Summer Color Peak

Posted: August 2, 2016 by Mark Dwyer

Today fluctuated between sunshine and clouds and as usual, the rain missed us throughout the day but was quite heavy to the west and south of us at times. Regardless, it was a good day for plants to grow with humidity and ample watering provided by recent irrigation, sprinklers and lots of good, old-fashioned hand watering. Nice photo above looking in to a moss section in the Japanese garden (maintained lovingly by Marv B.). It looks like we may get some rain tonight but the cooler mornings and shorter days are already becoming apparent. I would say we continue to hover at peak color for the summer and our visitation seems to reflect this as well.

Our grounds staff had a busy day. Big John ran irrigation, watered containers and spent significant time pressure washing the koi pond (looks great) and other features that are looking as good as new. Cindy did the cutting display, tidied up the All-America Selections (AAS) collection in the terrace garden and continues to do an excellent job keeping the Hummingbird Haven theme in the Nancy Yahr Memorial Children’s Garden looking exceptional. Trevor and Nolan did the push mowing and then split up to cover tasks such as blower rounds, fertilizing, watering and air edging. The guys continue to do a great job although their time is getting short as they’ll head back to school in a couple of weeks. I was able to get out and spray herbicide here and there and am catching up some other preparations including those for our Fall Plant Sale in early September!

‘Blazin’ Lime’ bloodleaf (Iresine hybrida) – annual

Shadow King® ‘Cherry Mint’ begonia (Begonia rex-cultorum) – annual

‘Blazin’ Rose’ bloodleaf (Iresine hybrida) with ‘Wasabi’ coleus (Solenostemon scutellarioides) – both annuals

this big patch of ‘Blazin’ Lime’ bloodleaf (Iresine hybrida) with ‘Thailand Giant’ elephant ears (Colocasia gigantea) is looking nice! (both tropicals)

‘Dark Star’ coleus (Solenostemon scutellarioides) with leatherleaf sedge (Carex buchananii) – both annuals

resurrection lily (Lycoris squamigera) – perennial

Our volunteers weathered the sticky heat today in good order. Above are Kathy (left) and Eva planting in the gazebo garden (when they aren’t posing for photos…). The ladies moved on to three other areas for weeding. Magda (below) tidied up her area and Kay continues to do excellent work tidying up the upper woodland walk garden. Stan and Kristen continued their fine tuning in the Japanese garden and Bill O. did his mowing rounds. Larry had some projects and watered the yard. Peg was in to produce labels for some perennials that we have yet to plant. We also saw Dick H., Maury F., Chuck S., Mary W., Maryam, Hayley and many others. Audra from Ahren’s Acres stopped by to pick up flats and it’s always nice seeing her.