What A Week!

I think this might be my first blog encompassing a full week. I’m starting to wonder how I ever fit in a more frequent blogging schedule but will do my best to be a bit more prompt. It was both a short and long week with lots of action and activity as we continue to gear up for our busiest season of the year. I was up in Northern Wisconsin earlier in the week for some presentations and enjoyed a visit to Olbrich Botanical Gardens (OBG) and Green Bay Botanical Garden (GBBG) as part of my route and planned destinations! I also had a presentation in Sturgeon Bay for the Door County Master Gardeners. Our grounds staff and volunteers kept everything running smoothly and I believe the gardens are as tidy as they ever looked this time of year. It’s crazy to think that we might have some snow this weekend but Mother Nature has thrown us plenty of curve balls in the past. A great highlight of the week was the delivery and dedication of a new CASE endloader (from Johnson Tractor) that was purchased and donated to us by longtime volunteer and garden supporter, Dr. Gerald Gredler as well as the Gredler family. The photo below shows Dr. Gredler in the bucket (front left) of the new machine which has already been used extensively this week. Other images included in this blog are from my travels and at the bottom, there are some photos from the “Make A Difference Day” volunteer mulching activity that included over 20 students from UW-Whitewater as well as folks from the City of Janesville. This crew, in three hours, spread over 80 cubic yards of mulch over our entire daylily collection and Palmer Drive berm using primarily buckets. Amazing amount of progress this week with our countless volunteers coming in daily as well!

our new CASE endloader above with donor Dr. Gredler (front left), son Phil Gredler (front center) and a bunch of the gang there to see it and get some training!
neat dogwood (Cornus) sphere at OBG (they have some creative folks there!)
yellow trout lily (Erythronium americanum) – OBG (above)
Dutchman’s breeches (Dicentra cucullaria) – OBG (above)
cool pavilion at OBG (above)
Gold Tide® forsythia (Forsythia ‘Courtesol’) – OBG (above)
‘Royal Star’ star magnolia (Magnolia stellata) – OBG (above)
hellebore (Helleborus sp.) – OBG (above)
recovering prairie dropseed (Sporobolus heterolepis) after a burn at OBG – above and below
Jeff Epping, Director of Horticulture at OBG (above)
bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis) – OBG (above)
one of many gorgeous structures (Stumpf Belvedere) at GBBG (above)
‘HGC Pink Frost’ hellebore (Helleborus x ballardiae) – perennial (GBBG)
GBBG (above)
cool grove of quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) – above
spring fumewort (Corydalis solida ‘George P. Baker’) – GBBG (above)
Arndt Conifer Collection at GBBG (above and below) – note new amphitheater in distance – IMPRESSIVE!
more cool things at GBBG (above and below)
crocuses (Crocus sp.) at GBBG (above)
students from UW-Whitewater (above and below) helping us mulch as part of “Make a Difference Day”….and they made a huge difference!!!