A Busy Weekend Ahead
Today was a warm and sunny, summer day with lots of visitors out in the gardens. It was nice to see so many people enjoying the garden throughout the day. Above is a nice shot of coneflowers...
View ArticleSuperb Home Garden Tour
In brief, the Home Garden Tour was a wonderful success today. All eight home gardens were beautiful and enjoyed by over 500 attendees on this fine day. Thankfully, the weather turned out to be quite...
View ArticleA Solid Soaking
I'll admit that I was a bit worried that the rain predicted for both this past Saturday and Sunday didn't materialize. I envisioned a day full of irrigation, moving sprinklers and hand watering....
View ArticleNo Dry Spots
After another deluge last night of 6/10th of an inch of rain, the gardens are sufficiently wet everywhere I would say! We were commenting today that this July has seen the least amount of irrigation...
View ArticleAn Epic Roadtrip
Terry, Big John and I hit the road early up to Madison for a "retreat" to see some other gardens and chat with other horticulturists. Due to scheduling issues, the rest of the staff couldn't make it...
View ArticleCloudy & Vivid
Today had a bit of drizzle although I had hoped for some more rain to be honest. However, the overcast skies sure made the color pop. A great example is our red/orange/yellow theme seen above in the...
View ArticleOlbrich Staff Visits
We had a nice visit today from some of the grounds staff from Olbrich Botanical Gardens (Madison, WI). Terry, Big John and I were just at Olbrich this past Wednesday and it was nice to return the...
View ArticleBack To Basics
The weekend saw some heavy winds and driving rain on Saturday afternoon and we spent quite a bit of time today cleaning up the gardens. Thankfully, there were only a few large branches down but plenty...
View ArticlePerfect Weather!
Today was simply beautiful with a cooler start to a sunny day with a high temperature around 80 degrees F. It was excellent working weather and while the gardens were still damp from our recent rains,...
View ArticleWonderful Wednesday
It was another gorgeous day out in the gardens. It was one of our five scheduled FREE days and we saw an excellent crowd of visitors enjoying the gardens. The views (like that above in the gazebo...
View ArticleThe Heat Intensifies
It was another warm and sunny day with our high temperature climbing in to the mid 80 degrees F range. "Bring it on!" I say as the gardens are responding well with plenty in bloom like the gayfeather...
View ArticleAnother Fantastic Friday
It was another excellent day out in the gardens. What we thought was going to be a very muggy day was actually not bad with a decent breeze and overcast skies. It was again nice to see so many...
View ArticleOn Vacation
On vacation but will try to blog as time allows. I hope to see some other botanic gardens as well. Great day today at the gardens with lots of volunteers and an excellent grounds crew.
View ArticleRoad Trip - Day 1
As part of our family Road Trip 2015 out "West", we were able to fit in some nice stops to stretch our legs! All of the garden shots here were taken at the Riverside International Friendship Gardens...
View ArticleRoad Trip - Day 2
If you ever find yourself driving across South Dakota, make the stop at Badlands National Park as it is awesome. I enjoyed the flora of this region and recognized quite a bit. The Visitor's Center...
View ArticleRoad Trip - Day 3
We started out the day with a wonderful visit to the Cheyenne Botanic Gardens (www.botanic.org/) which was spectacular. This 9 acre garden is in the midst of some major construction on a new visitors...
View ArticleRoad Trip Day 4 & 5
We've had a whirlwind past couple of days centered around the wedding of my cousin Laura which went wonderfully! We had a great day yesterday at the wedding and reception but prior to the wedding in...
View ArticleRoad Trip - Day 6
With the bulk of the day saved for travel from Colorado to Iowa (9.5 hours of driving), I snuck over to the Colorado State University Trial Gardens (Fort Collins, CO) this morning for some photos....
View ArticleRoad Trip - Day 7
We started the last day of our ROAD TRIP 2015 this morning with a stop by the Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden which was very impressive! Kelly Norris (see below), the Director of Horticulture,...
View ArticleBack In Action
It was nice to be back after a week off although it always seems like you come back and aren't one week behind...but three! The gang did an awesome job of keeping up with the watering and the gardens...
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