Chipping Away

Nice winter shot above of the Korean feather reed grass (Calamagrostis brachytricha) in the main parking lot. This grass (30" tall) doesn't mind part sun locations and also gets a nice orange/tan fall color. We haven't had many heavy snows yet but this species is pretty good at standing up thru a tougher winter. Unfortunately this grass is not as available as it should be! Today was a lot more continued work on projects that have already been put in motion. There is an unbelievable amount of work that needs to be done before the spring season and I'm always amused by those that ask if we have anything to do in winter!? I spent more time on seed orders today and had a couple of meetings. Our Spring Tree Sale Committee met and this included many members of the Blackhawk Golden "K" Kiwanis club. Four of the members are also Grumpies (Maury, Dick P., Dick H. and Dick K.)! This will be the second year we partner together for this Spring Tree Sale (April 20th and 21st, 8 am - 3 pm, Horticulture Center). We've ordered 12,000 small trees that include Norway spruce, Colorado blue spruce, Black Hills spruce, Eastern arborvitae, white pine, Concolor fir, red oak, sugar maple and swamp white oak. Details on this sale will be on our website very shortly (if not already). To the above left is the compact corkbark fir (Abies lasiocarpa var. arizonica 'Compacta') in front of the Parker Education Center today. We actually have a very interesting assortment of choice dwarf conifers throughout the entrance garden that get "lost in the shuffle" with all the summer color out front but are very prominent in winter. To the right is a tough little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium) specimen in the parking lot still showing some of that orange/pink dormant coloration. I'll continue seed ordering tomorrow and will attempt to finish the third of my three presentations for the WPT Garden Expo ("Eat Your Landscape"). Our gift shop is currently selling advance tickets for this event which is always a good way to beat the winter doldrums. To the right is the Harry Lauder's walking stick or contorted European filbert (Corylus avellana 'Contorta') which is always quite fetching in winter. This variety does need plenty of aggressive thinning though to maximize the appearance and minimize "stem congestion."

We had a great turnout of volunteers today. To the above left is Maury who is starting to prepare our pvc pipe planters for painting. Dr. Gredler was in to work on more obelisks (wood sealer). Pat and Urban were out doing more pruning in the garden and Larry was out there as well. Dave, Jim, Bob and Vern worked on more carpentry with the focus being on repairing the garbage and recycling bins. Del and Dick W. continued their carpentry work on the plywood reindeer cutouts. Bill O. was helpful for many with his assistance. Dick P. and Maury also tried to repair some plumbing issues at the other building. Dick H. worked on bending more of our aluminum stakes for the new woody plant labels (see to the left and right). We also saw Gary, Terry, Tom C., Jumbo Jim, Mary W. and many others. Marianne worked on processing seed orders, preparing plant stakes and tidying up the break room. Janice was in to work on preparing vegetable information for the plant sale. Tom & Nancy F. brought in some seed packets (recent donation to RBG) that they had inventoried and sorted for me. They then revisited their project from years ago which is organizing our flat files which contain lots of valuable information. Directly below is one of two recycling units that were just donated to us. These will be very handy in both the main office area and for rentals as well. We have so many wonderful corporate and individual donors that make a huge difference each year with their generosity.

Yummy Chili

Our Volunteer Soup Dinner (actually chili) went very well last night and we saw between 75-80 attendees. Janice's vegan chili was yummy and no one went home hungry (there were two other options too). It was nice to see many of our veteran volunteers but we also had six new "potentials" that we hope will join our RBG volunteer family this year. Above are Margaret (left) and Rita (right)...or is it the reverse? Rita joined the RBG staff recently as the Administrative Coordinator and Margaret, a long-time RBG volunteer, is doing an internship at RBG and helping streamline many of our forms and processes. Her business background will be very beneficial for RBG. They have been called twins by many and each is used to being called by the other's name. Last night they stood up together and it was like seeing long lost sisters! Gary and Lori made some nice comments last night and my presentation on Japanese Gardens seemed well-received. I also talked about some of the upcoming events, activities and collections for 2012. These volunteer-oriented events have proven so valuable for maintaining a connection with our volunteers over the winter months and we hope it becomes a nice recruiting opportunity too as we see new faces at each of these. Our next event in this series is on Tuesday, February 28th at 5 pm. I'll talk about Garden of Philadelphia-Revisited which is based on seeing more gardens last summer at the American Public Garden Association (APGA) conference. To the upper right are Gena (left) and Myrt (right) who were in today to remove lights off of our last remaining obelisks from the HLS. The ladies made quick work of this project and packed up the lights nicely. The obelisks will receive a different paint color shortly... To the left is Dr. Gredler continuing work on painting obelisks today. We also saw Maury, Mary W. and Bill O. today. Bill assembled some new recycling containers and worked on some inside projects. Dick H. also popped by to size up some of his looming vehicle repairs.

I split my day with presentation preparations and seed ordering. I put in a good sized order from Johnny's Selected Seeds (www.johnnyseeds.com) which has a great assortment of vegetables and plenty of annuals as well. While my biggest seed orders are in already, I still have about 30 catalogs to peruse as I finish out selections for the grounds as well as our spring plant sale varieties. The bottom left and bottom right images were taken at the Chicago Botanic Garden this past year and show some of their vertical wall planters. I finished my presentation on Gardening Vertically today which I'll give twice at the WPT Garden Expo (www.wigardenexpo.com/) and will present here at RBG on Wednesday, May 16th as part of our 2012 lecture series. This topic, while not new, has become very popular as gardeners attempt to maximize their space and use opportunities to grow plants in situations that are efficient and low maintenance. This topic covers living walls, vertical planters, container options and some innovative "re-purposing" of materials to create opportunities to garden vertically; even on balconies, decks and in tight locations. I'll also feature some of the living wall work being done internationally by Patrick Blanc. If you GOOGLE his name with the words "living walls", you'll see some of the interesting things he's been doing. I plucked the bottom image off the internet as it shows some of his work. Interestingly enough, those plants are not growing in soil but are rooted in to an "engineered" fabric system that has water (with nutrients) distributed over this wall. Essentially, this is large scale hydroponics that avoids the additional weight of wet soil and also protects the structure from excess moisture. Mr. Blanc wrote a book ("The Vertical Garden: From Nature to the City", 2008) on the subject and I encourage you to look in to it further as I'm still trying to grasp all the details. This "urban greening" has lots of merit but at this point is still quite expensive to install retroactively....

Volunteer Gathering Tonight

The image above has nothing to do with the blog topic and very little to do with January for that matter. However, it is one of the neat annual grasses that I'm trying to locate for this spring. This is the variegated purple fountain grass (Pennisetum setaceum) called 'Fireworks'. We've grown this neat grass for the past couple of years and I just included an image of this colorful grass in my upcoming presentation on Annuals of Interest. I'll give this talk twice up at the WPT Garden Expo (www.wigardenexpo.com/) coming up in February. Two years ago when we had the maroon/red theme, we used a couple hundred 'Fireworks' fountain grasses and wow!, it sure turned out great. To the left are our ten pvc planters waiting to be painted (three different colors). Envision these secured about 8' above ground (supports on both ends), filled with soil and those open slots planted with various trailing vegetables. Our visitors will be able to walk under all these! Should be fun although we've been debating how heavy these will get and what we have to accomplish to safely secure them out in the gardens. To the right is Nancy continuing work on organizing our reference library and to the left is Janice working on some research projects this morning.

Tonight is the first of our three Volunteer Soup Dinners where we'll get together, talk about 2012 plans and I'll do a short presentation at each of them. Tonight I'll talk about Japanese Gardens with a focus on the recent improvements in our Japanese garden. These have always been fun and this is the second year we've organized these gatherings. We're never sure how many volunteers will attend as the RSVPs come last minute. We've always had a healthy crowd though. This is sure a nice way to keep in touch with our volunteers (the non-"snow birds") and be poised for a busy spring.

Urban and Pat came in to do some pruning out in the gardens while Bill and Larry took the remainder of the Holiday Lights Show (HLS) down from the gardens around the visitors center. They also took the remainder of the lights off the main building. There isn't too much left out there from the HLS which is hard to believe ended just over three weeks ago! Now that's progress. We also saw Maury over here and Luis continued working on woody plant labels. The laser engraver was humming along all morning and I'm sure Luis made another 150+ labels or so. To the right is our John Deere gator that is need of some repairs. We're fortunate to have Dick H. who is taking care of the repairs. It's hard to establish a value on "saved labor costs" from our volunteers like Dick H., the carpenters, Tom C. (electrician), etc. I'm glad we have so many handy volunteers here at the gardens as their skills extend beyond traditional garden duties! Below are the silver finial tops that will go on our blue obelisks (for the reception garden). Pat re-secured these this afternoon. Our assembly line will continue for the next couple of weeks as we continue repainting obelisks, repairing garbage bins, restaining benches, etc.

A "Sleety" Day

Yesterday was primarily a drizzle which extended thru the evening to this morning. Mother Nature then couldn't decide between rain, sleet and snow as we saw all of it throughout most of the morning. Warmer temperatures did accomodate a couple guys that went out in to the gardens. I'm glad Larry spread some sand/salt across our parking lot this morning as it was quick slick. We did have a great crew of volunteers today although I spent almost the entire day ordering seeds and finishing my big seed order. Directly above is Dr. Gredler converting one of our 9' yellow obelisks from the Nancy Yahr Memorial Children's garden to a nice lime. Doesn't he look happy!? To the left is just one of the many plants I've re-ordered for 2012. This is the dinosaur kale (Brassica oleracea 'Lacinato') that was part of our blue/yellow theme last year and received lots of attention.

Larry worked on helping coordinate the many projects going on this morning and got out in the gardens with Bill O. as well. Both guys had some indoor afternoon work as well. Marv and Dennis went out to continue taking down the last remnants of the Holiday Lights Show (HLS). With lights in the entrance garden, around the Parker Education Center and in the English cottage garden, there was plenty to retrieve. I can remember years gone by when January was so snowy and cold that we hadn't even taken anything down at this point in the month. Amazing that it is almost complete. Pat and Urban were out helping collect lights, cords, obelisks, etc. from the HLS. To the right is Dick W. cutting out some reindeer ears as he and Del continue to make more cutouts for future sales. Dave, Vern, Bob A. and Jim continued repairs on our garbage & recycling bins (directly below). The guys are so handy. Dick H. and Dick P. started cutting our recently delivered strap aluminum in the stake heights for our woody plant labels. Dick H. and Bill also worked on some vehicles as well. Luis was in the office this morning (lower left) entering more sign information to be engraved later this week. Marianne helped process seed orders (lower right), prepare plant labels and did a nice job tidying up in the break room. Mary W. and her friend (Larry) stopped by in the afternoon. We also saw Gary S. today as he broke away from his interim Executive Director position to have break with the guys. A big part of my seed order today (Ivy Garth) involved the start of orders for our spring plant sale. My final FAXed order was 11 pages! This will be the sixth spring plant sale in a row that we've offered a wide range of vegetables and herbs. Previous spring plant sales years ago focused on herbs and annuals although we found that so many outfits sell annuals that we wanted to specialize a bit more with our offerings. This sale, held on May 12th and 13th (9 am - 4 pm daily) at the Horticulture Center, will also have a wide range of gallon-sized perennials. We offered this component last year and it was well received. RBG Friends Members are invited to our spring plant sale preview on Friday, May 11th (also 9 am - 4 pm) where they will get the first look at availability and receive a 10% discount that day (and throughout the sale). I'm very excited about the offerings which not only include heirloom tomatoes, hot peppers and herbs but a wide range of "smaller statured" vegetable varieties that are suitable for the container, basket, window box and tight spot in general. Once Janice finalized the final information sheets in February, we'll get them on the website. Just about everything we sell at the sale will be represented somewhere out in the gardens as many will be featured in our Ornamental Edible & Compact Vegetable Display. I ordered a nice assortment of trailing tomatoes too that we'll feature out in the gardens (and sell). Below are some shots from the spring plant sale last year. I've put in an early request for decent weather as we've not had the best luck when the sale has been over the Mother's Day weekend as it is this year.

A Pepper Called 'Black Pearl'

As I was ordering seed yesterday, I started searching for hot peppers (Capsicum annuum) that will be included in our spring plant sale. Janice had already provided me with a list of good candidates. At the sale ast year we had a lot of interest in the ornamental hot peppers and we sold out of those very quickly. When I think of my favorite ornamental hot pepper varieties, I focus on a combination of increasingly colorful fruit but also vivid foliage. I think it's safe to say that the ripening fruits of all hot peppers are ornamental, particularly later in the season (August thru October). However, I've become more interested in the dark-leaved and variegated leaf varieties that also contribute foliage interest before and during the fruiting period. One of my favorite varieties is the 'Black Pearl' hot pepper (Capsicum annuum). All the images in this blog are of this variety. I ordered enough seed of 'Black Pearl' (not inexpensive incidentally!) to supply it for the spring plant sale (May 12th and 13th, 9 am - 4 pm, pre-sale on Friday May 11th for RBG Friends Members). We'll also be displaying this variety in our Ornamental Edible display and as a component of our All-America Selections (AAS) collection. This 2006 AAS winner was developed at the United States National Arboretum and has been extremely popular ever since! See www.usna.usda.gov/Research/BlackPearl.html for more on the history of this neat ornamental edible. It is important to mention that while the fruits, ripening from glossy black to red, are edible but are extremely hot (30,000+ Scoville units). This variety, reaching 20"-24" in full sun, is primarily planted for ornamental purposes as the foliage is "near black" and the fruits are ornamental as well. This plant really needs full blazing sun to have the darkest foliage coloration and you'll start to see the glossy black fruits by mid-summer. This variety is also very happy in a container. The red stage of the peppers is seen in September and will continue until hard frost. One of the images near the bottom shows a light frost on the entire plant. I like combining this plant with lighter foliage neighbors to make that foliage "pop". Ornamental hot peppers, in general, will be a big part of our displays this year and most of those varieties will be featured at our plant sale. For other interesting hot pepper (Capsicum) varieties for foliage, try 'Purple Flash', 'Fish', 'Tricolor', 'Sparkler', 'Explosive Ember' and many others.

I was in to work briefly this morning for a meeting of our Home & Garden Tour Committee. Even though the event is seven months away (July 21st), we start planning early and already have the seven sites confirmed. Thanks to Bill, Jean, Janet, Barb, Patrick and Cora for coming in to go over some details. This year a portion of the tour will be in the neighboring town of Milton, WI. I think we have a great assortment of gardens and are starting to solicit sponsors for this event. Larry and Bill had taken care of most of the snow removal and thanks to Dick H. for taking care of plowing that 6-7" either last night or this morning. Dr. Gredler was in to do more painting of obelisks and Maury was in as well. When I left, I saw cars at the Parker Education Center for the Redefining Comfort Foods program which was facilitated by Basics Cooperative (Janesville). We have a "Wellness theme" this year that will focus on nutrition, excercise, etc. Looks like we'll have a warm up soon and will take the rest of the Holiday Lights Show (HLS) down next week if possible. Next week will also include more seed ordering and we'll be having our Volunteer Soup Dinner on Tuesday evening. It's not too late for current, past and future RBG volunteers to RSVP for this event (5 pm - 7 pm) by Monday. Further below, enjoy the other images of this cool pepper. If I was ever asked "What plant, over the years, has received more 'What the heck is that?' type questions?," I would have to say it is this pepper. I usually get a radio call about someone wondering what the plant is with the glossy "olives" and dark foliage.

More White Stuff

Today was quiet around the Horticulture Center although we did have some volunteers come in throughout the day. It started snowing around 9 am and is supposed to snow for the next 24 hours and deliver a good 6"-7" blanket. Larry and Bill will catch up with snow removal tomorrow as we have a morning event (Reinventing Comfort Foods) and there is a function later in the evening. The top image shows the blue obelisks (formerly pink) that Dr. Gredler and Pat have been working on recently. The finial tops (still pink) will be painted a shiny silver next week. Doc was here today and his next project will be converting those tall (9') yellow obelisks to a lime green. The process involves taking the slats off of one side first so you can get inside that structure. I like the birdhouses on top of those tall obelisks but have not seen them actively used (yet). The image directly above shows some of Dick W.'s handiwork today. He has been helping Del produce more plywood deer cutouts and they are making a couple more sleighs as well. in the back right of that image are some of the pvc pipe planters ready for painting next week. Maury was in for a bit and ran some timely errands for me (including keeping up with the next gallon of paint for Dr. Gredler!). Julie G. stopped by this morning to chat and we talked about some veggie garden ideas for kids. Janice was in most of the morning with her pup (Maggie, directly below). Janice is preparing the information sheets for our plants sale vegetables. These sheets will be what we use at the sale and we'll also include them on our website (http://www.rotarybotanicalgardens.org/). I spent most of the morning ordering seeds and am now dabbling with our moss rose (Portulaca) collection. To the the right is 'Happy Hour Orange' which will be just one of many varieties (60ish?) we'll feature. I also spent some time revising and finalizing Luis' woody plant inventory and have all the shade garden woody plants ready for label production. Sounds like we may see Luis on Monday. I also ordered a lot more pre-cut plant labels so we can keep up in terms of supply and production. Directly above are some of the Step 2 Garden Kneeler & Seats that were donated to us recently. Don't consider this an endorsement; just some observations as we haven't used this brand yet. However, I like the dual use of both a low seat for gardening (or a step stool!) and when flipped over, the kneeling pad is revealed and the legs are now handles for helping the gardener up and down. We have one or two items like this at the gardens and they are used (and preferred) by some of our volunteers. The seat can take 250 lbs. of weight and I was happy to see these are made in the good old U.S.A. To the right is the Step 2 Garden Hopper which also has value out in the garden, rolls and has a little storage area underneath the seat. We received a couple of these as well.

Yesterday afternoon I travelled to the WI DNR Service Center up in Fitchburg, WI to talk with Elizabeth and Jeff (WI DNR Urban Forestry) about a neat grant we received from them to plant some new trees in our parking lot islands. These trees are being selected for not only urban tolerance but as "ash alternatives" with the growing concern about the Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) arriving in our area (if it's not here already). The image to the left and directly below show the adult beetles and note the characteristic 'D' shaped exit hole in the picture to the left. We'll have some nice signage for the new trees that will also talk about EAB. We'll be working with the Janesville Shade Tree Advisory Council (JSTAC) on some other education components regarding this topic and hope to have some Arbor Day activities and education as well. Incidentally, check out the JSTAC website info on EAB at www.jstac.org/EAB.html as it has oodles of info and other links regarding this important topic.

The bottom photo shows just some of the many seeds that were recently donated to the gardens by Doreen Howard, a prominent garden writer and tireless advocate for the Plant A Row for the Hungry (PAR) program that was started by the Garden Writers Assocation (GWA) back in 1995. For more information on this program, visit the GWA website at www.gardenwriters.org/ and see the link to PAR. The seeds were donated to Doreen for dispersal by Ferry Morse Seeds (www.ferry-morse.com/). Nancy and Tom, two of our veteran volunteers, are currently organizing hundreds of seed packets and we'll make sure they get in the right hands (primarily children!).