May Returns (Temporarily)

The weather today was quite nice and ended up being around 75 degrees F. by this afternoon.  The sun was out most of the day but even with afternoon clouds, it was quite pleasant out in the gardens and it reminded me of a nice day in May.  I saw plenty of visitors roaming the gardens and talked to some new visitors that I encouraged to come back for the Holiday Lights Show (HLS) and to certainly make sure they see the gardens during peak spring and summer color too.  There were a couple of school groups out in the gardens and in the prairie today and I saw Suzy K. leading the tours.  This would be the perfect day for a field trip as it looks damp tomorrow and the temperatures will start dipping over the next week or so.  The top photo is peak coloration on one of the native sumacs (Rhus sp.) along our North path.  I've been observing this one from across the water and got a closer look when I ran extension cords (for HLS) along that path this morning.  The second photo above is a shot of the arched bridge from the North path and directly above is the start of orange fall color on the perennial, 'Morning Light' Japanese silver grass (Miscanthus sinensis).



Everyone was busy as a bee today.  Three photos up is a bee looking as busy as a bee...  This little guy was working over the last of the wood betony (Stachys officinalis) flowers near the North point garden and I'm sure the weather was just as enjoyable for him!  Dr. Gredler was in for most of the morning and did a nice job mowing and collecting leaves from various areas.  The leaves are really dropping now and I estimate that about 60% are down already.  Kay did a great job tidying up her portion of the shade garden as she continued to cut down perennials and collect leaves in this area that has a solid "ceiling" of cottonwoods (Populus deltoides).  Ron K. was in the woodland walk garden all morning doing the same thing Kay was in her area.  Ron cut back perennials and collected some major leaves.  Kay swung by to help haul off some of his loads.  Two photos up shows Gena (left) and Mary removing more annuals in the reception garden.  The ladies hauled out some major loads and the reception garden is one of the few remaining areas left to clear.  We'll focus on the rest of the entrance garden tomorrow (weather depending).  Directly above are Ron and Bev who are our veteran arch decorators for the HLS.  They did a great job getting lights secured on twelve of these arches and we'll look forward to their continued expertise regarding this task.  Dick P. was in to install more memorial bricks in various locations around the gardens.  Stan came in this afternoon to work in the Japanese garden and we also saw Dean, Mark S., Margaret Z. and many others.

The entire grounds staff, with the exception of Pat, worked exclusively on HLS duties.  The weather was perfect and we took advantage of it immediately.  Above is Marianne installing lights on our flying saucer planters which will ultimately look pretty cool with lights "spilling" out of these containers.  She finished seven or eight of these today after finalizing her plan and has a couple more left to address.  Marv and Terry put up icicle lights on the gazebo, zig-zag bridge and in other locations.  The guys continued putting up lights around the gardens and will move on to securing displays next week.  Big John spent most of his day in front of the Parker Education Center where he continued putting LED lights on the vast majority of shrubs and small trees in that space.  He later trenched in some cords for me (buried under gravel paths) and decorated some weeping white pines (Pinus strobus 'Pendula') with lights.  Pat worked on decorating a large obelisk with lights and he also put lights on obelisks that were already in place in the terrace garden.  Pat spent time raking leaves, mowing and removing plants as well.  I spent most of my day running cords and am glad to take a decent dent out of the cord pile on a nice day like this.  We're having some work done on widening a brick path out in the gardens which will be a huge improvement and be more appropriate for visitor access, staff and also our garden carts!  Directly below is the observation pier with a nice view across the water.  Note the icicile lights dangling from the structure.  The next photo down is a shot from beneath the leaves of the 'Emperor I' Japanese maple (Acer palmatum) in the fern & moss garden.  The summer leaf color is a nice, deep maroon but the fall color gets this briliant scarlet.  The third photo down features one of our many quote benches and I've always loved this specific quote!  How true it is, even this time of year!

The photo below shows the check presentation that occurred last night at our Volunteer Appreciation Dinner.  The dinner itself went very well and we had a full crowd of close to 140 attendees!  The Wisconsin Department of Tourism Secretary, Stephanie Klett (brown vest in the middle), came to present a $20,000 Joint Effort Marketing (JEM) grant for our HLS that will help market this event outside of Rock County.  This is the second year in a row we've been awarded this significant grant and the improved marketing ultimately brings many more people to RBG, Janesville and Rock County.  From left to right, we have Sue Melton (RBG Marketing and MANY other hats), Christine Rebout (Executive Director of the Janesville Area Convention & Visitors Bureau), Eric Levitt (Janesville City Manager), Mary Fanning-Penny (Executive Director of RBG), Representative Joe Knilans (R-Janesville), Stephanie Klett (WI Department of Tourism Secretary), Mary Wilmer (Board Chair - RBG), Representative Amy Loudenbeck (R-Clinton) and Santa Claus (North Pole). 

Vivid Colors Amongst The Dreariness

Today was also overcast and drizzling for most of our time at the gardens.  We arrived this morning to a power outage at the gardens (and neighboring area) although the power came on before we had to figure out how we would approach the day.  I never saw the sun today although it tried to emerge in mid-afternoon.  However, it was fairly warm and it looks like tomorrow may break a record for a high temperature (upper 70 degrees F).  I hope the rain holds off so we can spend more time out in the gardens.  Despite the dreary weather, we saw lots of children out in the gardens as part of our education program.  They actually traverse the gardens and head out to the prairie restoration as part of their experience.  There is still no shortage of color out in the gardens either.  At the top is the bright fall color of the Beaver Creek witchalder or fothergilla (Fothergilla gardenii 'Klmtwo') in the woodland walk garden.  In that same area is the 'Citronelle' coral bells (Heuchera) seen above.  This perennial has the best yellow/chartreuse coloration in spring and right now! 

The grounds staff spent a good portion of the day inside although the afternoon was a little better for getting outside in to the gardens.  Two photos up are Big John and Janice in the Horticulture Center where they were working on Holiday Lights Show (HLS) tasks along with Pat.  Note their new nametags!  Janice's reads "Yes! I'm having fun!!" while John's says "No!! Go away!  My Name is John".  Both of those are, I think, in reference to my often asked question about whether they're having fun with HLS activities or not!  Janice and Pat worked on decorating many obelisks with lights this morning.  These are an important part of the HLS.  See Pat directly above.  Big John also worked on lights but went out to the entrance garden in front of the Parker Education Center to start putting lights on many of the evergreens right in front of the building.  Pat later went out to remove plants in the reception garden.  Janice worked on some other tasks but spent most of her efforts on HLS work.  As chairperson of the RBG Volunteer Committee, she's heavily involved with preparations for the Volunteer Recognition Dinner tonight.  Larry worked on removing more plants from the reception garden and started putting up his arches for the HLS.  These PVC arches will ultimately have lights secured to them in the coming week or so.  Next week is full steam ahead for HLS preparations as we'll take advantage of the weather before it gets too cold.  I primarily worked on finishing various desk projects and presentations.  I did go on a shopping run for more LED lights and some other HLS supplies. Directly below is the fall coloration of 'The Blues' little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium) which we have throughout the gardens.  The spring and summer coloration is a nice powder blue.  The next photo down shows another deciduous conifer in our alpine garden getting a nice orange needle color before dropping this textural foliage shortly.  This is the Debonair columnar pond cypress (Taxodium ascendens 'Morris').  This specimen is an eye catcher texturally all summer but this color really catches the eye in late October.

We didn't have many volunteers today but those that came in were very helpful.  Dr. Gredler came in for some mowing duties but the constant misting encouraged him to come back on a drier day.  He did help the gang decorate a couple of obelisks as well.  Maury came in for a meeting with me this morning and went on a supplies run for HLS replacement bulbs (for our 1/2 gallon milk jug luminaries).  We also saw Chuck S. and many of the education volunteers out in the gardens.  Directly below is the fall color of the Dreamcatcher beautybush (Kolkwitzia amabilis 'Maradco') in the woodland walk garden.  In spring the leaf coloration is orange on the newest leaves (seen as yellow below) and the rest of the shrub is golden (where you see maroon).  This gradation of fall color caught my eye as the yellow leaves on the ends of all the branches captured my attention.  The next photo down is the fall color of the fragrant abelia (Abelia mosanensis) which also has some great spring interest with very fragrant pink flower clusters.  At the bottom is the clear, golden-yellow fall color of the fringetree (Chionanthus virginicus) which also has a super duper spring look with wispy white, fragrant flower clusters.  Look these up for more information.  I'm looking forward to our Volunteer Appreciation Dinner this evening and we expect over 130 attendees. 

GOOD NEWS!  The registration deadline for our fall symposium, The Winter Garden, has been extended to Monday, October 29th.  Check out symposium details at www.rotarybotanicalgardens.org and get registered soon!



100% Rain for 50% Of The Day

We knew there would be rain today and after examining the radar, we figured we had until lunchtime to get out in the gardens before a sigificant system hit our area (which is exactly how it all played out...).  The morning, while overcast, was very productive and we didn't see rain until about 11:30 am.  Once it started though, it never stopped and continued throughout the afternoon with varying degrees of intensity.  Some of got saturated on our return to the Horticulture Center and my timing for our fall turf fertilization was perfect.  The top photo of the archway leading from the reception garden to sunken garden (or vice versa) was quite nice this morning with the magnolia (Magnolia 'Spring Grove') in the background reaching peak, golden fall coloration.  This archway, as we mention on all of our tours, is from the Parker Pen World Headquarters and is on permanent loan from the Rock County Historical Society.  Janice just recently passed along the historic photo directly above showing the Parker Pen building and you can see that archway in the lower right of the photo!  I've become so used to seeing that arch and have gone underneath it 100s of times.  However, it is quite beautiful and is a nice transition between gardens.  The archway also frames an axis or sight line from the Druid sculpture (another historic element) in the reception garden to "The Flame" sculpture in the sunken garden (created by George Parker III).  Directly below are some other recent shots out in the gardens.  Looking like a black coneflower, directly below is the dried version of the 'Green Jewel' purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea).  This stage caught my eye and is probably going to be more attractive to birds as the season progresses.  The next photo down shows the fiery orange fall color on the Sunjoy 'Golden Pillar' upright Japanese barberry (Berberis thunbergii). The golden foliage on this upright shrub is showy all season but the fall color certainly adds to the show.  I'm not a big fan of barberries (Berberis sp.) because of their rampant reseeding, particularly in woodlands (deposited by birds).  However, this Genus typically has awesome fall color that is an unquestionable asset.  The third photo down shows the foliage of the 'Plum Royale' coral bell (Heuchera) in the gazebo garden which hasn't been challenged by extreme cold yet and still offers a nice hint of color before the snow falls.   

Mondays are always busy and today was no exception.  We had a great volunteer turnout this morning.  Ron W. and Larry H. ran out to pick up pumpkins for the education program and upon their return, they helped with taking down the Halloween Walk tents, hauling pumpkins, garden clean-up and some other tasks.  Our team of Bob A., Rollie, Vern (all three seen directly below), Jim, Dave T. and Dick H. all worked on setting up the framework for our third donated greenhouse.  They did a nice job and next week, we'll finalize securing these wonderful additions to the Horticulture Center facility and will get them covered for the winter.  Dick H. also ran many loads of debris to the dump. An emphatic thank you to Tom & Kathy H. for their kind donation of the greenhouses which is much appreciated and they will be well used.  Dick P. was out in the gardens installing new memorial bricks while Dr. Gredler did as much mowing and leaf collection as he could before the deluge arrived.  Pat (second photo down) was part of the convoy involved with hauling back the Jack-o-lanterns from the Halloween Walk (went well this weekend) and he moved on to removing annuals from the entrance garden.  The next photo down shows Eugene (left) and Bob C. also hauling pumpkins.  The guys then moved on to leaf collection around the gardens.  The next photo down shows Shirley who spent time in both the color rooms garden and reception garden removing annuals and cutting back perennials.  Magda and Marleen (next photo) did a dynamite job clearing their berm, tidying up and planting bulbs this morning.  They had no trouble generating some huge piles of debris later collected by the Grumpies.  Gary S. worked on creating more labels and we saw many others today as well including Tom C. who is preparing for some helpful electric repairs/upgrades.

With our split weather today, the grounds staff has a perfect 50/50 day of outside work and then inside work during the damp afternoon.  Marv and Terry organized, stacked and hauled three pallets of bricks that will be used shortly to widen a path that has long been in need of an upgrade (and width increase!).  The guys also put up more lights out in the gardens and spent the afternoon testing/repairing lights.  Marianne collected all the 1/2 gallon luminaries and lights used during the Halloween Walk and ultimately re-processed everything so it will be ready for use during the Holiday Lights Show (HLS).  Marianne also devised and trialed a method for displaying lights from our "flying saucer" planters and it looked great.  We'll follow her guidance getting the other ones prepared too!  Marianne worked on HLS project inside as well.  Larry helped collect and organize elements of the Halloween Walk and moved on to clearing plants and containers in the reception garden.  He left early to sharpen our chainsaw blades at home so they're ready for our evergreen "tree procurement efforts" in the coming weeks.  Big John also helped dismantle the Halloween Walk and spent the rest of the morning clearing seasonal plants from the entrance garden, one of our last gardens with annuals left to remove.  He also worked on lights preparation and repair.  I fertilized almost all of our lawns before the rain, had an afternoon meeting and am still finalizing some presentations.  It was a great day with no shortage of either outdoor or indoor projects.  It looks like a warm and damp week but we'll just roll with it.  Directly below is the "orangey" fall color of the American smoketree (Cotinus obovatus) and beneath that, the ever-changing fall color of the 'Golden Zebra' foamy bells (xHeucherella) which is one of our more colorful foliage perennials from May thru November.  At the bottom is the pinkish fall color of the 'Fenway Gold' Boston ivy (Parthenocissus tricuspidata).  The foliage on this woody vine is a bright yellow in spring (as opposed to the standard green foliage) and the summer coloration is a chartreuse.  I like this fall transition as well before the leaves drop (next week).

3,600 More Reasons To Visit In Spring

We had a very productive work day yesterday morning.  The last of the season, we thankfully had great weather for this work session (8 am until 12 noon).  While we didn't get as many volunteers as I had expected, we had just enough to get through our bulb planting goals for the morning.  The gang planted over 3,600 bulbs in the entrance garden, North Point garden and English cottage garden.  Above are Larry (left) and Big John planting one of the three center circles in the front entrance garden patios.  We did a lot of digging in front of the building where most of our tulips (Tulipa) were planted.  Directly below are Deb and Alex (grandson).  Further down is Larry digging, Janice (in red) digging, Cheryl and Mary D.  We also had help from Mike P., Maggie, Jumbo Jim and four RECAPPERS.  The fourteen of us finished in time to get everything tidied up in the gardens where we planted.  Jim and the RECAPPERS were also able to collect leaves in the Japanese garden and Bill O. was around to pick up trash and help collect leaves as well.  We also saw Polly, Mark S. and Dr. Yahr.  There also seemed to be quite a few visitors yesterday and some photography shoots as well.  We're all looking forward to the spring results of our October labors!  At the bottom is a picture that Janice captured yesterday morning.  Great shot.

Tough Student Volunteers

Today was dark and drizzling until about 1 pm when we saw a smidge of blue sky and some sunshine.  It then clouded over again.  The regional radar showed a huge system circulating over a good portion of Southern WI, Northern IL and Lake Michigan with plenty of rainfall.  The top photo shows the scenic Japanese garden this morning and directly above is our best Tiger Eyes sumac (Rhus typhina 'Bailtiger') which is at the East gate where the Halloween Walk (www.rotarybotanicalgardens.org) will start these next two evenings at 5:30 pm.  While it was a dreary day, we had some great volunteer assistance out in the gardens.  Directly below is a dedicated contingent from Shepherds College (Union Grove, WI) that came to help out in the gardens.  Directly below (left to right) are Leslie (instructor), Sean, Daniela, Joe and Donovan in the North Point garden where our activities started.  Assisted by Janice and RBG volunteer (and RPMGA Master Gardener) Cindy B., the gang did a great job clearing annuals and container plantings from the North Point garden.  Although it was muddy work and the drizzle never let up, our crew was very productive.  I think everyone's boots were 10 lbs. heavier by the end of the morning.  Heavy rainfall nudged the group back inside where we prepared our bulbs for the planting work day tomorrow (8 am - 12 noon).  Leslie has brought Shepherds College students to the gardens over the past four years and most of these students are also involved with horticulture classes as well.  Leslie is also a horticultural therapist, has presented at RBG in the past and is a great resource for us.  The second photo down shows the gang in action (Janice is in the red coat).  The third photo down was neat as I referred to this portion of the day as "bulb time" (during significant rainfall).  Sean, Daniela, Joe and Donovan were all processing spring bulbs in the left of the image while Marv, Terry and Marianne were processing Holiday Lights Show (HLS) bulbs to the right.  Dr. Gredler can be seen further below with his umbrella/mower combination in action.  Cindy B. was a huge help today with our volunteers as was Janice.  Cindy actually went back out in the afternoon to finish removing annuals from the North Point garden.  We also saw Dr. Yahr, Dick H., Mary W. and others.

Marv, Terry, Marianne, Big John and Janice all started on inside HLS work this morning.  It was the perfect day to test and repair lights which continues to be more daunting as our lights are getting older and more "frustratingly fickle".  Marv and Terry also unpacked some new LED displays that should look nice out in the HLS.  Pat came in too to help with this process and is excellent with lights repairs.  With the exception of some brief periods of dryness when we could get outside, the HLS work was the order of the day.  Marv and Terry also brought back obelisks and our cucumber supports from the gardens.  Marianne was also out in the gardens coming up with some HLS ideas which involve a tape measure, lights and a brick (top secret).  Aside from helping orient our volunteers this morning, I really sunk my teeth in to desk work which includes finishing presentations for our Volunteer Appreciation Dinner (October 23) and our November 3 Fall Symposium (The Winter Garden).  There is still time to sign up for the fall symposium!  Check it out at www.rotarybotanicalgardens.org.  I'll be talking about "Landscape Design for Winter Interest" while Brent Gustason from Midwest Groundcovers (St. Charles, IL) will be discussing "Plants for Winter Interest".  Brent is an excellent speaker and highly sought after for his knowledge.  In the afternoon, Stan Tekiela (author, photographer and naturalist) will be discussing "Uncommon Facts about Common Birds."  This should be an exciting day.  Directly below is the orange/brown fall color of the dawn redwood (Metasequoia glyptostroboides) in the Japanese garden.  Say that Latin name five times really fast!  This is another deciduous conifer that looses its needles like bald cypress (Taxodium distichum) or tamarack (Larix sp.).  The second photo down shows the very unique fall coloration of the 'Red Fox' katsuratree (Cercidiphyllum japonicum 'Rotfuchs').  Normally, katsuratrees have a clear yellow fall color.  However, 'Red Fox' had deep maroon spring leaves that maintain a maroon tinge throughout the summer as well.  That pigmentation affects the fall color and makes the Autumn leaf transition quite interesting with some of the dark pigments retained on the leaf edges.  At the bottom is one of our top 10 small trees for fall color.  This is the Japanese stewartia (Stewartia pseudocamellia) in the Japanese garden.  Although marginally winter hardy for us, this specimen has made it for five years now and we hope to enjoy flowers (not seen yet) and increasingly ornamental bark on this species as it ages.  That fall color is quite vivid though! 

Persistent Dark, Damp & Drizzle

We had drizzle essentially all day.  While it was mostly a light mist throughout the morning, the rain intensity fluctuated all day.  I'm happy for any moisture as the garden will benefit from this precipitation before the ground freezes.  The rain did create some challenges as we finished preparations for the Halloween Walk which was unfortunately cancelled for tonight due to poor weather conditions.  The top photo shows some of our neat fall colors near the arboretum with Tiger Eyes sumac (Rhus typhina 'Bailtiger') in the foreground, serviceberry (Amelanchier lamarckii) in the mid distance and an oak (Quercus sp.) of some sort in the far distance.  I'm very impressed with our fall color show this year and am seeing most of our decidous trees getting some of their best Autumn color in years.  The photo above features some of the superior fall color that we're observing on our oakleaf hydrangeas (Hydrangea quercifolia) this year. The start of the day for Larry, Big John, Janice and some of the Grumpies involved hauling Jack-o-lanterns as seen below.  We hauled out over 170 carved pumpkins (see some of the examples below) for the Halloween Walk and placed them along the route of the event.  I've worked this event and attended it as well and the effect is pretty neat with all the pumpkins and this year, we again used half gallon milk jug luminaries with orange and red bulbs. 

Despite the chilly, wet weather today, we had a decent turnout of volunteers.  Below is Suzy, our lone Grumpette today.  She worked with Urban (next photo down) and Pat in clearing one of our annual beds along Palmer Drive.  Both Suzy and Urban (in these photos) are contending with digging out the annual feathertop grass (Pennisetum villosum) which rooted in quite nicely this year (to our volunteers dismay...).  Incidentally, this is the second plant that I was told never to plant again unless I was prepared for a mass mutiny...The other was the annual aluminium plant (Dichondra argentea 'Silver Falls') which was quite vigorous and is hard to remove.  Three photos down is Bob C. who worked with Eugene all morning.  The guys helped haul pumpkins this morning and moved on to collecting leaves; a task that continues to offer job security for everyone!  Ron W. also hauled pumpkins and was joined by one of his granddaughters later for leaf collection.  Our mobile greenhouse dis-assembly team (Dave T., Jim, Bob A., Vern, Rollie, Dick H. and Dick P.) picked up the third of our three donated greenhouses today and will continue re-assembly next week.  Dr. Gredler continued his mowing and leaf collection (fourth photo down) and we also saw Dr. Yahr, Dick C., Mary W., Kris K., Mary F.P. (Exec. Dir.) and many others.  Bill O. came in later for some leaf clean-up and the Chestnut House volunteers were a big help this afternoon and prepared and placed candles in all of our Jack-o-lanterns during a steady drizzle.   

Big John and Larry headed over to the Rock County Farm early this morning and picked up our trailer loaded with carved pumpkins that Jumbo Jim and the RECAPPERS worked on yesterday afternoon (thanks Jim!).  There were some really neat ones in the batch and all of our pumpkins really looked good out in the gardens.  Larry worked with our irrigation contractor to flush out and winterize our water/irrigation lines around the gardens.  Big John helped with lots of Halloween Walk work (hauling tables, pumpkins, chairs, etc.) and also retrieved, drained and stored all of our hoses that were still left out in the gardens.  John eventually worked on Holiday Lights Show (HLS) duties in the afternoon.  Janice put lights on obelisks out in the gardens, got Suzy going this morning, hauled pumpkins, worked with the Chestnut House volunteers and also repaired HLS lights.  I worked on Halloween Walk duties throughout the day and had two meetings which took up some time.  The two photos directly below feature the Slender Silhouette columnar sweet gum (Liquidambar styraciflua) at the edge of our shade garden.  This upright element really shines this time of year although we rarely see reds and purples on this variety from the UK.  Our other standard specimen has a wide range of fall colors and is one of our showiest deciduous trees for fall color.   However, the yellows and oranges are nice on this variety and while this tree should be marginally hardy for us, it's done well over the past five seasons in this location.  The third photo down shows the deep red fall color of a young Northern red oak (Quercus rubra) and at the bottom, our best specimen of the Korean maple (Acer pseudosieboldianum) along the west edge of the property.  Hopefully the rain will hold off tomorrow night for the Halloween Walk although at least Saturday looks favorable.  We also have a bulb planting work day this Saturday (Oct. 20th) which should be fun and productive (8 am - 12 noon!).