Even though I miss my gaudy tropicals terribly I know their demise means the autumnal show is ready to start. And who doesn’t love a good show?

This year the colors are simply spectacular, the reds super intense like the color of first lust, the oranges brilliant as Vegas showgirl costumes, and the yellows absolutely glowing like so many rhinestones on a Porter Wagner jacket. It’s just been a great year to walk about and soak it all in. And it’s lasting a pretty long time too.

I suspect our cooler wetter summer has something to do with the great color. But did you ever wander why the trees and shrubs especially change color? The fact that the trees produce less chlorophyll allowing the red and yellow pigments (carotenoids) to show is fairly common knowledge. The trees also produce more red-purple pigments (anthocyanins). But is that all there is to it? I get regular e-newsletters from my former boss when I interned at the Cincinnati Zoo, Rob Halpern (thanks for the link Katie). He now has his own design/consulting business (ZHCD) and includes in each month’s newsletter a group of links to interesting and sometimes bizarre plant news. In fact these have been such a hit they now have a website devoted to them, plantworldnews.com. Anyway, one of Rob’s recent newsletters included a link about fall color. One theory suggests the reds in autumn color dates back 35 million years when the trees and their insect pests survived a series of ice-ages. Could it be the trees are warning the aphids “my leaves are about to die don’t lay your eggs on me”? It’s a fascinating story you can read in its entirety here. Let me also just say I really wish Rob would sell t-shirts or something with his logo. It’s brilliant.

Okay, enough chatter about color. Let’s look at some color.
Maples of all forms are great this year.

Cornus kousa are well beyond their usual color.

The always reliable Lindera angustifolia are spectacular. I love the glossy oranges and reds these plants develop. And when the leaves do turn brown they hold on til Spring, providing a nice cover for birds and your neighbors prying eyes.

Hydrangea quercifolia is glorious.

How about Hamamelis virginiana in full fall color and full bloom?

Another large shrub looking great this year is Aesculus parviflora draped in bright golden foliage. This native of the Southeast is perfectly happy in the Midwest. And is perfect with the late blooming Aconitum.

Parrotia persica is a tree I would love to see more often. The fall colors are fantastic. Once the leaves drop you have the added value of beautiful bark all winter that, like men, will just get better and better looking with age.

The Liguidambar styracifula ‘Slender Silhouette’ we put in Nonie’s Garden developed the glorious yellows, reds, and burgundys these trees are famous for. While the species becomes a broad pyramidal tree the cultivar Slender Silhouette remains a narrow 4 to 6 feet wide at maturity. I like the clean modern lines of these very vertical plants against the backdrop of the broad horizontal curves of the Efroymson Entrance Pavillion (which isn’t evident in this photo).

Not every year is good for fall color in hostas, but this year the Hosta sieboldiana ‘Elegans’ in Hosta Curve is beautiful in bright amber shades of gold. Lilies even look good.

Just walk around the gardens and everywhere you look there is a beautiful view.

Now let’s compare that fall color to one of Porter’s jackets. Oh, the tragedy of it all. Listen close.

See? Wasn’t that easy to understand? I bet you are already half way out the door to find a tree to hug. Well go ahead. You can come back later to finish this blog.

Now I could go on and on about how much carbon trees soak up, or how they lower the temperatures especially in urban areas, or how they increase the value of your home. But really, does everything in nature have to do something for us or have economic value as a prerequisite for us to care about it? Can’t we just appreciate the trees for what they are? Do you hug your family and friends so you can get close enough to rummage through their pockets for a few dollars? Really people. I’ll stop ranting now.

A musical interlude to calm my nerves.

National Tree Hugger Day is sponsored by American Forests (a conservation group founded in 1875) and IKEA (a fabulous place to shop founded in 1943). They have been working together on environmental projects since 1998. I have been to forests in America and to IKEA and I can honestly say on both accounts – Loved it!

So now that you have decided you are going to hug a tree where do you find one to hug? I like the idea of hugging one near your own home. You know: Think globally, hug locally. But if you cannot find one near you, or you just can’t stop once you start, then come on over to our trees at the IMA. We have lots of huggable trees. Please be careful not to step on surrounding plants. Bad Tree Hugger! Bad!

We love our trees so much here at the IMA that some of us got an early start this week.

Here Katie hugs a sugar maple by our offices.

Jim hugging an American beech along the horseshoe drive at Lilly House.

Native Hoosier Gwyn with a native Tulip poplar.

Another musical interlude.

Some trees are so large it takes a group to hug them properly. Katie’s out of view. This is our big ash tree near Garden Terrace.

Another group hug on the Sutphin Mall red maples.

So as you can see, one can celebrate National Tree Hugger Day alone or with family and friends. Just be sure to get out there and start hugging.

Of course what tree blog would be complete without this song to get stuck in your head all week-end. Enjoy, my tree hugging friends.

Uh-oh, somebody left the blog-o-graph in the Division of Environmental and Historic Preservation unsecured! Well, I am done cleaning Irvin’s and Geoff’s garden trowels so let’s see how this thing works…

I don’t usually make my bed, but if I did I know I’d have to sleep in it. That’s kind of what happened when the rain garden project here at the IMA came along. Not to get too mired in details, but when a preliminary plan for this type of garden at another site on the property became unworkable, Chad Franer, Horticulture Manager, asked the staff for suggestions for another location. Before I could slap my hand over my mouth, the words had already dribbled down my stubbly chin and onto the table: “annual border.”

For those of you unfamiliar with the designations for sub-areas around the campus, this is a garden bed running along the northeastern edge of the greenhouse parking lot which has traditionally been planted with annual and tropical plants. Make that “was”. After a single season of being under my complete control, I had just suggested eliminating a parking lot paradise in favor of a utilitarian system for dealing with storm water. I looked over at Irvin, one of my inspirations for all things shiny and sparkly, and thought I saw his eyelids narrow and his lips mouth the words “you will PAY for this!” Actually, I wouldn’t -because somebody else was going to pick up part of the tab! Still, I knew I would have to face the accusations of betrayal by the Chanteuse of Chartreuse. As quickly as the thoughts congealed in my head, I babbled on and on to Mr. Etienne about how I would transform the beds along the fence in front of the greenhouse into the “new” annual border, complete with bold foliage, contrasting textures, and a riotous rainbow of color.

A reasonable compromise I thought, especially since it was already spring and the plants I ordered in the winter for the annual border would be arriving soon anyway. Disastrous wrath averted, I slinked back to my office to begin pondering the radical changes in store for this particular square footage. Honestly? At first I was intimidated by the prospect of designing from scratch a functional landscape feature of which I only had a rudimentary knowledge. I didn’t feel very passionate about it at the time either. Nonetheless, I set about researching these types of installations, drawing inspiration from a variety of sources. Thanks to the many other professionals involved, certain characteristics of this purpose-built landform were determined for me (Go Engineers!).

Beyond that, I (and my superiors) just wanted it to be aesthetically pleasing. This was accomplished (I hope) by sticking to the “right plant, right place” philosophy which requires matching plant tolerances with environmental conditions. Simply put, in lower elevations of the garden plants have to be amenable to occasional inundation as well as periodic dry spells. Mostly, native species made the cut, along with their cultivars and a few exotics (non-invasive ones).

How will it all work out? Only time will tell. Let’s just ignore the huge downpour which washed out a seven-foot section of the berm on the back side of the garden less than a month after it was constructed and planted (I can easily do that – I was on vacation that week!) On a final note, I would like to thank all the staff, volunteers, and outside organizations whose efforts helped make the new IMA rain garden possible. I hope y’all take pride of ownership in it. Hey, what’s this feeling coming over me? I love what we’ve created!

Image from slantmouth.com

But I won’t whore myself. When accepting payment it must be clear that it is no guarantee of a favorable review at a later date. Not every thing is as great as the marketing would suggest. Shocking. Of course human nature makes me giddy with excitement over many of these new and exciting and best-ever-introduced plants. It’s variegated? I’m smitten. It’s chartreuse? I’m falling in love. It’s orange? I’m shopping for a ring. It’s all of those? I’m booking the wedding hall and registering at Target. The result of placing my chlorophyll in such a vulnerable spot is that some times my little horticultural heart gets broke – “I was sure this was the one that would bloom forever (sob, sob)”. But I know the pain will ease and soon I will be lusting and loving anew. Ah, the life of a plant slut.

Sometimes a plant isn’t so much sexy as practical. I think many natives fall in this category.I wouldn’t call Tiarella sexy. Pretty? Maybe. A hard worker? For sure. These woodland plants bloom in spring usually with new selections continuing until as late as July. Flowers are usually white with a pink blush but some are a rue light pink. They have very good foliage all season. I’m now trialing five new cultivars of running Tiarella cordifolia, foam flower from Plants Nouveau. Tiarella tends to be either a clumper or a runner. Runners can make better groundcovers because they spread by sending out runners, small plants on the end of horizontal shoots. These are all native to eastern Pennsylvania and named after five rivers in that region. Here are pictures of two.

'Delaware' (Plants Nouveau)

'Susquehana' (Plants Nouveau)

We will have to see if they like Indiana as well. I don’t think there will be a problem as we grow plenty of Tiarella already.

Some natives on the other hand are sexy. The Silphiums in all their big, bold, bodacious beauty are a fine example. Another example would be Tiarella’s somewhat slutty cousin Heucherella, a hybrid resulting from a one-night stand between a Tiarella and a Heuchera (coralbell). Heucherella is sometimes called foamy bells (foam flower x coralbell). The result is plants with flowers generally larger than Tiarella blossoms but smaller than Heuchera blossoms. Some have dark pink flowers. Now all the fantastic colors of Heuchera foliage is being introduced to these plants. Terra Nova has some hot ones right now. I am very interested in trialing some of these as well (my wish list is growing daily and gets sent next week). Jimmy Turner – I can’t help it, I have to call him by both names – Director of Horticulture Research at the Dallas Arboretum, likes them so I know they can handle heat and humidity. My favorite is probably ‘Golden Zebra’ though ‘Sweet Tea’ makes my blood boil a little too.

‘Golden Zebra’ (Terra Nova)

‘Sweet Tea’ (Terra Nova)

So many plants, so many vendors. Such is the life of a plant slut. Now, who had that chartreuse-leaved daylily with delphinium-blue flowers?

Irvin Etienne, Aesthetic Czar, whose garden trowel I am not worthy to clean, is away this week.  He said something about a professional conference in St Louis, but I hear Dolly Parton is performing in Branson, so I’m not sure…

Anyway, he left me keys to the blog-o-graph and said, “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”

More and more this season, I have been enraptured with wonder at what nature does.  For the blog’s title, I turned to Jens Jensen, one of the great evangelists for the church of mother earth.   In the first chapter of Siftings (1939) he said that the “[natural world] about us has within it all the joy and happiness that we need.”  Amen.  As much as my life is enriched by the amazing work I see in our galleries, more nourishing for my soul is the beauty and humility of plants.  I want to offer three little samples.

Symbiosis.  A pea does not spring full grown, drenched in butter, from the head  of the Jolly Green Giant.  It is the product of co-operation with a bacteria Rhizobium leguminosarum.  Nitrogen is the most limiting nutrient for crop growth, it is not readily available in the soil.  Nitrogen is 78% of the air around us, but can you grab some to get your plants to grow lushly?  I didn’t think so.  A slender vine leaps from the earth, makes beautiful flowers, and delicious sweet peas – because it forms little nodules on its roots to shelter the bacteria.  As the bacteria goes happily about the business of life, it pulls this invisible gas nitrogen out of the air and provides it for the pea plant’s nutritional needs.  Does the iPhone have an app for that?

Effortlessly graceful patterns. The harmonious flow of line is a goal of design from cups to clothes to cars (well, okay, not for every designer and artist).   But how would humans know what beautiful pattern is if not for nature’s originals?  I love the swirl and arc of maturing sunflower seeds in arrays that cannot quite be predicted (in the IMA orchard, photo “Sunnyside up” by “whisperingwolf1” on Flickr)

If miraculous productiveness and original design are not enough to draw you into the church of nature surely the silky white color and heady perfume of the lilies that line the aisle between our new apple trees will convert you (thanks again to “whisperingwolf1”).

For years available only in pinkish lavender and occasionally white it now has its petals dyed every shade of yellow and orange, even red. And the pinkish lavender? Well, now it’s every thing from soft true pink to deepest rose. Not content to merely change her petal color Echinacea has teased herself and added braids and weaves til she’s jacked that cone all the way up to Jesus. She’s sipping Merlot After Midnight at the end of a day of partying from Sunrise to Sunset. At Twilight it was off to another event with her friend Ruby Giant who seems to have developed a Fatal Attraction over a Flame Thrower. Lunch was Mac ‘N’ Cheese and Tomato Soup. Indeed little Echinacea has arrived.

What changed Echinacea so much? Exposure to diversity (Imagine, just like people!)

Plant breeders decided to see what would happen when they crossed the many species of the pinkish and white coneflowers with the odd-plant out of the group, the Yellow Coneflower, Echinacea paradoxa.

Don’t you love that? Paradoxa. You know, it’s a paradox that it’s yellow. Or at least that’s how I see it. Anyway, this addition of yellow brought about all sorts of colors. Chicago Botanical Garden led the way with the first releases, followed quickly by the Saul brothers down in Alpharetta, Georgia. Since then just about every person with two plants has a breeding program.  One cannot ignore the other major factor affecting the change which was selection within the already established plant species especially Echinacea purpurea.

With so many to choose from it can be difficult to pick. I’m just going to touch on a few. Trial and error will weed out the undeserving in time. I love many of the new cultivars but have also seen them blooming beautifully with the stems lying on the ground because they can’t support the flowers. I don’t mind doing some staking but it is an area breeders need to work on.

The species types can be very nice in their own right. Echinacea pallida, pale purple coneflower, has narrow drooping petals.

These E. tennesseensis hybrids in the IMA Horticultural Society Overlook behind Deer Zink show their mixed parentage with diverse leaf types, flower types, and petal colors.

A gift from Angela Treadwell-Palmer of Plants Nouveau gave us the opportunity to try 3 new white coneflowers in the upper cutting garden, all of them Echinacea purpurea selections. ‘Avalanche’  is a shorter plant than average, around 2 feet tall.

‘Champagne Bubbles’ gets its name I think from the color that appears in the cone.

Nice but not earth shattering, but if it stays upright with minimum staking and has a long bloom time, then it’s still very good. The one I am really excited about is ‘Milkshake’, a double that is supposed to remain white even as it ages.

I’m hoping she will give us some ‘Hot Papaya’ to trial. Puh-leeease Angela! I need ‘Hot Papaya’.

We have had some of the Big Sky series of coneflowers from Itsaul Plants for a few years. In the Garden for Everyone, the Sutphin Mall, and on the Tunnel you will find Sundown.

Also on the Tunnel is a large swath of Twilight.

When the rain garden off the Greenhouse parking lot is completed in a couple weeks we will have a third member of this group, Summer Sky. Overall these have been very good plants in all aspects.

Another selection of Echinacea purpurea that has proven to be a very good choice is ‘Ruby Giant’. You can find it in the Formal Garden. It has richly colored larger than normal flowers, excellent plant habit as well.

The people who brought us every possible Heuchera have also been working on coneflower. Dan Heims at Terra Nova is well-known in the plant world to say the least. When I saw the pictures of some of their new Echinaceas it was full-on lust. But I cast a wary eye as so often pictures used in catalogues are quite simply a lie. Not so with Terra Nova’s plants. I have both ‘Tiki Torch’ and ‘Tomato Soup’ blooming in my home garden as I write this. They are HOT! I love the non-fading orange of ‘Tiki Torch’.

‘Tomato Soup’ absolutely glows.

My ‘Mac ‘n’ Cheese’ has its first bud. Can-not-wait.

Now. I’m usually real persnickety with cultivar and trademark names but in this case have played very loosey-goosey. You have plenty of links in this posting however to guide you to the proper nomenclature. I just didn’t have time to get all fancy.

I love it when you hear people from the dessert southwest say “Yeah, it was a 108 today, but it’s a dry heat”.  Dry heat my foot. At a 108 you can damn near start baking cookies. I just don’t think I’m a dry heat person or even a low humidity person anyway no matter how much I complain. I remember going to the Denver area for PPA a few years back. While there I didn’t notice the difference in climate and vegetation being all that dramatic. But on the way home? My lands! The farther east we traveled the more green and lush the world became. I could almost feel my skin becoming elastic again as it absorbed moisture right out of the air. So it puts me in quite a perplexing situation what with wanting heat but hating heat, wanting humidity but hating humidity, wanting to eat right but hating anything not made with butter, brown sugar, and salt. Ooops. That last one really has little to do with horticulture.

So what does one do when summer truly arrives? Well, we horticulturists and gardeners eventually take it all in stride and settle on a battle plan. Regardless of the actual temperature some sunscreen is a pretty good idea. I have a hard time remembering to put it on let alone reapply in two hours. Even the greaseless formulas make me feel sweaty already at 7:30 in the morning, a feeling that, believe it or not, is not the least bit pleasurable. But that’s the way it is. I was listening to Fresh Air yesterday and the guest said we need at least a teaspoon just to do the face and neck. If I’m like most people (I know, not likely) then we are way under applying. So now I will put it on thicker ‘cause I dread the thought of ending up with little chunks cut out of my nose or jagged pieces of my ears missing. Now isn’t that a pretty picture?

Sunglasses are essential anymore. When I finally bought my prescription Ray-Bans my eyes practically moaned in ecstasy. I swear I forget I even have them on. I try to remind myself to remove them when talking to visitors. I do not wear them at night. Nor would I wear them to indoor events the way so many idiotic celebrities do. It is unacceptable to wear sunglasses while presenting or accepting at the Oscars, Tonys, GRAMMYs, etc. All of you stop immediately.

A wide brimmed hat is handy for shading the eyes and face. Just ask Scarlett O’Hara. It’s not as good as an oak tree but unlike an oak tree it can move with you.

Water, for me, is like the sun block. I don’t think about it. Don’t get me wrong. Anybody that knows me knows I drink pretty much nothing but water. But I don’t carry a bottle out into the gardens often. When I do it usually comes back to the office full or nearly so. When it gets really hot, close to mid-90’s, then I will consciously drink more water making sure every half hour or so I take the time to open the bottle.

I can’t say enough about the relief of working in the shade in hot weather. Weeds abound in the shade same as in the sun, plants in the shade need mulch too, and since every garden looks better with a good edge, there is never a shortage of work needed in the shaded areas of the gardens. In the summer months shade work is saved for the afternoons when the sun is at its meanest.

And if the areas that need the most attention are in the sun – well, fiddle-dee-dee, that’s life. As God as my witness, I’ll never go without sunscreen again.

It’s also generally out of view to some degree and less likely to be disturbed by staff and visitors. The bees are not aggressive but if you mess with them they are defenders of their territory. The honey is so sweet but the stinger is so sharp.

Tuesday Chad did the first inspection of the hive. This requires a wee bit of prep. You don’t go in with street clothes, at least not the first time. Here’s Chad all suited up for the inspection. Notice the smoker at his feet. The smoke calms the bees somehow. Maybe that explains why so many humans are addicted to cigarettes.

First Chad removed the sugar water that has been a supplemental food source to the bees as they get established.

Smoking the hive.

Removing the outer cover.

Removing the inner cover. Without the inner cover the bees would try to fill all the space between the box and the outer cover with honeycomb. It also provides some ventilation for the hive.

Chad gingerly removing a frame filled with honey comb, bee larvae, honey, and BEES.

I can almost taste the honey. Ooooo, a taste of honey!

Here Chad is carefully inspecting a frame. He’s looking to see if the Queen is laying eggs (YES), checking for any signs of disease, and in general making sure all is well in the hive.

Still looking it over closely here.

Where’s the honey? I want the honey! Honey. Honey.

Just as Chad needs to be careful removing the frames, he must be just as careful returning them. It’s easy to crush a bee if you rush and that goes against the idea of building the colony.

Here’s a shot of a frame filled with hard working bees. Can you spot the Queen? Be nice.

I still want a taste of honey. (video 3)

As he ended the inspection Chad got a little suspicious of some activity in his pant’s leg. It was a false alarm fortunately.

Now I know some of you might think all this dance music is strictly for my enjoyment. Oh but you are so wrong. Bees dance as well. It is essential for their very survival in fact. They do ”the waggle dance”. Don’t believe me?

Honey bees have been suffering from several problems in recent years. Colonies can up and disappear almost overnight. Sometimes an entire hive dies. It’s called Colony Collapse Disorder. I won’t go into detail but you can find info at many sites including Purdue University’s The Bee Hive and the USDA. Being one that always tries to find some humor or happy in any situation I was glad to find Help the Honeybees, a website created by Haagen-Dazs (ice cream!). I love their videos of “bees” dancing. It’s a fun way of sending a serious message.

If you are interested in going to Bee School like Chad did checkout the Indiana State Beekeepers Association. Lastly, let me dedicate this song to all the bees in our hive and all the worker bees in our division dedicated to making a good home for our colony.

It’s always a bit of a mad dash to do the change-outs. As soon as that is done the dahlias and other summer blooming bulbs need to get in the ground and then we just wait for the 80+ degree temperatures (though I prefer 72 with a gentle breeze).

In my areas it was not a great spring for pansies. I think perhaps it was a bit too wet. They just refused to grow much so never filled in completely and produced fewer blooms. From a distance they looked fine. Up close they looked puny. The little birds that have nested in the pansies around the Sutphin Fountain for the last two years never even bothered to show up this year.

Everything else Spring-inclined had a good season – perennials, shrubs, trees, bulbs. Sorry about those little tulips in the Formal garden Patty. Damn squirrels. The white fringetree, Chionanthus virginicus, looked great this week.

This is why they are called white fringetree.

Not sure what they will be by the week-end with all the rain. This native makes a great small tree with year round interest – flowers now followed by bold leaves that turn yellow in the fall, then a nice shape to the branching structure for winter. These in the Southwest Border Garden are part of the original plantings at Oldfields.

Also looking great this week was the double-file viburnum, Viburnum plicatum forma tomentosum. This plant has great horizontal branching all the more evident when in full bloom.

I think it could be pruned into a super patio tree. You can see how the double row of blossoms, accompanied by a double row of leaves and followed by a double row of berries gave it the name double-file.

The double flowered form of this plant is the Japanese snowball viburnum or Viburnum plicatum forma plicatum. It was one of those rare instances where the sterile form of the plant was found first so when they found the fertile form the species already had a name so… I can’t go into the explanation right now. I also won’t go into the details of the difference between forma, variety, and subspecies today. But all the same there will be a test next Thursday so you better look it up on your own.

We will be hosting the Region III meeting of the Garden Writers Association (GWA) this Friday and Saturday with tours here, plus Garfield Park and local private gardens. Our publication Seasons won a Silver Award of Achievement for Overall Product – Newsletter  which makes us eligible for the Gold Award for Best Product to be given at the national GWA meeting in September. Our very own Jo Ellen Meyers Sharp, IMA Horticulture Society director and the Hoosier Gardener, is a National Director of GWA.  I’m sure you have read her articles in the Indy Star and many know she is editor of Indiana Living Green magazine.

Speaking of green, have you checked out Isabella Rosellini and Green Porno on the Sundance channel? The beautiful and funny Isabella presented first rate scientific information on the sex lives of insects last season and this season is covering marine animals. I absolutely love the costumes and sets. Incredible. And Isabella. What can I say? Maybe she will do the plants next? Come on Isabella, let’s do it.

National Public Gardens Day at the IMA
Friday, May 8
1–5 p.m.
Throughout the IMA Gardens and Grounds
Free
National Public Gardens Day is a national day of celebration to raise awareness of America’s public gardens and their important role in promoting environmental stewardship and awareness, plant and water conservation, and education in communities nationwide. Visitors may stop by the IMA gardens for a full afternoon of events, including a demonstration on creating high-impact container displays and shopping discounts at the Madeline F. Elder Greenhouse and guided tours of springtime blooms in the IMA gardens. Visitors may stop by the orchard on the grounds of Oldfields, which is currently being renovated to include heirloom fruits and vegetables popular in gardens of the early 20th century. The Museum’s knowledgeable horticulture staff will be available throughout the day to offer gardening tips and answer questions.

Well, that kind of covers everything but here are a few more details…

• Horticulturist Jim Kincannon will be giving the container gardening lecture in the lower level of Garden Terrace at 1pm.
• Horticulturists will be at the Greenhouse from 2 – 4 pm to answer questions and help you select plants.
• Gardens Supervisor Chad Franer will be giving demos on cleaning and sharpening tools at the Greenhouse parking lot from 2 – 4 pm.
• Garden tours will be given at 1 and 3 pm.
• Horticulturist Geoff VonBurg will be in the Orchard from 1 – 4 pm to explain some of the happenings in this renovated fruit and vegetable patch across the road from the Greenhouse. It’s not quite finished so enjoy seeing it in progress.  See spring veggies now and come back later to see the summer crop.

There, I feel better fleshing the day’s events out a bit. For more info on the national day you can visit the website of the American Public Garden Association  (APGA), or visit their fan and event pages on Facebook.

Now for several random thoughts.

It continues to be a very lovely Spring here in the gardens. Please come visit. Things look just great. Here are three flowering events you have missed – tulips, early peonies, redbuds. Don’t worry, there’s something new everyday.

Tulipa ‘Daydream’

Paeonia offinalis ‘Mollis’

Cercis canadensis ‘Appalachian Red’

Despite the hot weather over the week-end the tulips held out for the celebration/dedication of Nonie’s Garden on April 26.

On April 27 we had an excellent turn-out for Niloo’s and my tour for Fashion in Bloom.
The Orchard is now an official orchard since it has mature trees planted in it. Here’s what they looked like on the trucks.

I think the somewhat gnarly stubbed branching gives them a look of having been here for decades instead of days.

If you read a recent issue of Midwest Living that said we had a cutting garden you could cut from for your own bouquets, that is not true. We are a public garden not a public cutting garden.

On the home front I have been thoroughly enjoying my Dicentra spectabilis ‘Gold Heart’.

This yellow leafed cultivar of bleeding heart is one of my favorite plants. My oldest plant is now over 5 feet wide and over 3 feet tall. If it had blue flowers I would just swoon every time I looked at it. Truly, I would need to keep smelling salts in my pocket. The Iris x robusta ‘Gerald Darby’ has kept the purple in its leaves longer than any other year and the color has extended further up the leaves.

To think a couple years back I almost ripped it out of the garden. This is now considered a hybrid between the natives I. versicolor and I. virginica. Imagine that, a native in my garden. But it is a hybrid.

As I said earlier, things are looking great this Spring in the gardens at the IMA.

It is a perfect time for a visit. But don’t cut any flowers. I’ll get you. Oh yes, I will get you.