A Foggy Start

img_4851

On the way in to work this morning, the fog with quite thick but lifted as the sun came up and warmed things up.  The day was quite nice and warm with a high temperature near 83 degrees F.  The rain last night didn’t amount to much for us but up in Madison, WI, they had more rain, sideways wind and damaging hail.  It looks like rain later in the week but we took advantage of the sun and had some great volunteer help as usual.  We saw quite a few visitors out in the gardens as well.

 

Larry H., Big John and Cindy had a wide range of duties today but we all started with some tidying and watering.  Cindy and John watered containers and Cindy moved on to other tidying projects and preparing a nice cutting display featuring the Caladium Collection.  John also had watering duties, planting and worked on more LED lights set up for the Holiday Light Show (HLS).  Larry H. tidied up the Giant Aquarium and also shifted to HLS tasks in the Japanese garden.  I placed plants for installation and am getting closure on many other projects.  The gardens continue to be beautiful as evidenced by these photos taken today.

img_4844

‘Molten Lava’ ornamental shamrock (Oxalis vulcanicola) – annual

img_4847

coleus (Solenostemon scutellarioides) combo above!

img_4854

caladiums galore!

img_4858

Easy Elegance® All the Rage rose (Rosa ‘BAIrage’) – woody shrub

img_4862

Easy Elegance® Snowdrift (Rosa ‘BAIrift’) – woody shrub

img_4843

Our volunteers were spectacular as usual. Above is Magda poised and ready to install some mums.  She did a nice job tidying her area and put in some “future color” with these mums.  Kathy and Eva processed some lights for the HLS and then moved on to plenty of tidying in multiple areas.  Bill O. did his mowing rounds and Bobby K. was in to finish some work associated with our recent power/electrical improvements.  Peg came in to work on some labels and continues to improve our processing for labeling and plant records.  We also saw Maury, Hal R and many others.

img_4848

Kathy

img_4849

Eva

img_4856

Olive creating a fresh arrangement

img_4864

Korean feather reed grass (Calamagrostis brachytricha) with morning dew – perennial

img_4867

many visitors overlook the squirrel (with red demonic eyes) on the Eastern English cottage gate

img_4869

‘Prince’ elephant grass (Pennisetum purpureum) with Abyssinian bananas (Ensete ventricosum ‘Maurelii’) in the back

img_4874

‘Diamond Frost’ spurge (Euphorbia sp.) offers the wispy white in this reception garden container

img_4875

nice combination in the reception garden highlighting white and blue

img_4877

our annual borders are still looking pretty good!

img_4880

‘Brother Stefan’ plantain lily (Hosta) – perennial

img_4882

scary girl sculpture (her head swivels as you walk by…I swear) with a forgotten history here….she’s always been around

img_4885

above is our colorful compost pile with lots of castor beans (Ricinis communis) and the red are all salvias (Salvia coccinea) that were tossed in there as deadhead flowers (quickly taking root!)