A Busy Week Ahead

Good news. I found a way to use the old format of BLOGGER and have expedited my blogging with minimal frustration. Don't forget to check out my other blog on the Wisconsin Gardener magazine website (www.statebystategardening.com/wi). This is a top notch publication by the way. This is a very busy week (aside from all of our gardening duties). Tomorrow is our Horticulture Therapy Workshop which focuses on older adult populations. It looks like we'll have a crowd of 40 or so attendees, some of which are travelling quite a distance. This Friday is our Arbor Day celebration which includes free admission to the garden, information from our local Janesville Shade Tree Advisory Council (JSTAC), a tree planting demonstration (3 pm) and a dedication ceremony at 4 pm (everyone is invited). The top photo shows the interesting, dangling flowers of prairie smoke (Geum triflorum). I've shown this perennial in my blog in the past but have featured the feathery seed heads (forming in a month or so) that help lend themselves to the common name of this tough plant. Directly above is the dark foliage of the 'Mocha' coral bells (Heuchera villosa) which I find quite appealing. The giant leaves aren't quite maroon and show lots of brownish shades. This variety, and those others in the villosa group, get quite large too. To the right is a flower cluster of the red buckeye (Aesculus pavia) just starting to open. I hope the hummingbirds are in the neighborhood to enjoy the blooms of this small statured tree (15-20'). To the left is the tropical-looking, deep maroon foliage of the dark-leaved golden-ray or senecio (Ligularia dentata 'Britt Marie Crawford'). This perennial likes damper soils and needs plenty of moisture in sunnier locations. Ours are in part sun and I always look forward to the large, yellow-orange daisies that appear in late summer.

We had a nice volunteer turnout today. Dr. Gredler was in to do more mowing and we saw Rose later working on the repainting of one of our garden benches. Bill O. stopped by and we also saw Dick H. as well. We also saw Pam T., Bob T., Mary W., Bill O. (the other one), Maury and quite a few others. While I would have liked some more hands for weeding, I think we'll see that later in the week. To the right is the speckled foliage of the variegated sycamore maple (Acer pseudoplatanus 'Variegatus'). We get lots of questions about this showy tree and while this maple species is just barely hardy, this variegated variety really shines in our color rooms garden with no two leaves being the same. While spring flowers understandably catch our attention, don't miss the small miracles happening with colorful foliage unfurling all over the garden. The spring coloration of so much of our plant foliage is the most vivid it will be as our hot summers can wash out many of the colors as these bright colors fade over time. The two photos below show Scott S. from the City of Janesville Parks Department augering out ten holes in our parking lot islands yesterday. We appreciate Scott's help as that will save some back breaking digging. We'll install some of our new parking lot trees tomorrow and can see the value of having a 36" diameter auger attachment!
Directly above is the showy spring bloom of the Carolina allspice or sweetshrub (Calycanthus raulstonii 'Hartlage Wine' or xSinocalycalycanthus raulstonii 'Hartlage Wine'). The flowers have a nice scent and this shrub should get some decent size over the years (8'x8'). Once the flowers are done, this shrub has nice glossy, leathery green leaves. I've seen some very nice specimens at Olbrich Botanical Gardens (Madison, WI) and will be patient until ours gain some size! To the right is a close-up shot of the native, wild columbine (Aquilegia canadensis). I'm always smitten with these and we have an area that we've let these colonize to great spring effect! To the left is the subtle coloration of 'Hocus Pocus' tulips (Tulipa) which are considered some of the tallest at close to 36" tall!

Larry checked all our water features (a daily chore) and continued his work on our sunken garden pool and fountain. Our masons were back working on the restacking/setting of a retaining wall in that area (sunken garden) and the improvements are quite impressive. Larry also pushmowed, unpackaged plants, watered and worked on some other projects. Big John and Pat were in this morning and worked on various tasks until it warmed up for their repainting project (observation pier). The guys mowed, hauled compost and worked on some other tasks before putting in a good painting effort as the sun came out and temperatures warmed. Pat & John are splitting their time between gardening chores and painting over the coming weeks. We can't neglect these painting needs and still have three more "target structures" to address (back porch, arched bridge and gazebo). Our hope is to get a fresh coat or two on all these structures before "prime" wedding season which starts in early June. To the right are the cheery yellow blossoms of the Carolina bushpea (Thermopsis villosa). This is blooming quite early but combines well with the surrounding red tulips (Tulipa). Also known as Carolina lupine or false lupine, this legume (fixes nitrogen) offers some bright coloration out in the garden and is quite drought tolerant.

I had some meetings today which included our Garden Development & Maintenance Committee (also attending were Dr. Gredler, Gary, Dick P., Maury, Big John, Chris R., Joanne and Mary). I also attended the Board meeting and presented the new plan for our future Wellness Garden which met with approval for continuing forward with pricing and the further development of design details. Directly below is the colorful spring foliage of the variegated purpleblow maple (Acer truncatum 'Akikaze Nishiki') in the Japanese garden. Note the pink highlights which later age to a cream. At the bottom are the rounded flower clusters of the appropriately named 'Popcorn' doublefile viburnum (Viburnum plicatum var. tomentosum) near the arboretum.

Back To Basics

I'm still trying to figure out this new blogging format which has my pictures moving all over the place and flipping around and occasionally disappearing. It's quite frustrating actually and hopefully I'll get the hang of it before I lose my considerable patience. Above are the beautiful blossoms and the start of the burgundy foliage of the Royal Raindrops crabapple (Malus 'KFS-KW5') which is really looking good this spring. There was a light frost again this morning that tinged a couple things out in the gardens (primarily foliage) but the crabapples (Malus) are still looking good and are just past peak at this point. Directly above is the neat foliage of the Coppertina ninebark (Physcarpus opulifolius 'Mindia') that is quite striking with prominent orange tones. To the left is a wood forget-me-not (Myosotis sylvatica 'Bluesylva') in the Scottish Garden looking quite nice. We had a great turnout of volunteers today which included Grumpies and many others. Directly below are Pat and Dick H. who were "lifting" some of our older tulips (given to volunteers). We'll plant new tulips in this location next year and it's interesting to note that they had to dig over 18" down to get to the bulbs on these! The originals were of course planted at a 6" depth but that was five years ago. Tulips (Tulipa) do work their way downwards and this display has been getting thinner over the past couple of years. Over the next couple of weeks, we'll continue lifting more bulbs as needed for the same reasons. The second photo down is a close-up of the bloom of the chocolate vine (Akebia quinata). Also called five-leaf akebia, this hardy, woody vine is planted in our English cottage garden and has done well with very little light. While the flowers aren't overwhelming, they are quite profuse and have the slightest hint of chocolate fragrance. There is also a white-flowering form although I also like the leaves on this species.

Dennis was in early to work with Big John as they took down the tree sale signs (sale is continued!, read below...) and moved on to the continuation of mulching (shredded bark) in the woodland walk garden. John and Pat are spending some time repainting out in the gardens and did much of that later in the morning and throughout the afternoon. Gary and Rollie also spread mulch as did Ron W., Del, Urban and Bob C. Bill S. worked on getting grass/weeds out of some of the gravel paths and Dr. Gredler was out mowing in various locations. Dave T., Jim and Bob A. continued on some of their carpentry projects which included some work near the gazebo garden. Our new volunteer, Ron, jumped right in to cleaning up the woodland walk garden which he'll continue to maintain as an assigned gardener to that space. Maury was in for various projects and he, Glenn, Gordy and I had a brief wrap up meeting regarding the Spring Tree Sale (we're continuing to sell the leftovers this Fri. and Sat. from 8 am until 1 pm at the Horticulture Center @ $1 each). Jan was back to work in the Scottish Garden and we also saw Rose, Tina, Kay R., Ron R., Mary W., Bill O., Marilyn H., Mary, Polly, Lori, Kelli and many others today as well. Luis did a great job placing his woody plant labels out in the garden and we'll install them very shortly. To the right is the showy color of the 'Stripe It Rich' golden Hakone grass (Hakonechloa macra) that we have punctuated throughout the woodland walk garden.

Marv and Terry worked on removing more shrubs and perennials from our parking lot islands which is the start of the process to renovate all the plantings out there. The City of Janesville Parks Department came later with a handy auger (thanks Scott!) to start the holes for our tree planting later in the week. The guys also filled containers and worked on some other projects. Larry continued work on getting our sunken garden pond and fountain operational and unloaded our next batch of bagged compost. Marianne finalized some tree sale details and did a nice job tidying and weeding in some select locations. Pat dug tulips and painted while John's activities are mentioned above (also painting). Janice was in later to help with preparations for our Horticulture Therapy workshop (this Wednesday). Below is one of the three center planters in front of the Parker Education Center that is filled with 'White Triumphator' tulips (Tulipa).

Earth Day & Tree Sale (Day 2)

Today was day 2 of our Earth Day activities at the Parker Education Center as well as the second day of our Spring Tree Sale.  It was a busy day with many people out in the gardens enjoying the sunny day and steady traffic at the plant sale.  I scraped ice off my windshield to start the day and noted some minor damage on flowers and foliage this morning but don't think it will be too much of an issue.  For those that read my blogs, they may look goofy for a bit until I can figure out the new formats that BLOGGER has provided.  When I started this blog, the new format was revealed and has been challenging.  So far, it's not as easy as my previous format so we'll see how everything goes in terms of my "learning curve".  We had plenty of great volunteers assisting today and Marianne again kept everything running smoothly.  The Blackhawk Golden Kiwanis club again had some good representation and we hope to sell the remainder of the trees by the end of the day.  Luis was here to place labels and Kay worked on peeling plant sale labels and went out in to the gardens for some weeding.  Pete and Renee (both new volunteers) did some nice weeding in the vegetable beds around the Horticulture Center.  I gave a tour for some of our Sunday watering volunteers (Tammy, Sue, Dennis, Gena and Whitey) and later took around our garden docents / tour guides to orient them on some of the new collections, color schemes, etc.  I was impressed with the number of visitors out in the gardens and like to see all the families enjoying RBG.  Larry worked on unpackaging our crated plants (see photo above) and Bill O. was out tidying up many areas in the gardens and emptying our many garbage cans from around the gardens.  Janice kept busy as did Dr. Gredler and Maury. The photo at the bottom shows six of our ten new trees that will be planted next week in the parking lot islands.  These trees (and significant signage) were funded by a WI DNR Urban Forestry Grant.  We'll plant one of these as part of our Arbor Day celebration next Friday (April 27th). 

    

Steady Tree Sale

Today was the start of our two days of Earth Day celebrations at the gardens. There was lots of action over at the Parker Education Center with activities, demonstrations (raptors too!), informative booths, etc. for the entire family (10 am until 3 pm). These same activities will occur again tomorrow over the same time frame. Held in conjunction with these activities is our Spring Tree Sale (8 am until 3 pm) over at the Horticulture Center. This is the second year we've partnered with the Blackhawk Golden Kiwanis Club for this fundraiser and it went quite well today. It seemed like a steady stream of customers arriving and plenty of our nine varieties of trees (see our website) were seen going out the door! The top two photos show the Golden K members working the sale today and unloading the 12,000 trees yesterday. These guys do a nice job with this event (thanks to Glenn, Maury, Gordy and all the other guys) and are quite organized. During the sale, we had a delivery of plants on two pallets that Marv made quick work of as seen above. There were lots of volunteers coming and going but out in the gardens, we had Kay weeding (after working on labels) and Pete helped Big John dig out a nice trench behind a retaining wall that needs to be disassembled and reset by our masons next week. Directly below is the new retaining wall extension that these same masons (Becker Brothers) built along the path leading down to the sunken garden. You can see the older (darker) wall to the left and the new extension coming uphill to the right. This significant improvement really completes the area and addresses a severe slope that was prone to lots of erosion.As it was a cold, misty, dismal day, I'll have to rely on some of my colorful photos from yesterday to augment the blog for today. Two photos above is the double-flowering Japanese kerria (Kerria japonica 'Pleniflora') cascading down with great flower impact. I've featured some close-ups of the blooms recently but this gives you a nice idea of the arching form of this tough and hardy woody shrub. Directly above is the golden foliage of the Gold Bullion pagoda dogwood (Cornus alternifolia 'Bachone') which is a nice golden leaf selection of this native by Kris Bachtell of the Morton Arboretum. I have one along the side of my house and it really glows. To the right is the bright foliage of 'St. Elmo's Fire' hosta (Hosta) which is one of my favorites as it is has a gold leaf with white margin. Our hostas are growing by leaps and bounds and hopefully the 30 degree F prediction tonight wont create too much damage for these or any other plants.

Marianne did another dynamite job keeping the tree sale running smoothly with our volunteers and all the Golden K assistance. She has all our plant sales down to a science and we'll look forward to her help tomorrow and appreciate her skills. All the grounds staff helped prepare for the tree sale this morning. Janice and Jenny also worked on all sorts of indoor projects related to the tree sale, spring plant sale, home garden tour and much more. Jenny also worked on labels and Janice is doing a nice job finalizing her Grains of the World collection information. Big John did quite a bit of mulching today (shredded bark), dug with Pete and lifted some of our plants that were "healed in" over the winter. Marv and Terry hauled some large trees out for planting, planted moss, sheared some large shrubs, went shopping and did some other odds and ends. Pat was in to cut back some vines that are in the way of his future painting project. We also saw Jean S., Mary W., Tina B., Bill O. and many of our great volunteers that were in to help facilitate the plant sale. To the left is a close-up of the fragrant bloom of the witch alder (Fothergilla sp. 'Blue Shadow') which later foliates with some nice gray/blue foliage. All of our witch alders are blooming now and many also have superior fall color late in the season (late October/early November). To the right is the beautiful cutleaf lilac (Syringa laciniata) which confuses a lot of our visitors. They recognize the fragrant blooms but the very fine-textured foliage is not typical of what you would usually observe on a lilac. Directly below is a close-up of the bloom of the black jetbead (Rhodotypos scandens). This totally underused shrub (in the rose family) is one of the toughest shrubs I've observed for part shade to shady conditions. It blooms nicely in spring with these clear white blooms and although they aren't overwhelming, they are showy enough. This shrub, native to Japan, China and Korea, forms black fruit clusters in late summer (hence the name) that hold on thru the winter. Fall color on this 4-6' shrub is chartreuse to gold. Unfortunately, black jetbead is becoming a concern in some Eastern states (NY and PA to name a few) for reseeding and creating thickets in native woodlands. I haven't observed that trait here (as of yet) and still like it as a tough plant. At the bottom is a close-up of the bloom cluster on the purple gromwell (Buglossoides purpurocaeruleum) which is quite a vigorous groundcover. We have it in a huge patch underneath some panicled hydrangeas (Hydrangea paniculata 'Tardiva') where it offers some solid blue/purple color before the hydrangeas have fully leafed out. Tomorrow is day 2 of Earth Day activities, the Spring Tree Sale and I'll also be involved with our training for tour docents and our Sunday watering teams.

No Shortage of May Color

Today was a mix of sunshine with the afternoon becoming cloudy and rainy. We had quite a bit of action around the Horticulture Center and gardens today though. I took a nice walk over the entire gardens and feel "reconnected" after the return from my trip. I noticed many more blossoms and foliage emerging and was quite impressed with the look of the gardens. This early warm up and recent rains has created quite a battle with the weeds but we're holding our own thus far. The top picture is a nice shot of our new waterfall (from last year) in the Japanese garden in full operation and looking great. The Japanese garden has superior color in both spring (at peak right now) and the fall. The new stream and lower holding pool look nice as well in this garden. Near the Japanese garden is the fern & moss garden where I photographed the 'Pewter Lace' Japanese painted fern (Athyrium niponicum) two photos above. This variety has quite a bit of burgundy to the fronds and is one of my favorites. All the ferns are showing good growth and are filling in nicely. Directly above is the variegated Norway maple (Acer platanoides 'Drummondii'). These leaves look nice in spring but tend to get crispy brown later in the summer. To the right is the orange spring growth of the 'Autumn Moon' fullmoon maple (Acer shirasawanum) which will later turn to a brilliant gold for the remainder of the summer. To the left is one of the many columbines (Aquilegia sp.) looking good out in the gardens. The blooms of this dwarf variety, 'Origami Red & White', are enormous and caught my eye from a distance. This series is known for upwards-facing blooms. We have hundreds of columbines throughout the gardens and I always enjoy looking at them up close. To the right are the showy blooms of camassia or quamash (Camassia leichtlinii 'Blue Danube') in the woodland walk garden. This fall planted bulb is native to the Pacific Northwest and was used as an edible root crop by Native Americans. I like this bulb for the nice spires and there are species and varieties with white, powder blue and/or double flowers. There is also a variegated leaved variety ('Blue Melody'). They like damp soils and thrive where it is moist. Camassias in our damp sunken garden have thrived for over 10 years and form some very nice clumps. Normally we wouldn't see these until early May but we'll enjoy them now any way! We had a great crew today and the photos both above and below are a tribute to the hard work that occurred. The top photo above is Pat spreading shredded bark near the Smelly Garden (Nancy Yahr Memorial Children's Garden). Pat must have spread 40 loads of this stuff today and does a great job tapering it away from plants. The second photo shows Dennis (left) and Big John (right) planting our first shrubs of the season near the gazebo garden. These guys worked together all morning and are a great team. The shrubs, incidentally, are variegated versions of the Southern bush honeysuckle (Diervilla sessilifolia) which is a tough shrub for sun and even dry shade. This Cool Splash ('LDCP Podaras') variety looks dynamite and I saw it first at the Chicago Botanic Garden two years ago and wanted to try it at RBG. John and Dennis then shifted to installing our big culvert pipe planters on the entrance garden slope with Larry and Dick H. Directly above is Larry "double barreling" the culvert pipes thru the garden this morning. Larry worked on all sorts of other projects today as well. To the right is the Carolina silverbell (Halesia tetraptera) in bloom in the shade garden. I finally caught this one at peak and was happy to just catch it out of the corner of my eye! To the left is the yellow buckeye (Aesculus octandra) starting to bloom near the Horticulture Center. All of our horse chestnuts, buckeyes, etc. are starting to bloom and I like all the Aesculus in spring. Many develop leaf scorches and other issues later in the summer months though. There is a great collection of Aesculus at the UW-Arboretum's Longenecker Gardens.

Janice was in to help out in the gardens as well as with preparation for the tree sale, spring plant sale and our Grains of the World collection. She also helped get Suzy and Glenna situated out in the gardens with some weeding duties on the east end of the gardens. Happy B-Day to Glenna! Jenny came in for some weeding and did a nice job potting up the last of our caladiums. Pat, Big John and Larry kept busy as mentioned above and we also saw Marv and Marianne briefly. Rollie and Ron W. assembled our plant sale tables (third photo from the bottom) which was timely as they were used by Golden Kiwanis members this afternoon to process 12,000 tree seedlings for our Spring Tree Sale (Friday and Saturday, 8 am until 3 pm, see details at http://www.rotarybotanicalgardens.org/). Bob C. was out mulching the west end of the parking lot (second photo from the bottom) and did a nice job along that long border. The carpenters, Dave, Jim and Bob A., were in full motion on some projects which include a dunk tank as seen in the bottom with Bob A. swimming....not really. That blue film will be peel off to expose the clear sides of a new "root box" for the education program. Vern popped in and it was good to see him. Maury was busy with preparations for the tree sale but ran some errands including a very timely tree run. We also saw Urban, Polly, Kris, Mary W., Geesje (welcome back) and many others today. To the right is the first peony I've seen blooming. This is the Chinese woodland peony (Paeonia veitchii) in the woodland walk garden. Pretty.

Working Thru The Jet Lag

Today was a combination of dealing with jet lag and getting thru my piles of emails, phone calls, etc. I took a brief tour of the gardens this morning and everything looked great. It was nice to see that we did have some rain although the next batch of weeds is starting to appear. The grounds staff and volunteers have done a great job dealing with this advanced spring and all the duties that are required. All the photos here are from the Netherlands as I didn't get time to take garden shots today as I was downloading my 4,500 other shots from the trip! These all fall in to the "cool, weird, interesting and/or scary theme". In brief (and in sequence), the picture above illustrates a mushroom sculpture at the National Asparagus & Mushroom Museum while the one directly below is a cool "green" bus stop in Eindoven. Posted in no particular order, further down is an interesting sign in Amsterdam (marijuana is technically illegal), colorful stacked pots at the Floriade, a Dutch clog sculpture at the Floriade, part of an umbrella canopy at the Floriade and a huge bowling sculpture in Eindoven. Continuing, there is a weird display with suspended trees (Floriade), a close-up of an "insect hotel" (great for mason bees, etc.), a "green" car (fake grass), two cool driftwood carvings (Apeltern Gardens), an interesting form of a London planetree (Platanus x acerifolia) and a neat rain barrel that allows water to fill the inserted watering can first with overflow going in to that teardrop shape for later use. Further below is another planetree that was pruned to conform to that metal support system, old boots (with moss) along a wall at Apeltern (weird), rock-filled steel mesh "walls" that we saw everywhere with different "contents" (coconut shells in the next photo down) and some very scary gnome/dwarf creatures. I swear they blinked a couple times as I walked by and they will forever haunt my nightmares. I liked the hanging rubber totes with plants seen next followed by a huge pink trowel sculpture and some neat PVC tubes with daffodils (Narcissus) seen at Keukenhof. And lastly, a cool metal dragon at Keukenhof, one of many modified bikes for hauling around kids (that's a two seater and incidentally, no one wears helmets on bicycles there...), a huge telephone, a scary cow and my favorite sign at a garden we visited. The bottom photo is an old auction machine (seen at the museum) used by farmers that would push a button to indicate the highest price they would pay with the auction winner being the first to stop the "pricing clock". Essentially, that clock-like device would rotate from the established top price and ultimately someone would push a button when it got to a price they would pay. The bulb auction had a modern day equivalent which wasn't too different in theory but was all computerized of course.

Today was very productive at RBG with Marv, Terry, Marianne, Jenny, Big John and Pat all outside working on various projects like mulching, weeding, reseeding lawns, etc. The weather was nice and everyone really did a nice job as usual on multiple tasks. Kay was in to work on some more labels and continued her monumental efforts in removing weeds from the daylily collection and Palmer Drive berm. Gena and Myrt were in to weed in the Japanese and formal gardens and Dr. Gredler was in for some mowing. We also saw Charlie and his daughter, Maury and many others today. I was on the WCLO radio briefly this morning with Glenn D. promoting the upcoming Tree Sale (this Fri. and Sat.) as well as Earth Day activities (also this Fri. and Sat.) and the upcoming Spring Plant Sale in May (see our website). Looks like rain tomorrow and another day of catching up.