Rotary Botanical Gardens

Rotary Botanical Gardens, Janesville, Wisconsin, a 20-acre non-profit botanic garden, is home to many dramatic and themed gardens.  Some have an international focus, such as the Japanese, Scottish, French Formal, Italian and English  Cottage Gardens.  Also included are less formally-structured gardens including one of very few Fern and Moss gardens recognized by the Hardy Fern Foundation in the United States, as well as Shade, Prairie and Woodland Gardens.  On-site are also a visitor center, gift shop, and a beautiful facility that may be rented for wedding receptions, reunions, meetings, etc. 

The gardens are open from dawn till dusk while the visitor center hours vary by season.  Admission policy is in effect April through October.  Guided group tours can be arranged for an additional fee; buses welcome with advance notice.  Visitor center and main garden paths are handicap accessible. 

Rotary Botanical Gardens changes with the season– each visit can bring something new.  We hope you not only visit the gardens but return in the near future as well.

• Click on the tabs above for more detailed information about different aspects of the Gardens
• Visit the blog of our Director of Horticulture, Mark Dwyer, for daily updates in the gardens.
• Download the 2010 Event Calendar for Rotary Botanical Gardens (PDF)
• Join our mailing list for our weekly e-mailing of What’s In Bloom!
• Interact with staff and volunteers via our Facebook Fan Page.

Not much time to type but it was an awesome day at the iris sale and the 5th Annual Garden Festival today. Lots of great volunteers and both events were very well received. See some of the highlights below (although the iris picture is from May!). I’m on vacation (Door Co.) until next Fri. Have fun out in your gardens!

All if the images in this blog with the exception of the bottommost shot were taken yesterday at Dale’s garden in Waukesha. His moss beds are truly exceptional and his interest in mosses for containers has also become one of his addictions. He has over 200 pots with mosses although many also have miniature ferns, hostas and other perennials as well as interesting rocks and other personalized elements. Dale is a retired economics instructor and it is obvious that his passion is his 1 acre garden. I met him 6 years ago when he came over to see our fern & moss garden. We chatted and he obviously knew his mosses and became more of a teacher than a student! Dale is also a top notch photographer and we were able to see some framed shots of his travels around the world. Very impressive.
Today was another delightful day of 80 degrees F and sunshine. Larry started the day by unloading 20 pallets (900 bags) of our bagged mushroom compost that we’ll be offering at our upcoming fall plant sale (September 11 thru the 18th). He then moved on to running irrigation, mowing, watering, etc. Janice was here this morning and helped get our volunteers organized then moved on to planting, watering and other gardening tasks. We had a nice turnout of volunteers as well. Suzy, Winnifred, Mary and Glenna came in and did a weeding sweep of the sunken garden, reception garden and shade garden. They always do such a nice job and work well together. Margo came in and did her own weeding sweep of the terrace garden, wishing well garden and the color rooms. Margo has been a volunteer for many years and was in the Master Gardener program way back when I started at RBG. She’s quite a gardener and a great volunteer. Dick P. and Big John worked further on the venting system for the laser engraver while Dave, Jim, Bob A. and Vern worked on various carpentry projects. Charlie, Ron B. and Del helped get tents set-up for the upcoming iris sale and layed our our temporary plant sale parking lot across from our frontage road. Dr. Gredler continued to mow and Dr. Yahr helped process labels. Marianne came in to start working on iris sale preparations and we also saw Deb, Laura, Maury, Barb, Marv, Mary Kay and many others. The gourds at the bottom are just some of those that will be featured at the Garden Festival this Saturday. Note the neat “Prickles” gourd that looks painful but is quite rubbery right now. Pretty cool. I sprayed herbicide today and worked on a dozen different tasks that are all becoming quite time sensitive.

Also called Virginia Threeseed Mercury                                                                                         

Acalpha virginica

• Summer annual found in cultivated agronomic, nursery, and horticultural crops, landscapes and roadsides.
• Branching, erect plant 1 to 3 feet tall.
• Alternate leaves show a distinct copper color when young.
• Small green flowers are produced in clusters in the area between stem and leaf petiole.
• Control by hand pulling before seed set.  Pre- or post- emergent herbicides can be used.

More information:

• http://www.ppws.vt.edu/scott/weed_id/accvi.htm
•  

  

We had a great fieldtrip today. Above, from left to right, are Big John, me, Marv, Terry, Marianne, Janice and Jenny. This shot was taken at the Morton Arboretum (Lisle, IL). Unfortunately Larry and Little Jerry couldn’t make it. Larry did come in to work this morning to take care of watering and to facilitate our morning volunteers. The day started out with a bummer when I realized that I had forgotten my camera which is almost unheard of for any sort of visit to a garden. Marianne was kind enough to lend me hers at our first stop and my dad let me borrow his at the arboretum (more about that later). We left promptly at 6:45 am, arriving at Dale’s (“Mr. Moss”) residence in Waukesha, WI a little before 8 am. He gave us a wonderful tour of his 1 acre property and we stayed for about 1.5 hours. I’ll post pictures of his place later in the week as I’ll have to get the pictures off of Marianne’s camera on Friday. We had visited Dale’s garden over four years ago and it was again amazing and impressive. His garden looks like the Pacific Northwest in many areas with lush ferns, huge expanses of moss and lots of vivid colors and textures. He is extremely knowledgeable about plants too. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves but aside from a fun visit, we’ve been picking Dale’s brain on how to improve our moss garden and I think Janice has some good ideas (which primarily entail copying Dale). After departing Dale’s, we had a 1.5 hour journey thru some horrendous construction to get to the Morton Arboretum. We met with Todd, Director of Horticulture, and he gave us a nice tour. My dad, John, is a volunteer at the arboretum in the research department and joined us for lunch and the tour. My dad did 35+ years with the U.S. Forest Service as a researcher and is a bonified tree hugger as well. It was great to see him and it was nice that he got to meet the crew (some for the first time). Below are Marv and Terry wandering thru the hedge garden.

With our 11:20 am arrival, we decided to eat lunch in their cafeteria (quite nice) and then moved on to a 2 hour tour from Todd. He took us thru his garden areas of responsibility and talked quite a bit about his staff, equipment and how they operate. He also oversees their new children’s garden and some peripheral garden areas as well. Todd pointed out many of his favorite plants as we wandered thru and we met some of his staff. He was very cordial and we appreciate his valuable time and the professional courtesy. He also arranged for a tram ride thru the rest of their 1700 acres which was enjoyable and very informative. I should also mention that it was absolutely perfect in terms of weather with 75 degrees F and a slight breeze. To the left are my dad, Big John and Janice on the tram and to the right are Marianne adn Marv (resting his eyes and meditating…). Below is the gang (minus me) as they started in to the hedge garden (Todd is on the far right).
I usually visit the Morton Arboretum at least twice each year and was fortunate to spend many hours there this past May to get spring pictures and enjoy the arboretum. It was nice to come back in late summer and I enjoyed seeing the Children’s Garden in full swing prior to the start of school in that area. It was extremely busy but nice to see kids outside enjoying the garden. See to the left and right (respectively) for Jenny and Janice who couldn’t resist going thru the rope bridges in the tree walk area. This garden looked great considering the daily wear and tear and overall, I was very impressed with everything we saw. After our tram ride, we hit the road, returning home at 5 pm. It was a relatively long trip but I think enjoyed by everyone. At the bottom are some additional shots of the arboretum including a very applicable quote. Go visit if you haven’t been or haven’t been there recently!