The weather was quite nice today although I needed my ice scraper on my vehicle windows this morning.  It warmed up to 60 degrees F with ample sunshine.  The day time temperatures are at least a bit more reasonable than the 45 degrees F highs we had over the weekend!  The real warm up will likely happen next week although the rain has at least stopped for a bit.  Nice shot above of Dolce® Blackcurrant coral bells (Heuchera ‘PWHeu0109’) with some vivid spring coloration.  Our grounds staff of Larry H., Larry O., Bobby K. and myself all had a wide range of projects going on today.  Our first wedding of the season was this evening in the rose garden!  Later this evening, many of us converged on Anderson Japanese Garden in Rockford, IL for an excellent tour.  I’ll share some of those photos tomorrow.

‘Rotlaub’ Rodger’s flower (Rodgersia podophylla) – perennial

‘Amber Moon’ false spirea (Astilbe chinensis) – perennial

‘Tricolor’ Corneliancherry dogwood (Cornus mas) – woody tree

Above are Bobby K. (left) and Larry H. installing some of our new directional sign posts out in the gardens.  Big John pre-dug the holes yesterday and the guys did a nice job of installing all eight today.  We had a very busy volunteer Wednesday with lots of action throughout the gardens.  Kathy P., new Cathy and Eva weeded in some select locations including the sunken garden (below).  Vicki and Steve did a great job at the Horticulture Center creating more bed space for some incoming trial perennials.  Marv B. and Alan M. were in early for painting.  Dennis J. was back to work on rebuilding the boulder wall along the North path and is doing a great job.  Not far away in the gazebo garden, Terri and Sandi did an excellent job weeding a large area.  Stan and Kristin did a nice job tidying in the Japanese garden and Cheryl D. spent some significant time in that garden tidying as well!  Kay was in to touch up her portion of the shade garden which has filled in very nicely.  Rollie ran to pick up some memorial bricks while Bill O. did some mowing.  Peg was in to repair and replace plant labels in the woodland walk garden.  Gena, Myrt, Mary and Nancy all did a great job weeding in the main parking lot islands and in the daylily collection. Bev D. and Deb G. matched new signs to their respective Garden Art Project fish out in the gardens.  We also saw Mark S., Dave K. and many others today.  The Chestnut House volunteers were back in action this year and worked with Janice at the Horticulture Center (see below).

Kathy P. (left) and Eva

Sandi (far left) and Terri

the Chestnut House volunteers are back in action! (above and below) – photos by Janice Peterson

Coppertina® ninebark (Physocarpus opulifolius ‘Mindia’) – woody shrub

crabapple (Malus) at the Horticulture Center – unknown variety

Serious Black™ clematis (Clematis recta ‘Lime Close’) – perennial

The Compost & Pansy Sale continues this Saturday from 8 am – 12 noon!  Lots of great plants and compost left!

The daffodils (Narcissus) like those seen above should finish up in the coming week or so but many of the tulips (Tulipa) are still going strong (see below) although they are still a bit ahead of schedule.  The cool temperatures and lack of sunlight like we had today and yesterday will lengthen their period of bloom which will be nice.  Today was pretty cold, windy and miserable for most of the day with sporadic drizzle and a chilly breeze.  The grounds staff of Cindy, Larry H., Janice and Big John did a great job with a wide range of gardening tasks and preparations for future events.

‘Stunning Apricot’ tulip (Tulipa)

‘La Belle Epoque’ tulip (Tulipa)

‘Happy Family’ tulips (Tulipa)

‘Come-Back’ tulips (Tulipa)

‘Grand Perfection’ tulip (Tulipa)

‘Alibi’ tulip (Tulipa)

‘Purple Dream’ tulips (Tulipa)

‘Flaming Spring Green’ tulips (Tulipa)

‘Mystic van Eijk’ tulips (Tulipa)

Lots of current spring color out in the gardens is provided by colorful, vivid foliage like that of Claim Jumper™ katsura tree (Cercidiphyllum japonica ‘HSI1’) seen above.  I didn’t capture any of our volunteers with my camera today but we did have some great help.  Kathy P. and Cathy E. did a whole lot of weeding this morning and tackled multiple areas.  Alan M. did some painting and Bill O. came in for some mowing.  We also saw Gary S., Erik F., Dick P. and many others.  It was another productive day although the weather was a return to early April conditions and we certainly long for some more heat and sunshine!

Gold Bullion^TM pagoda dogwood (Cornus alternifolia ‘Bachone’) – woody tree

moisture beading on lady’s mantle (Alchemilla mollis) – perennial

‘Red Peacock’ crabapple (Malus) – woody tree

‘Chinese Dragon’ ligularia (Ligularia japonica) – perennial

‘Kelly’s Gold’ boxelder (Acer negundo) – woody tree

‘Korean Snow’ plantain lily (Hosta) – perennial

‘E. A. Bowles’ variegated mockorange (Philadelphus coronarius) – woody shrub

‘Shockwave’ variegated garden phlox (Phlox paniculata) – perennial

‘Drummondii’ variegated Norway maple (Acer platanoides) – woody tree

some new benches are being installed out in the gardens (made by our Grumpies!)

The weather fluctuated from sunshine to heavy rain at times (and everything in between) today!  We made the best of it as we did have a cool and damp weekend and have no shortage of tasks out in the gardens.  Our “April showers” have transitioned to May showers as well.  We’ll take the moisture but with much of the gardens saturated, our tasks were fairly specific today and we had a great turnout of volunteers.  Nice shot above of ‘Mondial’ tulip (Tulipa) from the entrance garden that is blooming alongside many other varieties at early peak this year.  The bloom time in the gardens this spring seems to be about two weeks ahead of normal schedule (whatever “normal” is nowadays!).

Our grounds staff had a busy day and everyone got wet to a certain degree with the many on and off showers throughout the day.  John installed three new memorial benches and did a nice job getting them set in to place.  He had to level each site and create bench pads for these newly constructed memorial benches. Bobby K. led the charge with installing the Garden Art Project entries out in the gardens.  I believe we have about 24 or so of the 28 up and ready to go although their signage will catch up with them soon.  Bob had some other projects as well.  Larry H. worked primarily on mulching and continues to cover a lot of “real estate” with both mulch and compost.  Cindy tidied, weeded and is deadheading spent tulips (Tulipa) in the entrance garden almost daily.  Larry O. focused on getting the sunken garden pool and fountain cleaned up and functional.  I was outside more than usual and helped where I could.  Next week will be busy with Spring Plant Sale preparations (see our website for details!).

‘Christmas Orange’ tulip (Tulipa)

‘National Velvet’ tulip (Tulipa)

‘Gavota’ tulip (Tulipa)

‘Stunning Apricot’ tulip (Tulipa)

the majority of our Garden Art Project “fish” were installed out in the gardens today

we love seeing families of all different sorts at the gardens

Our volunteers had a a busy day.  Above are Lloyd (left) and Ron R. mulching our perennial trials at the Horticulture Center.  Bob C. was out tidying and helped Bobby K. install some of the Garden Art Projects.  Marv, Steve, Jim, Vern, Dave and Ron Y. were all in action with carpentry projects with a strong focus on finishing obelisks for our Spring Plant Sale on Mother’s Day weekend.  Alan and Bob K. worked on some edging along our front fence line and Alan continued with some painting when the weather turned sour.  Dennis and Garrett (new volunteer) did a nice job continuing to rebuild our rock wall along the North path.  Dr. Gredler was out mowing.  Kathy P. and Eva did a nice job weeding along some prime real estate along Palmer Drive (our frontage road).  Gary worked on labels for the Garden Art Projects and we also saw Becky, Mark S., Del, Rollie, Hal, Elaine S., Terry and many others.

Ron Y., Vern and Dave T. (left to right)

Garrett (left) and Dennis

Edward Lyon (above) stopped by today.  Ed was formerly Executive Director at RBG and is now Director at Reiman Gardens (Iowa State University)

‘Gold Heart’ bleeding heart (Lamprocapnos spectabilis) – perennial

‘Goshiki’ variegated zelkova (Zelkova serrata) – woody tree

‘Princeton Gold’ Norway maple (Acer platanoides) – woody tree

‘Valerie Finnis’ grape hyacinths (Muscari armeniacum) – perennials

‘Elizabeth’ magnolia (Magnolia hybrida) – woody tree

Carolina silverbell (Halesia tetraptera) – woody tree

spring “tinting” on the foliage of barrenwort (Epimedium x rubrum) – perennial

‘Red Fox’ katsura tree (Cercidiphyllum japonicum ‘Rotfuchs’) – woody tree

the fern & moss garden (above) continues to look lush, particularly after all the rain!

We actually had some sun this morning which turned to clouds and eventually light rain by the afternoon.  We took advantage of the respite from the recent rains and caught up with mowing, garden tidying, weeding and a whole lot of other tasks.  The gardens were gorgeous today as seen in some of these photos and it was nice to see some visitors strolling about and taking photographs.  We had a very productive day with a solid crew of volunteers and staff.  The top photo is a view through the windows on the observation pier structure towards some redbuds (Cercis canadensis).  Directly above is the Azumaya structure in the fern & moss garden which continues to be charming in this setting which is displaying more and more ferns emerging daily.  The two photos below feature the observation pier and the colorful splendor of redbuds (Cercis canadensis) at peak bloom.

Our grounds staff consisted of Janice, Cindy, Bobby K., Larry H., Larry O. and myself today.  Both Larry’s mowed and Larry H. continued with mulching and composting.  Cindy worked on tidying, greenhouse shifting of plants, watering and many other projects.  Janice did the cutting display, worked on Spring Plant Sale preparations and helped me with our youthful volunteers (see below) today.  Bobby K. continues to work on our water features and started some preliminary work on preparing our Garden Art Project submissions (fish!) for installation out in the gardens.  I worked with volunteers and spent lots of time on our looming Spring Plant Sale and on preparations for our annual Home Garden Tour (July 15th).

blooms of the pawpaw (Asimina triloba) – woody tree

‘Akebono’ barrenwort (Epimedium x youngianum) – perennial

merrybells (Uvularia grandiflora) – perennial

weeping katsura tree (Cercidiphyllum japonicum ‘Pendula’) – woody tree

‘Eye Declare’ plantain lily (Hosta) – perennial

We had some excellent volunteers today including an energetic group from Oakhill Christian High School (seen above and below).  These 19 students and their instructor (Kath) did a great job weeding our perennial trial beds at the Horticulture Center.  Dr. Gredler and Bill O. were in for mowing and Kristin attended to the Japanese garden.  Steve J. had some projects and both Kathy and Eva had plenty of weeding.  Steve E. continued mulching and tidied up the observation pier.  We also saw Art, Marlene, Polly and many others today.  More rain this weekend!

Kathy P. (left) and Eva

Steve E. sweeping up and tidying the observation pier

white bleeding heart (Lamprocapnos spectabilis ‘Alba’) – perennial

Moonrise™ fullmoon maple (Acer shirasawanum ‘Munn 001’) with emerging foliage – woody tree

lots of Mayapples (Podophyllum peltatum) – perennial

ostrich fern (Matteuccia struthiopteris) – perennial

view from underneath an Emperor I® Japanese maple (Acer palmatum ‘Wolff’) – woody tree

‘Delta Dawn’ coral bells (Heuchera) – perennial

wild columbine (Aquilegia canadensis) – perennial

summer snowflake (Leucojum aestivum ‘Gravetye Giant’) – perennial

compact Koreanspice viburnum (Viburnum carlesii ‘Compactum’) – woody shrub (fragrant!)

The presentation last night by Tim Gruner (above and below) at the gardens on Patterns in Nature that Inspire Japanese Gardens and the Connection between Garden and Architecture was well received by 40 attendees.  Also in attendance was Dr. Charles Mortensen and his wife.  Dr. Mortensen will be providing a seminar and demonstration at the gardens on Bonsai: Its Art & Philosophy on May 17th.  Don’t miss that one!  Tim came early last night and toured the gardens with some of our Japanese garden volunteers (Stan, Kristin, Cheryl P., Greg and Cheryl D.).  Jim and Layton came a bit later and connected with the group.  The Japanese garden photos in this blog were taken yesterday with some great lighting.  We enjoyed having Tim at the gardens again and some of us will see him next week for a tour of Anderson Japanese Gardens (Rockford, IL) on Wednesday evening at 6 pm.

Today was mostly raining and very chilly.  I had a morning presentation in Beloit, WI followed by a staff meeting so missed much of the action at the Horticulture Center.  Larry O., Larry H., Cindy and I were here as staff and I saw Marv, Terry, Jim, Dave, Vern, Steve J., Maury, Kathy, Eva, Lloyd, Alan and Ron P.  I’m sure there were others that I missed.  The chance of rain looks pretty consistent over the coming days and I heard there was snow further north in Wisconsin today. Yuck!

‘Red Baron’ magnolia (Magnolia hybrida) – woody tree (I had to prop up this heavy bloom!)

redbud (Cercis canadensis) in the background behind this “pagoda” in the Japanese garden

Lavender Twist® weeping redbud (Cercis canadensis ‘Covey’) – woody plant (note the high water!)

seeds (after soaking by Janice) of Indianshot canna (Canna indica) – annual (used as ammunition substitute way back when..check it out!)

the plants are arriving daily!  Larry O. is unloading one of three pallets of plants from Bluebird Nursery (NE) yesterday

magnolia / crabapple combination

‘Amber Moon’ false spirea (Astilbe chinensis) – perennial

purple highlights on ‘Gerald Darby’ iris (Iris x robusta) – perennial