It was a warm sunny day today with temperatures in the lower 80 degrees F.  It felt quite “summer-like” out in the gardens and the strong sunshine, heat and moderate breeze prompted us to do quite a bit of watering today.  Nice shot above of variegated giant reed (Arundo donax ‘Versicolor’) out in the garden.  We never used to think this grass was hardy but this clump has come back for over five years now.

We had a productive day with Janice, Bobby K., Cindy, Trevor and me working on various grounds tasks and Kathy, Eva, Terri, Sandi, Kay, Bill, Barb, Alan, Elaine and many others helping out in the gardens with a wide range of duties.  The gardens continue to look great and we’re headed towards about 50% complete with our annual planting.  We will now be juggling more weeding and watering over the coming weeks and hope for a continued, strong volunteer turnout.  Sorry for the short blog but this has been a long (and productive) week.

‘Purple Smoke’ false indigo (Baptisia hybrida) – perennial

this is one of six cart loads of plants I brought out for placement for planting tomorrow (I hope!)

Sandi (left) and Terri did some major planting today

variegated Corneliancherry dogwood (Cornus mas ‘Variegata’) – woody tree

Kathy P. (left…throwing cottonwood seeds!) and Eva

a portion of our planting project for tomorrow (barring thunderstorms)

the female cottonwoods (Populus deltoides) are really dropping seed right now – “snow” in June!

Come see the beautiful Garden Art Project fish out in the gardens!  Above is one of these unique and beautiful art pieces, decorated by local artists, that are situated out in the gardens.  The fish above looked even better with a Siberian iris (Iris siberica) in close proximity.  We are starting to plant around most of the other fish as we develop the garden spaces around the Giant Aquarium.  We are probably about 35%-40% planted with our annuals with much more to go in the ground over the coming weeks.  This time of year is the juggling act between weeding, removing spent bulb foliage, watering and planting.  We just keep plugging along.

Decadence^® ‘Lemon Meringue’ false indigo (Baptisia hybrida) – perennial

The photo directly above and the two below feature the action at our second (of four!) Wednesday Volunteer Planting Evenings (6 pm – 8 pm).  We had great help from 14 volunteers including welcome assistance from both Janice and Big John with orchestrating the proceedings.  We planted two good sized areas and branched off in to other territory to plant bananas (Ensete ventricosum ‘Maurelii’) and other tropicals.  Thanks to John, Janice, Tina, Terri, Alan, Garrett, Dylan, Flannery, Grace, Cathy, Sue C., Sue E., Tina and Renee for all the hard work.  We have not traditionally offered a week night, group planting activity but will likely continue this in the imminent future due to the success and productivity of these gatherings!

Dylan (above) with Craspedia globosa ‘Golf Beauty’ (annual)

Ron R. (above) with one of MANY excellent volunteers helping out at the gardens today.  We had another excellent turnout of volunteers today which included Ron R., Bob C., Alan, Bob K., Marv B., Ron Y., Dave, Vern, Steve, Jim, Maury, Dick H., Kristin, Joanne A., Shirley, Liz, Vera, Kathy, Eva, Marilyn, Suzy, Sue M., Kelley F., Dr. Gredler, Rollie, Dick P., Judy, Hal, Doris, Marcia L., Mirjam M. and a whole pack of high school students (TAGOS Academy) and their instructors.  It was a crazy day with lots of tidying, planting, mowing, carpentry and much more!  The grounds staff of Cindy, Larry O., Trevor, Nolan and me were all busy with a wide range of tasks including planting, watering, bed preparation, mowing, etc.

Vera (left) and Shirley

Marilyn (left) and Suzy

Maury F. (above)

Marv B.

How many Grumpies does it take to assemble a table saw?  Five! (Dave, Vern, Jim, Ron Y. and Steve J. – left to right)

Kristin (above)

Joanne A. (above)

‘Wayne’s World’ white false indigo (Baptisia alba var. alba) – perennial

This past Saturday I snuck over to the West Madison Agricultural Research Center up in Madison to see what was going on.  I enjoy visiting multiple times throughout the year and caught some nice color and some neat plants (below).  They have some excellent trials including lots of vegetables and fruiting crops.  Below are just some of the highlights of my visit.

‘Cherry Cream’ garden phlox (Phlox paniculata) – perennial

vivid spring coloration on ‘Carnival Watermelon’ coral bells (Heuchera) – perennial

Superbells® Rock Star™ million bells (Calibrachoa sp.) – annual

Superbells® Over Easy™ million bells (Calibrachoa sp.) – annual

A-Peel® Tangerine Slice black-eyed Susan vine (Thunbergia alata ‘DL1501’)

the arching form of this Syringa x hyacinthiflora (lilac) that I saw this weekend (on a corporate campus) was amazing!

Beautiful photo above from this morning looking up in to our tricolor European beech (Fagus sylvatica ‘Roseo-marginata’) near the gazebo garden.  It was an absolutely beautiful day out in the gardens with ample sunshine and temperatures in the lower 70 degrees F.  We had an aggressive day of planting and I was barely able to keep up with hauling out and placing plants ahead of our crack planting teams.  We also had some great tidying efforts out in the gardens and the grounds staff was busy as well.  The grounds staff of Trevor, Bobby K., Larry O. and myself all had plenty of action including watering in select locations.

Three large areas were planted today and I’ll post photos of our second Wednesday planting opportunity this evening which had fourteen volunteers!  Thanks Big John and Janice for helping keep things moving and thank you as well to Alan, Garrett, Dylan, Flannery, Arnie, Peggy, Renee, Sue, Sue E., Cathy, Grace and Tina.  Terri was nearby finishing up weeding along the edge of the gazebo garden and had help earlier from Sandi.  Our volunteers were busy throughout the day.  Stan, Kristin, Cheryl P. and Greg all did a great job of maintenance in the Japanese garden.  Eva and Cathy continued weeding and clearing foliage in the shade garden.  Mary, Sue, Myrt and Patty all planted in the gazebo garden and finished what the Chestnut House volunteers had so nicely started in terms of mass planting.  Steve E. continued planting shrubs while Alan was out in the gardens to touch up some paint and work on other projects.  Vicki and Steve did an exceptional job planting in the North Point garden which is their assigned garden space.  Barb continued working in the Giant Aquarium after helping with the youth education (along with many of our other exceptional education volunteers).  Peg was in to work on plant records and labels.  Bill O. did his mowing.  We also saw Vern, Maury, Mary and Big John came in for many hours to work on tidying up after doing an amazing job with a rented bed edger.

Barb’s neat corner in the Giant Aquarium (fish created by Vern)

Magic Show® ‘Pink Potion’ speedwell (Veronica hybrida) – perennial

fern & moss garden today

‘Rikugi Sakura’ Siberian iris (Iris siberica) – perennial

‘Fire Frost’ foamy bells (xHeucherella) – perennial

false indigo (Baptisia australis) – perennial

Lady in Red ninebark (Physocarpus opulifolius ‘Tuilad’) – woody shrub

our Chestnut House volunteers (above/below) doing a great j

Mary, Myrt, Patty and Sue did a nice job finishing planting along the edge of the gazebo garden border

‘Globemaster’ ornamental onion (Allium sp.) – perennial

After a long weekend, today was a flurry of activity out in the garden with no shortage of duties such as weeding, watering, planting, removing bulb foliage and much more!  Neat shot above of the variegated Norway maple (Acer platanoides ‘Drummondii’).  Our grounds crew of Cindy, Nolan, Trevor, Janice, Big John and Bobby K. all had a busy day of activity on this beautiful, albeit windy, day.  Cindy worked on lots of watering, preparing containers for our summer plants and tidying.  Big John worked on watering, edging, planting and much more.  Trevor and Nolan took care of the push mowing with Trevor moving on to rototilling and Nolan doing some weedwhipping.  Janice did more planting in the Heirloom Garden, did the cutting display, watered and much more.  Bobby K. spent lots of time in the Giant Aquarium but also worked on water features and some other troubleshooting.  I continue to haul plants out for installation and am just barely staying ahead of our daily planting routine!  We had a nice turnout of volunteers today.

yellowhorn (Xanthoceras sorbifolium) – small woody tree

We had a great volunteer planting event this past Saturday with over 20 in attendance including kids and adults from the 4H Cloverbud group…we finished planting in two areas (photos above and below)

Leslie B. (above) leads a group out in the gardens today and was one of many excellent education volunteers helping with the Spring Plant Program which is always well received and today was no exception.  Kathy and Eva continued work on clearing weeds and bulb debris in the shade garden.  Ron R. planted elephant ears and was later joined by Steve and Barb who helped continue to plant in the same area.  Dr. Gredler and Rollie took care of the riding mowing and we also saw Maury (errands) and Vicki O. (preparing the North point for planting).  Jenny and Dave were in to tidy up their garden space: the Hosta Hollow.  Barb C. worked with Bobby K. in the Giant Aquarium and they are quite the team (see below).  Sixteen students from the TAGOS Academy came and helped plant along with two of their instructors.  Dick H. made some runs to the dump and we saw many others today.  Dylan and Flannery were in later in the evening for tidying in their garden space in the gazebo garden.

plum-scented iris (Iris graminea) – perennial

beautiful peonies (Paeonia) at peak (unknown varieties) – perennials

‘Carolina Moonlight’ false indigo (Baptisia hybrida) – perennial

‘Pink Lanterns’ columbine (Aquilegia canadensis) – perennial

‘Briant Rubidor’ weigela (Weigela florida) – woody shrub

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Overdam’ variegated feather reed grass (Calamagrostis x acutiflora) – perennial

 ‘Shaker’s Prayer’ Siberian iris (Iris siberica) – perennial

golden Alexander (Zizia aurea) – perennial

Steve (left) and Big John planting Abyssinian bananas (Ensete ventricosum ‘Maurelii’) today

students from the TAGOS Academy had another great day of planting and will return Thursday too!

‘E.A. Bowles’ variegated mockorange (Phildelphus coronarius) – woody shrub

Bobby K. and Barb C. have been the dynamic duo in the Giant Aquarium

I came to work today thinking we would have a mostly rainy day.  I was delighted that we had sunshine and a fairly nice day until about 2 pm when the rain started.  We “squeaked out” a pretty good day out in the gardens which continue to look beautiful.  Above is the ‘Sweet Kate’ golden spiderwort (Tradescantia x andersoniana) looking nice and bright before the blue blossoms appear.

We had a skeleton crew for staff today with just Bobby K., Trevor and me but we managed and had a wonderful influx of talented volunteers.  With our second volunteer workday tomorrow (8 am – 12 noon), I spent much of my time hauling plants to three areas in anticipation of a good turnout.  We never know how many volunteers we’ll get but we hope to have a good showing and I believe the weather currently looks favorable.  Bobby K. worked on some of our new signs and spent quite a bit of time in the Giant Aquarium.  He has been working with Barb on the layout and securing elements in that area and nearby (see below!).  Trevor hauled plants, did blower rounds and did quite a bit of rototilling as well.

‘Silk Tassel’ sedge (Carex morrowii) – perennial

Gold Bullion™ pagoda dogwood (Cornus alternifolia ‘Bachone’) – woody tree

chives (Allium schoenoprasum) in the Heirloom Garden

Our volunteers had a great day out in the gardens.  Above are Marleen (left) and Magda in their garden space.  The ladies did a nice job weeding and planting.  Kathy P., Eva and Cathy F. all worked together on weeding and tidying two garden locations.  Mirjam, Marcia and her two grandsons (directly below) did some work in the English cottage garden.  Steve was in to do some planting and Kay also planted perennials in her area along with plenty of weeding and tidying.  Elaine continues to cut back and collect spring debris from the woodland walk garden.   We also saw Dr. Gredler, Mark S., Judy L. and many others today.

Marcia with grandsons

Bobby K. (above) was hanging out with penguins and a polar bear today!

Eva (left) and Kathy P.

Cathy F.

‘Globemaster’ ornamental onion (Allium sp.) – perennial

‘Java Red’ weigela (Weigela florida) – woody shrub

bright and showy “Sun King’ Japanese spikenard (Aralia cordata) – perennial

‘Tidal Wave’ weeping katsura tree (Cercidiphyllum japonicum) – woody tree

snow-in-summer (Cerastium tomentosum) – perennial

yellow flag iris (Iris pseudacorus) in the Scottish Garden – perennial