Prolonged Beauty

The recent rains have been welcome and the timing has been perfect.  While it started raining at the end of the work day yesterday…the drizzle abated this morning in time for us to get right out in the gardens.  Today was fairly mild and we made continued progress with the Holiday Light Show (HLS) set-up as well as gardening tasks.  We’re also getting ready for our popular Fall Symposium this Saturday which has a record attendance of over 130 participants.  Our focus is landscaping with presentations by Brienne Gluva-Arthur, Roy Diblik and myself.  Nice shot above of the intensifying fall color of Forest Rouge™ black-haw viburnum (Viburnum prunifolium ‘McKrouge’).  Our grounds staff of Cindy, Larry O., Larry H., Bobby K. and me had a wide range of tasks.  More components of the HLS were set-up with Bobby K. working his electrical kung fu out in the gardens.  Cindy did a spectacular job putting together for large container arrangements at the front entry of the Parker Education Center for the Saturday event.  Both Larry’s made significant progress with setting up the HLS and Larry O. drained one of our ponds.  I had some meetings but ultimately ran plenty of cords!

‘All Gold’ Hakone grass (Hakonechloa macra) – perennial

red scabious (Knautia macedonica) – perennial

fall color of ‘Copper Ridges’ doublefile viburnum (Viburnum plicatum f. tomentosum) – woody shrub

‘La Veta’ concolor fir (Abies concolor) – woody shrub (golden fall color on a ginkgo in the background)

fall color of bloody cranesbill (Geranium sanguineum) – perennial

Kathy and Eva (above) were two of many excellent volunteers we had helping at the gardens today.  The ladies were removing annuals as was Bob K.  Dr. Gredler was in for mowing and Dick H. ran to the dump a couple times.  Marv B. did a great job tidying up a spot in the yard where we store our bricks.  Ron Y., Jim, Dave, Vern and Steve all continued their carpentry projects.  John J. and Steve L. came in to start hanging more tree icicle lights in select locations for the HLS.  This activity involves a bow, arrow, fishing line, thin rope and lots of skill…..I’ll post photos of this process in the future.  We also saw Maryam, Mark S. and many others today.

Mark S., Bobby K., Dick H. and Larry O. (left to right) taking an extended (and unauthorized) break

fall speckling of ‘Autumn Moon’ fullmoon maple (Acer shirasawanum) – woody tree

fall color of ‘Green Cascade’ fullmoon maple (Acer japonicum) – woody tree

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

fall color of American smoketree (Cotinus obovatus) – woody tree

fall color tinge on ‘Palace Purple’ coral bell (Heuchera micrantha) – perennial

LED lights (above) make up almost 33% of our HLS lighting

‘Gold Bar’ porcupine grass (Miscanthus sinensis) – perennial

‘Silver Dollar’ panicled hydrangea (Hydrangea paniculata) – woody tree

rosemary willow (Salix eleagnos) – woody shrub

the reindeer have been spotted!