Early Tulips Arrive

Above is a wonderful shot by Marsha Mood of our saucer magnolias (Magnolia x soulangiana) in the foreground and both the fern & moss garden and Japanese garden in the background.  What a great perspective!  The rest of the photos feature some of our earliest tulip (Tulipa) varieties blooming in front of the Parker Education Center.  I’d estimate that about 20 of the 100 or so varieties that we planted last fall out front are in bloom.  Don’t miss seeing them!

As is typical in April, we had a chilly start to the day but it warmed up beautifully to 73 degrees F with both sun and clouds.  It sure was a breezy day though.  The grounds staff kept busy.  Janice worked in the Heirloom Garden and is already planting early vegetables.  She also continues progress with Spring Plant Sale preparations and other tasks like the cutting display preparation.  Cindy potted up some new perennials, planted pansies in our entry containers, tidied and weeded and was bouncing around to many areas.  Big John continues to prepare and fill our containers with his custom soil mix (1/3 compost to 1/3 potting soil) and situated four new containers (huge) in the sunken garden.  He also put out more of our colorful obelisks.  Larry H. was a composting machine and with rain on the way, opted to sling as much as possible today before it gets damp and heavy tomorrow (very likely).  He composted many areas.  I overseeded some lawns, had meetings and worked on plant records (out in the gardens) with Peg.

Our volunteers included Kathy P., Eva and Cheryl D. gardening primarily in the Japanese garden.  Steve E. continued mulching in the woodland walk garden.  Dr. Gredler and his son Phil continued painting in the inside of the Giant Aquarium.  Peg was in to work on our plant records and she and I checked over almost the entire woodland walk to confirm our woody plant inventory.  We also saw Marsha, Alan, Mark S. and many others.

‘Marianne’ tulip (Tulipa)

‘Beau Monde’ tulip (Tulipa)

‘Concerto’ tulip (Tulipa)

‘Sprying’ tulip (Tulipa)

‘Salmon Impression’ tulip (Tulipa)

‘Fostery King’ tulip (Tulipa)

‘Orange Emperor’ tulip (Tulipa)

‘Algarve’ tulip (Tulipa)

‘Orca’ tulip (Tulipa)

‘Flaming Coquette’ tulip (Tulipa)

‘Montreux’ tulip (Tulipa)

‘Candy Prince’ tulip (Tulipa)

‘Yellow Purissima’ tulip (Tulipa)

‘Exotic Emperor’ tulip (Tulipa)

neat foliage of ‘Fire of Love’ tulip (Tulipa) which will bloom red soon!