Growing at the Garden

Hello again!
It's been a couple short weeks since I last checked in and I thought I would share what I have been up to lately.

WEEK 3
At the beginning of my third week I was assigned an important task. I was to drive a company vehicle (a large diesel truck) to a nursery in North Carolina (about four hours away) to pick up and fit 67 Hydrangea quercifolia 'Munchkin' plants in the truck for transport back to the garden. Needless to say it was a bit stressful but in all, a very successful trip. The next day I was able to plant them in a great spot in the garden that I hope to see one day in the future, when their full growth and beauty within the design will be displayed. The rest of my week was spent clearing out old plant material and weeds from the formal garden, as the end of May is the transition time from cool season/spring annuals to summer annuals.

    Ashley (Education intern) and I were the only interns here for the past few weeks but the weekend after my third week the remaining two showed up:  Rachel (the other Horticulture Intern) and Eva (GIS Intern). It was an exciting, busy time as we were helping them move in and all getting to know each other. We definitely have a full house now with all four of us here but there's never a dull moment! We are all from different areas of the United States and studying/studied different things so sharing experiences and knowledge is really fun. I was also very excited to have another horticulture intern to work with throughout the summer.

WEEK 4  
Beginning week four, business-wise, we had a couple meetings pertaining to the intern trips we will take throughout the summer and one on how to use the Garden's database for plant recording and observations etc.  Work-wise, for Rachel and I, the week was spent continuing the clearing out of old plant material and weeding throughout the garden in this almost ending transition season. But a few larger and more fun projects we started this past week was redesigning and planting around the security house and collecting allium seeds.
   Projects:
The security house is located at the front of the gardens, where a lot of traffic entering the garden passes through. Rachel and I were assigned to clear out all the beds surrounding the house of weeds and over grown or dying plant material and to find replacement plant material that would endure the summer conditions. The first step, clearing out the beds, took a very full long long day. However the next day made up for the previous day's hard work, as we were allowed to choose and plant appropriate plants and design the look of the beds. Here are few pictures of this project in motion.

Here are some of the plants we chose: Zinnia elegans 'Inca Giant', Coreopsis, and Acalpha 'Inferno'.

Here is a bed we filled with different cultivars of Hypoestes.

Here is a picture of part of the front entrance bed filled with rose bushes and Zinnia elegans 'Inca Giant' along the fence line. 

Another small project we began at the end of the week was collecting Allium 'Red Beard' flower spikelets. The picture below is what they look like. Usually they are a cool fun color but as they begin to die they turn this tan brown color and eventually dehisce and little black seeds fall out. Rachel and I collected six small brown bags full of these spikelets and left them to dry and dehisce over the weekend so next week we can more easily separate the seed and plant them some time in the future. 

DAYLILIES
As for my summer long daylily project, they've been blooming like crazy! Atleast ten a day have been popping open into a vibrant bloom. So far, I've recorded over a hundred and twenty. A few of my favorite blooms over these past weeks are below. 

Hemerocallis 'Karen My Love'

Hemerocallis 'Ivory Ice'

Hemerocallis 'Daring Dilemma'

STAY TUNED
This week is our big intern trip to New York City! We have a bunch of really cool things planned that I can't wait to share them with you next weekend once we're back! :)