The moderate weather over the last couple weeks has been glorious. Just to get a break from the relentless 90s helped to heal the body and spirit. And the 60s at night? Oh my lands. Too wondrous for words. I think it did the plants as much good as it did me. Of course, I’d liked to have a bit more rain with the cooler temps, but if it had to stay dry I’ll take cooler and dry over hotter and dry. Sometimes you gotta bargain a bit with nature.

I wanted to touch back on a blog I wrote in January, the first one in 2011. In that blog I talked about Hydrangea paniculata Little Lime™.

This was a new cultivar from Proven Winners^® and Spring Meadow that was supposed to be more dwarf than “Limelight.” Well, according to my plant at home, it really is. I put a two or three gallon plant in last fall. As you may remember (it has been awhile), we had a very wet spring. Hydrangea paniculata prefers wet over dry. I also had mulched my garden with rabbit manure. My soil is already pretty good. Despite all those conditions for large growth I am happy to report my Little Lime™ is in full bloom and barely 2 feet tall. But look how wide it is compared to height. Very nice.

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Filed under: Art and Nature Park, Horticulture

Well, fiddle dee-dee. I had an idea for the blog and last night went and forgot to take the pictures I still needed. It was going to be a nice and easy one, relatively speaking. Now I gotta think of a new topic and figure out if I need illustration or music or web links, yada, yada, yada.

I could always talk about the weather.

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Filed under: Horticulture

Well, here I am in Atlanta at the Perennial Plant Symposium, on the bus waiting to start today’s tours of gardens, growers, and retail establishments. It’s actually been hotter in Indianapolis. The Hort folks left behind have been working like firemen to keep the plants alive.

It’s been a good week. Lots of good lectures. Lots of good gardens.  Lots of good plants. Lots of good people. I will be reporting on some of that later. I ran out of time to do it properly today.

I will mention the world of Echinaceas continues to expand – more sizes, more colors, more trials. These will continue to improve.  Amazing plants are on the way.

The new “it” perennial is probably going to be Kniphofia, the red hot pokers. More colors coming, longer blooming, shorter (not too short please!!!).

A bit of personal news, yours truly is the new Great Lakes Regional Director for the Perennial Plant Association. It was an honor just being nominated. I will try my best.

That’s it for now. Here’s hoping for cooler temps and some rain.

Filed under: Horticulture, Travel

I began working at the IMA as an intern for Summer Nights and now, eleven years later, I get to work on my favorite IMA program again.  We’re already a little over a month into this Summer Nights season, but no worries- we still have 2 months of amazing films for you to see:

July

Learn words that would make a sailor blush at the foul-mouthed Clerks (July 15), keep your ear to the ground for our first ever Secret Screening with the Indy Film Fest (July 22), and get your ‘80s fix with bad highlights, moustaches, and Tom Cruise in Top Gun (July 29).

August

Bring your pitch-pipe and practice the Hand Jive for our Grease Sing-a-long (August 5), prepare to swoon for the stars, costumes, and scenery in To Catch a Thief (August 12), break out the Aquanet and stretch pants for Labyrinth (August 19) and saving the best for last, watch the Man of Steel in action with Superman (August 26).

Don’t forget – this year everyone can get tickets in advance – buy your ticket online or at the IMA Welcome Center.

Do you already have your ticket and just need to know the basics?

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Filed under: Public Programs

The weather has been somewhat brutal this past week, not that we Horticulturists at the IMA are the only ones suffering. But mercy! You can just stand still and sweat like crazy. Plus, I am always amazed at how soil can go from such a water surplus to such a water deficit in such an incredibly short time. But we have moved right along through the heat to get the Spring planting finished.

Sometimes before we can put one group of plants in we have to remove another group. This is of course most common in the annual areas. One of my major annual plantings is the Cutting Garden next to the Greenhouse. Most years I only do a summer planting there but this year we had the Garden Club of America national meeting in Indianapolis. Something had to be done for an earlier show. In these still rough economic times, buying enough pansies or other Spring ornamental to cover the whole area was out of the question. So what to do? Mix it up and make it work. I bought some pansies for a few spots so there would be instant color. For the rest of the area? Lettuce. Direct sown lettuce.

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Filed under: Art and Nature Park, Horticulture