Zinnias In November?

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Today was another beautiful one with ample sunshine and a crisp breeze.  We’re sure riding this wave of excellent weather for our late season clean-up and continued progress setting up the Holiday Light Show (HLS).  The gardens continue to exhibit beautiful and prolonged late season fall color and plenty of interest. Above is the fall color on a Summer Wine® ninebark (Physocarpus opulifolius ‘Seward’).  I saw a couple visitors today and I think they were enjoying the gardens and will likely be inspired to come see the HLS in the dark.  We had a nice turnout of volunteers and our staff had a busy day as well.

Cindy finished laying out the half gallon milk jug luminaries for the HLS and moved on to some gardening and processing of additional lights that will go out in the gardens soon.  Big John put up lots more displays, lights and other HLS elements.  Bobby K. also had some duties at the main building and continued with his own HLS projects.  Larry O. finished the Olsen Pavilion in the reception garden which looks awesome.  I had a couple meetings but otherwise was cord boy.

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‘Black Pearl’ ornamental hot pepper (Capsicum annuum) – annual

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fall color on ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba) – woody tree (above and below)

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this little guy was secured to Big John’s vehicle….scary….

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kale (Brassica oleracea) stems look pretty cool! (the pattern is made as leaves detach…)

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late blooms of witchhazel (Hamamelis virginiana) – woody tree

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fall color on ‘Fenway Gold’ Boston ivy (Parthenocissus tricuspidata) – woody vine

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fall color on ‘Northern Gold’ forsythia (Forsythia x intermedia) – woody shrub

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‘Red Head’ fountain grass (Pennisetum alopecuroides) – perennial

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fall color of fragrant snowball viburnum (Viburnum x carlcephalum) – woody shrub

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Our volunteers enjoyed a nice day outside.  Above is Alan raking leaves and he sure covered a lot of real estate today!  Kathy and Eva also worked on collecting leaves and debris and Jenny E. tidied up her area as well which always looks pristine.  Magda and Marleen (below) did an excellent job tidying up their area and also did some planting as well.  Maury ran errands for us and we also saw John J., Bill O. and many others.

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‘Erecta’ upright silver linden (Tilia tomentosa) – woody tree

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‘Northwind’ switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) – perennial

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fall color on ‘Hartlage Wine’ allspice (Calycanthus raulstonii) – woody shrub

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bronzing fall color of shingle oak (Quercus imbricaria) – woody tree

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They are still blooming! – Zahara® Fire zinnia (Zinnia marylandica ‘PAS719124’) – annual

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the South entrance to the Japanese Garden was colorful today!

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fall color on ‘Chi Chi’ ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba) – woody tree