Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Happy Second Day Of Summer

Nice shot of Little Jerry above hauling his ladder out yesterday. He was on this same ladder today shaping a burning bush (Euonymus alatus) in the Japanese garden. It was a warm, muggy day from the beginning and the damp morning became subtropical very quickly. Today was a little bit of this and that around the gardens although with each day, we have less to plant (and hopefully less to weed too!). Below is the native (to 20 States) winecups (Callirhoe involucrata) blooming nicely on a slope behind our 'Dialogue' sculpture. This is a nice groundcover but it is tough to weed "thru it" as some weeds really can get a foothold and require wet soils to pull them up and thru this colorful mat that blooms June until August. Little Jerry worked on pruning in the Japanese garden and was joined by Karen M. They do a nice job and June is the target month for most of their shearing/shaping in that garden. Larry weedwhipped, mowed and kept things moving along as I was gone for most of the afternoon. Big John dug out some weedy trees, prepped an area, mowed and planted today. It was a brutal day out there for everyone. Jenny was here and did another nice job playing detective and found (or created) labels for some of our annual clumps out in the garden with no ID. Janice was here to tend to the hostas (slug repellants) and weeded. We were fortunate to have Kay here continuing her work in the shade garden where she is dealing with lots of debris and a haze of aggressive weeds (who would have trembled had they known Kay was heading their way...). Shirley was here to plant with her grandkids and Dr. Gredler continued to mow out in the gardens. Bill was here to shear and tidy too. Jan R. did another weeding circuit in the Scottish garden this morning. We also saw Dr. Yahr, Gary, Mike, Bob, Nancy, Maury and had Ernie here this morning air edging. Another great day but rough to be outside with that heat and humidity. Strong storms tonight they say... Nice shot to the left of 'Pink Octopus' bellflower (Campanula punctata) with very exquisite blooms. Too bad this plant seems to be on the dessert menu for our bunny population! To the right is the never dull 'Stella D' Oro' daylily (Hemerocallis) that takes all sorts of corporate landscape abuse and always looks good everywhere despite being planted literally by the millions. Below is one of the new coneflower hybrids from Terra Nova nurseries. We'll be planting this soon and so far, I like the vivid look of 'Flamethrower' (Echinacea) and hope it is a sturdy plant. It is reportedly fragrant although we'll test that out soon. Showy for sure!It seems like we've had a record number of visitors this spring. Aside from the peony and iris people, the day to day tours and general visitors seem to be quite regular. There have also been a record number of outdoor weddings (not only Saturdays but Fridays and Sundays too). It's nice to see this and I hope this trend continues as we'll continue to look better each day as our summer displays fill in nicely. Below is a new bloodleaf (Iresine 'Cherry Delight') that is a big part of our red/maroon theme and can be seen to the left in a container. There is not much literature on this variety but one of growers started some for us and it looks to be a wonderful foliage plant for full sun (needs moisture) or part shade. Regardless, that vivid cherry maroon hue is eye catching and we think these plants will get 24"+ in short order (perhaps necessitating a little trim...). To the right is our 'Birdhouse' gourd (Lagenaria sp.) stretching out for something to grab. Two days ago, these DID NOT have those "grabbers" but the plant realizes it needs to cling and gain some height or be left as a groundcover. It is interesting to see the "life" that many climbers display as they seem determined to find something in range and strech towards the sun. Nice shot of another daisy project below. We planted flowers around most to help augment the display. We still see lots of visitors enjoying this additional garden feature.

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