Color

Spring is flying by with “hazy hot and humid” summer weather. Some flowers went by so quickly I feel like I didn’t see them…where’d the azaleas go? And the rhododendrons, usually glorious for early June… some are already gone. The peonies are in full to overfull bloom, so catch them while you can (here’s last year’s peony blog: http://uribotanicalgardens.wordpress.com/2011/06/01/the-queen-of-flowers/  ) They will always be the Queens of the Garden to me!

As flowers come and go there are some color combinations I didn’t plan around the Gardens which look great. I know, many gardeners don’t like orange flowers and especially not with cooler colors, but these are making me smile:

(Sumer is icumen in)                                                                                                  Summer has arrived,
Loudly sing, Cuckoo!
The seed grows and the meadow
blooms
And the wood springs anew,
Sing, Cuckoo!

Back to the Garden!

Now that the plant sale is over (and a great success), it’s time to return my attention to the Botanical Gardens. The plant sale is a lot of work, although it’s a lot of fun too, and it’s gratifying to see the greenhouse EMPTY! Many thanks to the students who helped me out the past two weekends.

I am really happy to be back outside in the Garden, even to pull weeds. The main garden, where the stage is, looks good. This part of the Garden is the area most often reserved for special events. The College of Nursing will be holding their Commencement ceremony here.  A retirement party for the Dean of Pharmacy, Joan Lausier (celebrating 50 years at URI!), will be held in the Garden in June. A few weddings are already scheduled, and of course garden tours are always going on.

May is a busy time for garden chores. There are peonies to stake, already flopping with last night’s heavy rain. Annuals are ready to be tucked into the perennial beds for extra color. Plants for the All-America Selections Display Gardens are getting impatient in the greenhouse and will be planted out this week ( hopefully!) Dahlias need to planted, Montauk Daisies cut back, and of course, the never ending task of weeding.

Speaking of chores, our summer garden crew is all new. Welcome, Louis and Feather. And good bye to Mike (Bartlett Tree Service), Giles (Central Nurseries), and Emily (Tower Hill Botanic Garden). You will be missed! Ryan (Arnold Arboretum) and Kyle (adventure), hope to see you in the fall. Let Summer Begin!

Plant Sale 2012

The official event announcement says the URI Botanical Gardens will be selling plants at the Greenhouse on Friday May 4th, Saturday May 5th and Friday May 11th. What it doesn’t say is how many beautiful plants of all kinds will be available!

Incredible hanging baskets grown by the Greenhouse Management class, and donated to the sale. Ten, no TWELVE kinds of tomatos, not to mention basil, eggplants, leeks, parsley, cucumbers, melons and more. A limited number of seedlings from the All-America Selections, including great zinnias, a new apricot-colored Gaillardia and ornamental peppers. Perennials for shade,  from the Botanical Gardens, including Solomon’s Seal, Epimedium, and the rare native Jeffersonia (Twinleaf). More perennials: Bee Balm, Eupatorium (Joe-Pye Weed), Wood’s Aster, Sedums, beautiful Agastache (Anise Hyssop)….I could go on and on but you will have to come see for yourself!

On Saturday May 12th, we will move the sale to the URI East Farm Spring Festival. This is a big and exciting day with literally thousands of people coming to East Farm for plants, garden items like compost bins, workshops, raffles, food, and lots of fun.

Friday May 4th, Saturday May 5th, and Friday May 11th: 8 am-2 pm at the Greenhouse:      6 Greenhouse Road, Kingston, RI 02881. Directions are on our website, cels.uri.edu/uribg                                                                                                        Saturday May 12th: 10 am-2 pm at East Farm, Route 108, Kingston.  cels.uri.edu/outreach

SEE YOU AT THE GREENHOUSE!

Blogging Away

Lots of excitement here at “…thoughts from the Garden”…. Tamara of mybotanicalgarden.wordpress.com has nominated the URI Botanical Gardens Blog (that’s me) for the Liebster Blog Award. Thank you, Tamara!

The Liebster Blog Award is apparently shrouded in mystery, because I can’t find much information about it,  other than what I have been able to glean from bloggers who won the award and posted about it.

Here is what I found out: “The origins of the Liebster Blog award are somewhat unclear but the general consensus is that it originated in Germany ( Liebster meaning “favorite” or “dearest”), to showcase bloggers with fewer than 200 followers. Upon accepting the award, the recipient must then pass it on to five more blogs of note.”

Here are the rules of the award:

• Thank your Liebster Blog Award presenter on your blog. (done)

• Link back to the blogger who presented the award to you. (done)

• Copy and paste the blog award on your blog. (done)

• Present the Liebster Blog Award to 5 blogs of 200 followers or less who you feel deserve to be noticed. (coming soon….)

Rain, I Don’t Mind

Nice rain over the weekend, almost 3 inches. Thank Goodness! Now things are really popping in the Botanical Gardens.

Stay tuned for a sneak preview of next week’s PLANT SALE….

Whether the weather…

Being a gardener, I can’t help but talk about the weather. Here in Kingston, it has been an unusually warm and dry spring so far, after an unusually warm and dry winter. I worry about the springtime ephemeral plants, which like moisture…after all, we have “mud season” in New England, somewhere in between winter and spring. But not this year. I am happy to see the Fawn Lily  (Erythronium) blooming, and sad to say the Carolina Spring Beauty  (Claytonia) doesn’t look like it will flower this year.

Mother’s Day is the yearly highlight of the Ericaceous Garden, however, the display is already beginning, so I would suggest a visit soon! There is beauty and color at every turn. The Royal Azalea (Rhododendron schlippenbachii) is in full bloom, and Koreanspice Viburnum (Viburnum carlesii) is sweetly fragrant throughout the White Garden.

“Whether the weather be fine,
Or whether the weather be not,
Whether the weather be cold,
Or whether the weather be hot,
We’ll weather the weather
Whatever the weather,
Whether we like it or not!”

—Anonymous

The Months

“March brings breezes loud and shrill, to stir the dancing daffodil”. Sara Coleridge, 1802-1852.

Though it’s now April, that’s a perfect description of the weather we’ve been having. The daffodils and more are in bloom…I turned my back for a minute and spring has begun….

“April brings the primrose sweet, scatters daisies at our feet”  Well, not so much here in New England, although it must have been so in the Lake District of  “Old” England where Sara Coleridge was born and raised. Here, the ‘April White’ Rhododendron is blooming in a very timely manner, along with Pieris, Hazels, and an early flowering Cherry, ‘Snow Fountains’.

Rhododendron 'April White'

Rhododendron 'Victor'

Pieris japonica 'Purity'

Corylopsis sinensis, Chinese Winterhazel

Prunus 'Snow Fountains'