had Ron W. and Larry H. out in the gardens hauling back the white pine (Pinus strobus) trees that were part of the Holiday Lights Show (HLS) display. The bottom photo shows the growing stack with Larry H. in the distance on the gator. Pat and Urban were out doing more pruning while Terry and Marv continued taking down and bringing in lights. They ran in to some challenging lights that were wrapped intensely around trees and were difficult to collect. We'll have to really establish some quality control and set-up standards for decoration as we have so many people involved but want to make sure we can streamline both set-up and take down. To the left is the ornamental bark of the Sikhote pine (Pinus funebris) which is native to Korea and growing quite well for us not far from the rose garden.

Marianne was also in today and finished peeling more labels for our laser engraver. She also did a nice job cleaning up the office and break room. Maury was also here briefly and he took me to his weekly Golden Kiwanis meeting where I did a short presentation on RBG for a group of about 70. I had presented to this group on two previous occasions but it was nice to touch base again and talk about last year (while promoting 2012 plans, potential volunteer involvement and memberships too!). Five of our Grumpies were in the room (Maury, Dick P., Dick H., Gary and Dick K.) and it was nice to recognize them too. We also saw Mary W., Dick W., Pat H. and others as well. Dick W. purchased a brand new STIHL hedge trimmer for us that will be quite handy for not only shearing but cutting back grasses and other duties. To the right are Gena and Myrt who continued efforts today on removing lights off pvc pipes that formerly served as lit arches in the HLS. With snow on the way, we'll focus on some indoor projects and I'll see how many seed catalogs I can get thru tomorrow!