Dreary Day With Ample Color!

Nice shot above of Zahara™ double fire zinnia (Zinnia marylandica ‘Pas553645′) still going the distance.  Although the forecast didn’t include rain today, there was a heavy mist for a couple of hours this morning on this overcast day that never saw the sun.  While the gardens are saturated after all of the recent rain, there is no lack of color out there!  We dodged the bullet of frost earlier in the week and will extend color as long as possible keeping in mind the Holiday Light Show (HLS) set-up schedule is very aggressive and will necessitate some early removals as early as next week.  Our grounds staff of Terry, Cindy, Big John, Bobby K., Larry H. and Alex all had a wide range of duties that varied between traditional gardening and HLS preparations.  Volunteers included Kathy P., Dr. Gredler, Maury, Jenny, Peg, Lisa I., Dick H. and some others.  I was out in the gardens for a bit and out of curiosity, measured the distance of our HLS route for this year which has been expanded.  The route is 6/10ths of a mile which is a nice stroll through the gardens which will showcase their best Holiday Light Show ever in 52 days (opens November 23rd!).

Mystic Fantasy dahlia (Dahlia ‘Hawaiian Dreams’) above – annual

Big Sky™ ‘Solar Flare’ coneflower (Echinacea hybrida) – perennial

Spanish flag (Mina lobata) annual vine

“Cutting Edge’ variegated stonecrop (Sedum ellacombianum) – perennial

retaining wall softening provided by ‘All Gold’ Hakone grass (Hakonechloa macra) – perennial

start of fall color on ‘Aconitifolium’ fullmoon maple (Acer japonicum) – woody tree

bottle gentian (Gentiana andrewsii) – perennial

Big John (on ladder) with Terry putting up lights for the HLS

Kathy P. above (sans Eva today) – lots of debris collection!

no frost yet!  still very colorful (shade garden above!)

‘Guacamole’ coral bells (Heuchera) – perennial

‘Dipt in Wine’ coleus (Solenostemon scutellarioides) – annual

‘Canary Wings’ begonia (Begonia hybrida) with Royal Hawaiian® Black Coral elephant ear (Colocasia esculenta) – both tropicals

‘October Skies’ aromatic aster (Symphyotrichum oblongifolius) with Rainbow Sensation™ weigela (Weigela florida ‘Kolmagira’)  – perennial and woody plant respectively

you can see how blackberry lily (Belamcanda chinensis) gets its name above – perennial

fruits on a female ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba) – woody tree

‘Strawberry Fields’ globe amaranth (Gomphrena haageana) – annual