Friday, May 30, 2014

End Of the Week Already?


It was another great day out in the gardens with lots of visitors and gardening activities abounded.  Above is the beautiful bloom of the 'Hartlage Wine' sweetshrub (Calycanthus raulstonii) looking nice this afternoon just outside the English cottage garden.  A good portion of our Friday activities involved preparations for our third Volunteer Workday tomorrow (meet at the Parker Education Center at 8 am!).  We'll be planting the entrance garden slope with about 15,000 annuals (see the bottom photo!).  Cindy and I hauled all the plants out front for staging early tomorrow and if we get 30 or so volunteers, we should be good to go.  Other priorities today included watering and preparing the sunken garden for a wedding this evening.  We had a small grounds crew (Terry, Janice, Cindy and Cheryl) today but were efficiently productive.  It was nice to have another great showing of volunteers.  Below are some additional plant photos from the gardens today.

Scotch rose (Rosa spinosissima) peaking in the Scottish garden
the undersides of the tricolor European beech (Fagus sylvatica 'Roseomarginata')
 
The volunteers did another great job today.  Above are Bethany (left) and Kay (being dramatic) this morning.  Both ladies worked on tidying and clearing areas with Kay's focus on her assigned garden area in the shade garden.  Bethany actually came in later in the afternoon to continue working.  Eva and Kathy did a superb job tidying up multiple garden areas in many locations.  They are quite thorough in their approach!  Mary and Roy (see below) tidied their area of the shade garden as well and planted all the plants seen in the second photo down!  They continue to put lots of seasonal color in their space and did a nice job as usual.  Bev W. (third photo down) was also in for planting in the sunken garden for the second day in a row.  The fourth photo down shows Jan R. who sunk her teeth in to weeding duties in the Scottish garden.  She has maintained that space for 15+ years!  Dr. Gredler and Bill O. did their mowing rounds and Del was in to help sweep and tidy up another wedding site for tomorrow.  Karen M. was working in the Japanese garden and Maury ran some errands for us.  Pat M. stopped by and Mary Kay T. helped in the reference library.  We also had a Finnish exchange student come in and help Cheryl this afternoon.  We also saw Bev D., Art H., Dr. Yahr and many others.
 

 
 
 


Nice shot from underneath a columbine (Aquilegia sp.) seen directly above in the Scottish garden.  The grounds staff kept busy all day with diverse tasks.  Terry pruned, watered, push mowed, rototilled and worked on all sort of projects today.  Cindy helped haul plants for the planting work day tomorrow, tidied a major path and helped water the yard later.  Janice worked on watering, the cutting display, moss garden tasks and many other duties throughout the day.  Cheryl came in for the afternoon and focused on tidying around the Parker Education Center for the weekend.  I also hauled plants, had some meetings and continue to try to keep up!  More plant shots below.

blooms of the white fringetree (Chionanthus virginicus)
'Excelsior' Spanish bluebells (Hyacinthoides hispanica)
'Blue Ivory' plantain lily (Hosta)
lots to plant for tomorrow

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