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!

Dry Winds

Today was one of the windiest days we've experienced in quite some time! With temperatures reaching 90 degrees F today and these brutal winds, watering became a priority very quickly. Larry ran some irrigation but it was almost pointless with the strong winds. Our volunteer group was very strong this morning and we were able to do some serious planting immediately. Our intent was to focus on planting in the morning and catch up with the watering (which we did). The top photo shows Suzy planting one of the eight formal annual sections this morning (note her fashionable knee pad and boot combo). She was joined by Mary R., Marilyn and Karen. Glenna (directly above) worked nearby and cut back bulb foliage (Colchicum autumnale). The ladies made quick work of their first project and moved on to additional planting near the gazebo. To the right is what I believe to be the darkest leaf stonecrop (Sedum). This is 'Postman's Pride' sedum (Sedum hybrida) from Belgium and it is quite dark, particularly in full sun. The pink flower clusters come later in the season but this dark foliage is quite striking, particularly with neighboring plants for contrast. To the left are the showy flower plumes of the 'Ivory Silk' Japanese tree lilac (Syringa reticulata). We have a nice specimen in the Japanese garden that is just staring to peak.

Shirley as in today and worked with Jenny on clearing weeds and bulb foliage in various locations. Janice worked with some students from Clinton High School this morning. Known as the "Green Team", the students (and their teacher), did a great job clearing three large beds of bulb foliage and weeds. They later planted annuals out in the terrace garden and were very motivated workers (see the two photos below). We also had Bob C. and Ron B. working on tidying up paths. Dr. Gredler was in for some projects and Dr. Yahr helped plant this morning as well. Bev D. and Deb G. spent some time putting up signs for the oak leaf garden art projects. We have a couple more leaves to install out in the gardens but we've already had some nice comments about the leaves that have been placed. To the right is the foliage of the variegated Northern sea oats grass (Chasmanthium latifolium 'River Mist') which I like a lot. This grass will ultimately form "oat-like" seed heads that are quite showy in the garden or arrangement. Aside from being windswept all day, the grounds staff kept busy. Big John did some small projects this morning then hit the road for a plant pick-up (Ahren's Acres, Brodhead, WI). John moved to some major watering and composting late in the day. Pat cleared bulb foliage, fertilized and tidied up the roses and later painted in the gazebo. Jenny cleared bulb foliage (with Shirley), watered and spent some time matching labels to the newly arrived plants. Her timing is perfect so these flats will go out with their labels at the time of planting. Janice, after working with the "Green Team" mentioned above, spent the remainder of the day hand watering. To the right is the 'Misty Lace' goatsbeard (Aruncus hybrida). As much as I like the standard goatsbeard (Aruncus dioicus), it has an imposing height around 4'-5'. 'Misty Lace' is smaller-statured at 24" and is is perfect for the mid-border. It certainly doesn't sacrifice anything for bloom power....! To the left is one of the foxgloves (Digitalis purpurea 'Foxy') in the herb garden. I really like foxgloves and should really use more of them. Larry kept sprinklers moving around all day and did a nice job rototilling the reception garden which is our "target garden" for planting this weekend at the Volunteer Workday (8 am until 12 noon). I placed plants for most of the morning and was glad to see that we planted three areas nicely. Of course we had to catch up with watering and that will be our order of business tomorrow as well. To the lower right are the dainty pink blooms and blue foliage of the alpine pinks (Dianthus subacaulis 'Gary Eichhorn') in the terrace garden. Further below is the maroon bloom of the variegated red scabious (Knautia macedonica 'Thunder & Lightning'). The bloom is just opening but you can see hints of the crisp, creamy variegation on this long-blooming perennial. I like the standard green version (Knautia macedonica) for a long bloom time and plenty of flower power but this variegated variety is a bit more "refined." At the bottom is the original, tough and beautiful Knockout rose (Rosa 'Radrazz') that is such an eye catcher in bloom (also early this year!).

Getting Hotter and More Dry

The top photo of Terry watering hanging baskets today sums up a lot of our activity these past couple of days with our struggle to keep up with watering around the gardens. Each day looks warmer and hotter over the next couple of days although there will be a significant "cool down" by the middle of next week. We're way behind on precipitation too which has become challenging for us as we're running irrigation constantly. As we continue to plant new areas, we're making very sure to keep those new plants watered and are wary of getting too far ahead of what we can manage. A nice 2-3"soaking rain over 24 hours would be great and I wish I could order that up for our entire region. The second photo down shows the cheery little orange blossoms of the orange tassel flower (Emilia javanica 'Irish Poet') which is part of our orange-themed planting this year. Regardless of the heat today (86 degrees F), we had a nice turnout of volunteers. To the right is Joanne Anderson working in the formal perennial gardens. She and her husband John have been involved with the gardens since the beginning (23 years ago) and have done a great job maintaining their assigned garden and some peripheral areas in the formal gardens. Bev and Ron W. came in to plant in the sunken garden early this morning and by mid-morning, we had Nancy and Myrt continuing the planting of our "orange-themed" wall border. Everyone did a great job. Kay did some top notch weeding in the Nancy Yahr Memorial Children's Garden and moved over to the sunken garden to continue cutting back bulb foliage with Jenny. Maury ran some errands for us (gas run too, thanks!) and Dr. Gredler was in for some mowing. We also saw Chuck and many others today. To the left is a delphinium (Delphinium sp.) in the English cottage garden. Lynn, our assigned garden volunteer for that space, is including many of the old-fashioned perennials, annuals and vegetables in this garden and I think this will be this garden's most appealing year to date. To the right is the 'Nearly Wild' floribunda rose (Rosa) that is looking good in the formal French garden. This variety has a light fragrance and I've included it in my home garden as well for its toughness and flower power (single blossoms). In that same garden area is the Oso Easy Paprika rose (Rosa x 'ChewMayTime') glowing with orange blossoms. Further down is the powdery blue foliage of the 'Faded Jeans' spurge (Euphorbia pithyusa) that we'll be using in our white/silver/blue theme this year. I like the look of this foliage plant and we'll use it here and there.
I spent much of the early morning laying out plants for our incoming planters (Ron, Bev, Myrt and Nancy) and then headed to The Flower Factory to pick up our perennial order. I had a nice chat with Nancy Nedveck, co-owner of that nursery and she showed me some of their neat new vertical wall planters. I picked up our biggest order yet and am excited about including these plants out in the gardens. Marianne worked on more clearing of weeds and bulb foliage and helped me haul plants this morning. She also freshened up her cutting display. Marv and Terry ran irrigation, set-up and moved around many sprinklers and also did a nice job prepping three garden spaces for planting (rototilling and smoothing). The guys have some new tripod sprinklers which are really quite useful and easy to adjust as needed. To the right is the showy foliage on one of our three golden variegated pagoda dogwoods. This is the Golden Shadows pagoda dogwood (Cornus alternifolia 'W. Stockman') and while it's slower growing than the "straight", green-leaved species, it sure has some bright foliage appeal. To the left is the interesting foliage of the 'Dolce Blackcurrant' coral bell (Heuchera) that has a significant amount of silver overtone to the deep maroon foliage. We have a nice assortment of coral bells out in the gardens but haven't committed to trying to acquire all 300+ varieties (literally!).

Big John bounced between composting, planting containers (including our 10 culvert pipe planters!) and watering. Pat spent the morning clearing more weeds and bulb foliage and he did a nice job composting two areas. Jenny worked in a couple areas for bulb clearing, helped hand water two large garden areas and later returned to some clearing duties. I was pleased with all the work accomplished today but can't help but think we'd have so much more "traditional" gardening time if we were weren't watering so much. I've never seen our May lawns get so dry as we usually count on decent rainfall. I hope this wont be a dry summer. To the right are the white bloom clusters of the native arrowwood viburnum (Viburnum dentatum) which has later interest with blue berry clusters (great for birds) and a nice red fall color. Directly below is one of the loads I hauled out this afternoon. That double layer cart is handy and all the plants seen there will be installed in the formal annual sections tomorrow as we should have a good turnout of "planters." At the bottom is the bluish foliage of the 'Blue Shadow' witch alder (Fothergilla x intermedia).

Volunteers!

Sorry! Not much for pictures out in the gardens today. I was swamped with laying out plants this morning, followed by a long road trip for more annuals and back to a pile of overdue desk work. However, the two photos included here were taking tonight at our Volunteer Potluck which looked to have a good 100+ attendees or so which was nice to see. We had a nice event and the photo above was taken in the English cottage garden. Kudos to Lori (RBG Volunteer Coordinator) and members of the Volunteer Committee for putting this shindig together. Mary (our Executive Director) had some nice comments to start the evening as well. Sue M., our marketing staff member, was also up on the porch taking a picture which she did a nice job of last year as well. I was bummed to see how dry our front entrance garden was today as I came in the building and perhaps underestimated how dry it really has become out in the gardens. To the right is the Jerusalem sage (Phlomis tuberosa 'Amazone') in full bloom above the zig-zag bridge. I like the tiered flower arrangement and this perennial tops out around 4' tall which is impressive. I see lots of pollinators working over these blooms as well.

This morning, I placed plants (500ish?) along our larch wall bed and in the shade garden. The larch wall bed (140' long by 6' deep or so) has an orange theme this year and we had some nice planting help from Kay, Sharon, Dr. Yahr, Hal and Doris. They made quick work of that planting and some of this team then shifted down to the Nancy Yahr Memorial Children's Garden for weeding duties. Mary and Roy were in to plant more annuals in their portion of the shade garden and they also did some nice weeding nearby as well. We also saw Bill, Urban, Rose, Maury and Dr. Gredler. They all had various projects and kept busy. Urban and Rose have done a nice job staining various structures out in the gardens and took time to water some new trees too! We also saw Lynn S., Mary W. (helped water), Gordy and many others.

The grounds crew had a full day of clearing and preparing areas (among other duties). RBG is lucky to have such an elite, dedicated ground staff that are truly the unsung heroes of the day to day maintenance at the gardens. Larry and Pat both pushmowed and moved on to other projects. Larry finished repairing irrigation, continued to install signs for the oak leaf garden art project, watered, etc. Pat cleared bulb foliage, composted and spent some time in the rose garden as well. Big John did some watering, rototilling (two areas), serious composting and some other tasks. Marv did a nice job preparing the "planting pockets" and beds down in the sunken garden. He also installed some oak leaf garden art projects as well as other tasks. Marianne continued clearing bulb foliage and weeds from multiple areas. She also did a nice job intercepting and controlling a wild bunch of 1st graders that were unleashed on the gardens (or should I say Rotary Botanical Playground?). It's amazing how some parental and even teacher chaperones fail to control the kids. Janice worked on planting some seeds in our ornamental edible garden and had some help from her volunteer group in the afternoon. Janice was also heavily involved in preparations for the event this evening. Tomorrow involves plenty of watering, more planting and another plant run (to The Flower Factory).

The "Transition"

I call this a day of "transition" as we spent lots of time clearing beds of bulb foliage prior to the final preparation and planting of those spaces with summer annuals. The warm start to spring has pushed tulips (Tulipa), ornamental onions (Allium), etc. well in advance so we're clearing that foliage now with the intent of a quick "turn around" prior to planting. Normally we would be doing these same tasks in two to three weeks. Our goal is to plant as much as possible each day. Above is Marianne planting outside the reception garden. That blue and white petunia is a relatively new variety called 'Rhythm & Blues'. Jenny later joined Marianne with this planting project and to the right is Dr. Yahr planting containers in the reception garden this morning. Last year we diverged from the traditional blue/silver theme of the reception garden and explored pink. It looked alright although this year, we're back to deep blue and silver and should be able to plant the remainder of that garden by this Saturday (Saturday work day! 8 am - 12 noon!). To the left is Marv this morning with one of our remaining trees to be installed.

Many of the Grumpies, including Gary, Urban, Rollie, Ron B. and Del worked on cutting back and removing bulb foliage from around the gardens (daffodils and ornamental onions). We had a nice turnout of Grumpies with many also working on taking down some of our plant sale tents. Dick P., Dick H. and Dick C. all worked on various projects while Stan was in the Japanese garden continuing his very specific pruning routine on the pines (Pinus). Ron W. helped take down the tents and later joined the others. Dr. Gredler was in for mowing and Dr. Yahr for planting. Our carpenters (Dave, Jim, Vern and Bob) had plenty of work to do including the rebuilding of some gazebo elements that need replacements before we repaint. Pat was in to work on some of his painting preparations as well. We also had Winnifred as our lone Grumpette and both she and Jenny did a nice job clearing weeds and bulb debris from the large bed near the east end of the garden. We also saw Mary W. (helped water), Janice, Karen, Dawn, Cindi, Sharon, Art, Darcie and Mary (Exec. Director). To the right is Big John securing twine on the supports for our elevated, horizontal, PVC planters. We'll be planting runner beans (Phaseolus sp.) and other edible climbers up all of these supports. Directly below is our only dwarf Japanese painted fern (Athyrium niponicum). Called 'Eco Dwarf', this variety came from Don Jacobs of Eco Gardens in Decatur, GA. While most painted ferns reach 12"-15" in height, this variety stays around 6" but still has all of the nice features associated with that type of fern (silvering, maroon, etc.) although the fronds also seem "scaled down." Further below are the bloom clusters of the Coppertina ninebark (Physocarpus opulifolius 'Mindia') which are showy for a week or two. Today was quite busy this morning out in the gardens and the grounds staff kept quite busy as well. Marv and Terry set-up sprinklers (we missed the rain yesterday), planted two large trees, rototilled and prepared planting areas and watered our containers. Big John continued collecting allium stems/foliage, created our twine supports for the beans (Phaseolus) and rototilled the beds for the ornamental edible and compact vegetable display. Larry spent most of the morning repairing a significant irrigation problem. He probably has a repair of this nature a couple times each summer. In this case, a large line was pierced with a stake from the new herb garden edging. We have so many irrigation lines that it's tough to avoid hitting these on occasion with digging, pounding stakes, etc. Ironically, Larry himself hit another line later while installing posts for the oak leaf garden art project! To the right are the flower clusters of the 'Blue Ice' hybrid bluestar (Amsonia hybrida) which only gets 18" tall but has this spectactular spring display and a yellow fall color late in the season. To the left is the variegated foliage of the Star Showers Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia 'Monham') along my fence in the backyard. I like this variety for that cream dappling but have seen plenty of reversions (all green leaves). Jenny was a weeding and planting machine today and Marianne did her fair share of cutting back tulips (Tulipa), planting and her top notch cutting display. To the right is another shot from my backyard. This is the golden cutleaf elderberry (Sambucus racemosa 'Sutherland Gold') that has such a nice combination of color and texture. I cut mine back every winter to 12" stubs and it bounces up to 7' or so and looks like this all summer. Further below is a shot of one of our school programs this morning out in the arboretum. Kudos to our education volunteers that do such a fantastic job with youth (and adult) education here at RBG. At the bottom is the 'Pewter Lace' Japanese painted fern (Athyrium niponicum) in the fern & moss garden and the yellowish foliage is from the winter aconite (Eranthis hyemalis) that is going dormant for the season.

A Successful Work Day

We had a nice turnout of dedicated volunteers this morning for our first official volunteer work day of 2012. As seen above, our team jumped right in to planting and we installed over 6,000 annuals this morning in the beds just east of the English cottage garden. These beds are part of our All America Selections (AAS) collection. This collection has also been entered in a "landscape design"competition thru AAS and involves submitting many photos of the "before and after" stages of this collection. Other gardens that display AAS winners will also be taking part in this competition. Tina, one of our primary volunteer photographers, was here to take plenty of pictures and also helped plant as well. A big thank you to Janice, Big John and Larry who helped facilitate the morning which also included our compost sale and many other garden preparations prior to some afternoon weddings. Our volunteers included Sue C. (to the left), Joanne L., Carol C., Renee, Betty, Mary W., Alfredo and his son, Marissa, Donna, Margaret Z., Patrick, Doris R., Mary D., Marv B. and possibly some others (I don't think I missed anyone). We also saw Dr. Gredler and Bill O. was in to help tidy with Larry prior to the weddings. Bev and Deb were at the Horticulture Center working on signs for the oak leaf garden project. Thanks to Maureen and Ron Y. for running the compost sale. Todd and Brandon from Nature's Touch were at the gardens continuing work on the koi pond water system. We did see plenty of visitors even this morning as it became quite warm as the mid-day approached. We were very pleased with the results and spent quite a bit of time hand watering all the new plantings just in case we don't get the promised rain (60% chance) tomorrow. Below are Tina (left) and Joanne who did a great job in the heat along with the rest of the crew.Since the plants had mostly been hauled and placed yesterday (Friday) for the work day this morning, we collected tools and other assorted supplies very quickly. As John and Janice gathered our routine supplies, Larry was a whirlwind of running irrigation as we really are getting quite dry out in the gardens. We try to run the majority of irrigation in the morning and today was no exception. I was able to catch a couple photographs this morning as time allowed. Directly above is the showy flower sphere (umbel) of the 'Ivory Queen' ornamental onion (Allium karataviense). This shorter species (12") also has wide, blue-green foliage and the flower size is impressive at 4-5" in diameter. I ran down to check out the improvements by "Mr. Moss" yesterday on the moss island (see to the right). He did a great job and was aided by the muscles of both Marv and Terry. Dale brought another large batch of mosses and the second section of this island is as impressive as the first. If you look closely, you can barely see the fine mesh that is temporarily placed over these new moss clumps. This mesh should deter birds and other critters that like to remove pieces and examine this new planting. Dale has done a superb job and we hope to have his continued efforts with moss in the fern & moss garden as well as the Japanese garden.

Some of the staff and volunteers commented on me getting my hands dirty and actually planting this morning. I was glad I hadn't forgotten how to do it! I did locate myself not far from the very fragrant, variegated shrub seen to the upper left. This is the variegated mockorange (Phildelphus coronarius 'E.A. Bowles') which I've featured before but just happened to catch peak bloom (and scent!) today. To the right is the showy apricot bloom spire of the hybrid mullein (Verbascum hybrida 'Clementine') in the English cottage garden. Note the lavender/blue center structures on these blooms. Speaking of blooms, many of the roses (Rosa) have started blooming early and we have observed blossoms for over two weeks now. Directly below is the showy (but small, 1" or so wide) blossom of the red-leaved rose (Rosa glauca) and at the bottom, the 'Morden Blush' shrub rose is looking quite exquisite in the French formal garden. More planting next week as well as trips to pick up more plants!