More Of The Same

Today was another hot one (officially reaching 104 degrees F) and we didn't see much for visitors as you can imagine. We checked a couple thermometers and online references for our afternoon heat and had a variability of 101, 102, 103 or 104 degrees F. At that point, does it really feel any different? I have a better respect for those that live in dry climates that experience these temperatures! We had a small grounds staff today and a smaller turnout than usual in terms of volunteers but that wasn't unexpected with this brutal heat. The top photo of the arched bridge I took this morning with the pond being totally calm. Note that the water level has dropped a good foot or so on the bridge supports as you can see where the guys painted to the water line back in late May. To the right are the clear white blooms of the 'Snow Lady' dwarf shasta daisy (Leucanthemum x superbum) which we grow as a seasonal (technically a perennial) for its flower power on a 12" tall plant. This showy annual is an All-America Selections (AAS winner) as is the 'Sundance Bicolor' blanket flower (Gaillardia pulchella) to the left. This annual blanket flower has solid blooms throughout the growing season and really catches the eye.

The photo above shows Sue (foreground) and Karla in the distance. Along with Suzy and Cheryl (off camera), the four ladies spent the morning planting and watering annuals in the All-America Selections collection. We've had some early losses and vigor issues on a couple plants and brought in another 500+ plants to fill in the collection. I normally don't like planting on such hot days but we've been stagnant with planting recently with this weather pattern and thought we'd just do it. Karen M. did some nice work in the Japanese garden today. Our Grumpies were very helpful with watering. To the right is Urban who helped water our yard plants and collections at the Horticulture Center. Directly below is Del who also hand watered some vast areas. Rollie came in and helped out as well by watering in the gazebo garden, rhododendron garden and back terrace garden. Dave, Jim and Bob A. worked on the new doors for our "root box" viewer and accomplished some other projects. Two photos down are Dave T. (left) and Jim touring the gardens. Dick H. made a run to the dump and continued to cut and process our aluminum plant labels. Dr. Gredler was in for some brief mowing although he'll do most of it tomorrow before our weekend weddings. Bill O. was in later to work on some more shearing projects. We also saw Deb, Dave K., Mary, Marv, Marianne and many others.
I asked the grounds staff to help water until lunch time and decide what they wanted to do in terms of the afternoon heat. Aside from construction, roofing, mail delivery and some other occupations, gardening can be brutal in this heat as well. The gang (Larry, Big John, Janice and I) toughed it out and we were all outside most of the day (watering of course). Directly above is the 'Extra Apricot' moss rose (Portulaca grandiflora) which is part of our neat collection (see to the right). Shelley Ryan featured these stalwart garden annuals in her taped segment (for The Wisconsin Gardener) this past Monday at the gardens. She commented on how she remembers the scraggly moss roses with single blossoms and was amazed at the variety of color in the double flower varieties.

Janice got the ladies started this morning with their planting task and prepped some hoses for immediate use by the volunteers. She then had a full day of watering containers, garden beds and our yard plants. She also mulched some of the vegetables at the Horticulture Center. Big John set-up many sprinklers and moved them throughout the day. He also push mowed, hand watered (containers too!) and helped collect myriad hoses, sprinklers, etc. at the end of the day. Larry had the irrigation going early and also spent time alternating those zones, setting up sprinklers, hand watering and push mowing. Larry also set-up a good fountain alternative in our sunken garden pool. We've had some issues with an older fountain and pump and this new approach should work well. To the left is the new 'Jams N' Jellies' annual vinca (Catharanthus roseus) which is part of our All-America Selections collection and this variety is a 2012 winner. That dark velvety purple is quite showy with the white center on plants that reach 14" tall or so.

I spent another day moving hoses around but did take the time to walk through the entire garden to assess some of the drought implications. We now have trees and shrubs wilting down severely in areas where we don't currently have irrigation. We'll have to start addressing this moisture deficiency on many target plants over the coming weeks. Even a 1" rain wont help much although I would take anything right about now! Also in our All-America Selections collection is the snapdragon (Antirrhinum majus) to the right. This is 'Rocket Golden' which was catching the morning light just perfectly this morning. In close proximity to this plant grouping were those seen below. Directly below is the 'Profusion Orange' zinnia (Zinnia angustifolia) which reaches about 15" in height and keeps blooming all summer. At the bottom is the double gloriosa daisy (Rudbeckia hirta 'Gloriosa Double') which tops out around 24" and blooms in to September. If you look closely at that photo along the petals on the far outer right, you'll notice the legs of a "daddy long legs" spider that was camera shy this morning. More of the same tomorrow in terms of watering and accomplishing our preparations for weddings this weekend.

Happy 4th Of July!

I'll keep the blog brief ("thankfully" I'm sure some of you are thinking!). Today was a quick stealth mission at RBG with Marianne, Marv, Terry, Big John and I converging on the gardens at 6:30 am to address watering needs to take us through another 100 degree F day. It was 94 degrees by 9:30 am this morning. The gang did a great job addressing dry spots, containers and other target areas. Joan and Corky were in early to water all the vegetables over at the Horticulture Center. Bill O. came in to help tidy up the sunken garden before a wedding this afternoon. Now that will be a "hot one"! Mary and Gena came in around 9 am to do some weeding and we left them tidying up in the gazebo garden as we all left around 10 am. Normally there would only be one or two of around for watering but duty calls on such a hot day.

Some of you may see fireworks yet tonight if your community hasn't cancelled them due to the temperatures and dry conditions. I thought I'd include four plants with "fireworks-like" blossoms. At the top is the 'King Tut' giant papyrus (Cyperus papyrus) with that flowering structure "spray". When visitors ask about the tall plant with the "fireworks top", we know what they're talking about very quickly. Directly above is the tumbleweed ornamental onion (Allium schubertii) is it dries (originally pink at peak). Imagine this with a coat of spray paint to extend interest in to the summer months. Directly below is a shot of the yellow ornamental onion (Allium flavum) that I took in our alpine garden a couple days ago. I like these little yellow clusters above powdery blue foliage and stems. This is a fall-planted ornamental onion and normally blooms in July. At the bottom is a variegated papyrus (Cyperus alternifolius 'Variegatus') that also catches the eye in the container or bed. Enjoy the day and be careful of the heat!

Another "Triple Digit Day"

It was another hot one today (100 degrees F) but we did get an entire 2 minutes of raindrops this morning which amounted to nothing. However, overcast skies did keep the gardens cooler this morning. When the sun really starting beating down after lunch, the temperatures jumped up again to create another unpleasantly hot day. Many flowers in the gardens however, are looking great. The top photo shows the 'Caviar' daylily (Hemerocallis) in our daylily collection which is starting to peak here earlier than usual. There are some really neat varieties in that collection including many interesting shades of red, maroon and pink. Directly above is the 'Prime Time Blue Star' petunia (Petunia) in the reception garden. To the right is the arched bridge in the distance but note the sprinkler in the foreground. This sums up the day for the grounds staff (Big John, Pat, Janice, Larry and me) as we continued to "make rain" for our annual plantings and are now also irrigating/watering areas that have parched trees and shrubs. To the left is the border that Pearl and Don C. maintain. They were here today and did a nice job. Shelley Ryan pointed out yesterday that the obelisk color perfectly matched those coleus (Solenostemon). Of course I said that it was all carefully thought out in advance...

Larry came in at 5:30 am to start running irrigation throughout the gardens. He also set up sprinklers in many areas and spent the entire day watering. Pat watered the yard right away and also headed out for a full day of watering. Big John set up plenty of sprinklers, hand watered, push mowed, dug out a dead burning bush (Euonymus alatus) and accomplished many other tasks. Janice spent time removing some unsavory annuals in some of our flower beds and this is where our back-up/reserve plants will come in to play very shortly. She also did plenty of watering as well. I also set-up and moved sprinklers around and took advantage of the sun and heat with a couple backpack loads of herbicide. I'm also working on my "rainy day" projects that I've been waiting on and I suppose a 100 degree F day is not a bad day to crank these out in the air-conditioned office. To the right is the bloom of the Endless Summer hydrangea (Hydrangea macrophylla 'Bailmer') which is usually a nice pink for us and rarely blue (requires a lower pH). Directly below are the showy (and edible!) blooms of the variegated tricolor society garlic (Tulbaghia violacea 'Variegata') which is featured many times in our Ornamental Edible & Compact Vegetable Collection. I featured this plant recently in the blog for it's nice variegated foliage and grassy texture. Below that is the fruiting structure of the umbrella-leaf magnolia (Magnolia tripetala) in our arboretum. This will turn bright red over the coming months.

With this brutal weather, we naturally see a decline in volunteer attendance until the weather breaks. We did have some great assistance though today. Don and Pearl tidied up their area near the shade garden and Ron K. was in to work in the woodland walk garden. Mary H. and her daughter did some work this morning as well. This morning, Cheryl (relatively new volunteer) came in for a couple of hours and did a great job entirely weeding one of our problem areas. She did a fantastic job and I hope we see her often! To the right is the showy (and huge) bloom of the 'Mauna Loa' daylily (Hemerocallis) near the arboretum.

Lynn S. was a real trooper and worked almost eight hours today in the English cottage garden. We saw her at 6:30 am this morning and she planted and watered all day in her garden space. That English cottage garden is going to look even more dynamite as these plants fill in quickly. She had some space to address because of the seasonal decline of the breadseed poppies (Papaver somniferum). Dr. Gredler was in for some mowing and weeding duties and Bill O. came in later to prune some yews (Taxus) near the French formal garden and he watered the yard (round 2) this afternoon. We also saw Marianne who came in to do some lamination and Jim D. stopped by as well. To the left are the deep indigo blooms of the 'Black & Blue' Brazilian sage (Salvia gauranitica) in the reception garden. Based on all my observations of hummingbirds over the years at RBG, I would say this plant consistently receives the most attention. Santos, one of our volunteer photographers, hangs out around these salvias and has taken some great shots of hummingbirds. To the right is the always showy summer snapdragon (Angelonia angustifolia 'Serena Blue') which has very interesting flowers when you look closely and provides color throughout the entire summer. Directly below are the white flower spires of the fairy candles (Cimicifuga racemosa) in the shade garden. Also known as black cohosh, black bugbane, snakeroot and other names, the Latin has also changed on this one to Actaea racemosa. This clump caught my eye as the flowers (fragrant) are going every which way and are eye-catching. At the bottom is the start of fruit maturation on the native pagoda dogwood (Cornus alternifolia). These will continue to get darker blue and the birds will nibble on them shortly.

Sweltering Tropics

One of the plants out in the gardens that is really enjoying the recent heat (today was 95 degrees F) are the zinnias (Zinnia sp.). The top photo shows the 'Aztec Sunset' zinnia (Zinnia haageana) which is thriving and looking nice. This variety has a couple different flower colors but most have the cream-tipped petal ends. This in one of our Fleuroselect winnners. We have been one of only six approved display gardens in North America for Fleuroselect which is an organization that promotes flower varieties in Europe. Our tropicals are loving this heat and we've been able to keep all the new plantings watered fairly well up to this point. To the right is 'The Rocket' ligularia (Ligularia stenocephala) in our sunken garden starting to peak nicely with those upright bloom clusters. All ligularias prefer damper soils and benefit from some degree of part shade.

We had Shelley Ryan, host and producer of The Wisconsin Gardener, at RBG today to film some segments. She was joined by Mike (camera), Tom (sound) and Greg (support) and we had a great time filming two segments. Our first segment was on vertical gardening and we talked about the reasons and value for this approach. We featured our pallet planters, cucumber supports and definitely the tiered pvc pipe planter seen directly above. We then did a segment promoting the use of moss roses (Portulaca) in the garden. The second photo up shows the 'Pizzaz Tangerine' moss rose (Portulaca oleracea) which was one of many that we discussed. Needless to say, it's always nice to see Shelley and the crew. Shelley was able to meet many of our volunteers and we look forward to these segments attracting more potential visitors and supporters of the gardens. I spent most of the morning with Shelley and caught up on desk projects in the afternoon. I did have some degree of guilt that I was the only grounds person in air-conditioning while the rest of the crew fried outside in the heat. To the upper left is the dog vomit slime mold in our gazebo garden. I've featured this in the past many years ago and found out quickly that I didn't know much about slime molds at all (very interesting) If you're interested, there is some great information at the link http://featuresblogs/chicagotribune.com/chicago_gardener/2007/06/dog-vomit-slime.html that I found quite helpful. The grounds staff had a busy day and Larry, John, Marv, Terry, Big John, Marianne and Pat all spent time watering today. Everyone had other tasks too but watering became our most important task of the day. Janice was also in to work with her Chestnut House volunteers. To the upper right is the early fall color of the yellow buckeye (Aesculus octandra) that is showing pre-mature fall coloring as a result of the crazy weather we've been having. It's hard to believe that summer just started which makes me worry about July and August in regards to temperatures and rainfall. Directly below is the leaf of the wooly sage after some irrigation. Those fuzzy leaves shed water nicely and I can see why they would be desireable to utilize in the gardens. Speaking of fuzzy, the next photo down shows the flower head of the soft-textured, crested cockscomb (Celosia cristata 'Spring Green') We had some great volunteer help today despite the heat and blazing sun. Directly above is the 'Prairie Sun' gloriosa daisy (Rudbeckia hirta) which is just one of many annuals we have featured out in the gardens. This particular variety (36" tall) is known for having the dark gold "halo" around the green center. Winnifred was our sole Grumpette today but she did a great job weeding in the hosta beds in the gazebo garden. Ron W. and Urban helped move yard plants and alter watered them in well. Ron also brought back some umbrellas from our terrace garden that look like they need repairs. Russ and Del went out right away to continue skimming older gravel from path edges and adding a fresh layer of gravel. The paths are looking nice and this was certainly challenging work in the summer. Dick P. worked with Maury on some projects at the Parker Education Center and later helped place new bricks with Rollie. Dick H. ran some loads to the dump and helped out here and there. Ron B. did some air edging around the vegetable beds at the Horticulture Center. Gary was in for some label production and data entry. Our Grumpy carpenters (Jim, Bob A. Vern and Dave) worked on their shed structure although Bob A. had time for some repainting of our Smelly Garden signs. To the above right is another one our planting "bags" and that Swiss chard (Beta vulgaris) doesn't seem to mind it a bit. To the left is the 'Satisfaction' hybrid lily (Lilium). This variety is one of the Orienpet lilies which means they are a cross of a fragrant Oriental lily with a trumpet lily. Standing around 5' tall, there are 100 of these perfuming the English cottage garden as I type. Lynn was in today to pick out more annuals for "filler" in that garden (planting tomorrow) and we also saw Bob J., Dinty, Joan, Dr. Yahr, Ray, Corky and many others. It was the typical busy Monday and we hope to have more volunteer assistance with watering and other duties later in the week. We still have another week or two of planting but I'm wary of planting on a day over 90 degrees F. To the lower right is the purple orach (Atriplex hortensis var. rubra) in our Ornamental Edible & Compact Vegetable Collection. When younger (under 18") the tender leaves of this annual are a flavorful and nutritious addition to our diets and have been used as such for thousands of years. However, these plants like to grow to 5' tall or so and are impressive ornamentally (but not tasty) at that stage. Below is Janice watering our hot pepper (Capsicum sp.) bed at the Horticulture Center today and at the bottom is a neat glider that the carpenters built as an auction item for the Dinner Dance (July 14th).

Green Bay Botanical Garden

I left Marquette, MI this morning by way of a different route than the one I took to get up there on Friday. It was a nice scenic trip and Sunday traffic in the Upper Penninsula was fairly minimal. In fact, I didn't hit much for traffic until I hit I-90 in Madison and joined all the Illinois traffic heading back to the Land of Lincoln after the sunny weekend. The halfway point of my trip back home however was Green Bay. I stopped for lunch, fuel and a quick jaunt through the Green Bay Botanical Garden. I'm no stranger to this garden and have always enjoyed visiting (maybe a dozen times in the past). However, I hadn't been back in about six years and was amazed at all the new garden areas, plants and labels! I thought the gardens were considerably more impressive and well-maintained than when I last visited (which doesn't surprise me at all). Kudos to Mark, Dave and the entire staff and volunteers at GBBG for such a great garden. Their Executive Director (Susan) is also a dynamo and well-suited to this venue. I lived and worked near Appleton for a couple years back when GBBG was just getting started and it's been nice to see such dramatic changes. I encourage everyone to visit and support this garden and while I wont explain every photo in this brief blog, they are all meant to entice you to stop by when you are in the area. GBBG also has an awesome magnolia collection that I've not visited in spring yet. We've taken some staff trips up there (twice?) and met with their staff in the past to swap stories. GBBG also has a huge holiday lights show that generates lots of attendance and income for the garden. It actually may be their largest fundraiser. I noted all the awesome power boxes around the gardens and they look like they have a great framework for their display. Maybe I'll sneak up this winter and check it out.

There was some significant construction that thwarted my efforts to get to the gardens and I almost gave up to be honest. I'm glad I persevered and really enjoyed the visit. I will say it looks like they've had more rain than we have and I hope we have some decent rain in the near future.