Timely Showers

With a warm weekend on the horizon, I had hoped our 40% chance of rain would work out this morning and it was perfect!  We had a steady drizzle for about an hour which took care of many of our watering concerns for the day.  It was very timely too as the weekend temperatures will reach near 100 degrees F with the heat index.  Nice shot above of ‘Blue Globe’ ornamental onion (Allium azureum) which is a fall planted bulb.  These floating, 2″ blue spheres are showy but be warned that this species scatters a lot of seeds!

We had a pretty good turnout today.  Our grounds staff consisted of Larry H., Cindy, Alex, Shania and me.  We had plenty of tasks and thankfully, as mentioned above, watering wasn’t as much of a concern!  Our volunteers included Dr. Gredler, Kathy P., Urban, Kristin, Maury, Derrick, Dennis with four volunteers from the Mercy Health System and Jim H. with four RECAPPERS.  We had a very productive day out there and will host our last scheduled Volunteer Planting Day tomorrow (Saturday, June 16th) from 8 am until 12 noon.  Meet at the Horticulture Center as Palmer Drive may be shut down to accommodate the Pie Ride hosted by the Morning Rotary Club.  We’ll continue to plant over the coming weeks but the bulk of our largest areas have been planted.

‘Blue Hawaii’ plantain lily (Hosta) – perennial

fruits of serviceberry (Amelanchier sp.) – woody tree

‘Red Obelisk’ columnar European beech (Fagus sylvatica) – woody tree

rustic cherub in the formal gardens today…

‘Misty Lace’ hybrid goatsbeard (Aruncus hybrida) – perennial

flax (Linum sp.) in the herb garden – perennial

yellow fumitory (Corydalis lutea) – perennial

before (above) and after (below)…we’ve had a major leak bubble up from this connection three times now….should be good to go though after some help from Evergreen Irrigation (Rockford, IL)!