January 14, 2010

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - January 15

In the fall, I remove all annuals and cut down all the perennials in my yard. This makes for an easy start in the spring because there is little or no clean up to be done. The problem is that then there's nothing sticking out of the snow to be photographed for Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day. So, off I went to the Green Bay Botanical Garden. Technically, it is my garden because I'm a member.

This bronze sculpture, Serenade, is in the Upper Rose Garden. It was a gift to the garden from the children of Marguerite and George Kress, as a tribute to their parents. Dee Clements was the sculptor. Morning Light Chinese Silver Grass swaying in the background.
In the summer, the Rose Garden is filled with colorful blooming hardy shrubs and hybrid tea roses, but on this January day rose hips provided the only color. Rose hips are the fruit of the rose plant and according to Wikipedia, rose hips are used for herbal tea, jam, jelly, syrup, beverages, pies, bread and marmalade. They are also high in Vitamin C.


Adam's Needle Yucca looks almost as attractive to me poking out of the snow as it does in the summer when it has a tall flower spike at the center of the plant that last for several weeks.


I think this particular grass is Karl Foerster feather reed grass. The foliage is dark green during the spring, summer and early fall and the flowers are pinkish in color. By late fall and into the winter, both are the color of wheat.


Do you know those beautiful Pinky-Winky hydrangeas that bloom in the early summer with cone-shaped white flowers that then turn to a pink color in August? This is how they look in January in zone 4.


This is the Nodding Wild Onion, a popular Midwestern prairie plant. In the summer it produces pale lavender flowers on a single leafless stalk and attracts honeybees.


This colorful frog sitting out in the snow made me smile. There is a special children's garden that includes a frog pond, but that's not where I found this one. It was sitting near one of the buildings where the classrooms are located.


As always, Carol at May Dreams Gardens, is our most wonderful hostess for Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day and I thank her for doing so. Please do go to her most delightful and informative blog and see how you, too, can join in on the 15th of every month.

I used the new updated editor for this post and it felt awkward and unfamiliar and it seemed to take me forever to complete the post. And I never did figure out what happened to spellcheck.

I'm posting this one day early because tomorrow is my dad's 86th birthday and I'll be busy preparing dinner to take down to him for the celebration. Be looking for me to visit your garden when I get home.


30 comments:

  1. "Your" garden is lovely this time of year! Actually I don't know why I put those quote marks -- you are right, you belong, therefore it IS yours. (If I were your neighbor it would be mine too!)I hope you do a post this spring/summer of the same spots.

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  2. Donna, I have been there and it is gorgeous. My husband and I took a trip to Green Bay after we were married in 1992. That is when I met my boyfriend, BF. We also spent a day at the Green Bay Botanical Garden. I love that place. I need to go back there. I have learned so much about gardening since then. I know I will appreciate it more.

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  3. Happy Birthday to your father! I hope he has a wonderful day.

    Lovely shots of the Botanical Garden; the grasses look so pretty at any time of the year. I do have some perennials still poking out of the ground to photograph, but come spring, I'll wish I had been as smart as you to cut them down earlier!

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  4. Happy Birthday to your Dad! Snow blooms are beautiful in their own way aren't they.

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  5. Happy Birthday to your dad! Donna, your winter garden photos are marvelous! Brr...I can feel (remember) what snow crunching under foot feel like! gail

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  6. Those flowers look beautiful in the snow too. I love the frog!

    Thank you for the very nice comments you have left on my blog -- you are very kind.

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  7. What a sweet daughter you are to make food for your dad. I hope it is a great celebration.
    my daughter would love that frog.
    You have a lot more snow than me. I am surprised!
    Great photos, Donna.
    Take care.
    rosey

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  8. Hi,
    First time visitor and while I love all of your winter garden photos I just had to giggle at the frog! Brrr... we need to get him a jacket!

    Happy B-Day to your Dad.

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  9. How clever of you to find some gardens to photograph. I would be hard pressed to find anything other tree branches laying about my yard. Love the statue and the frog. I can just see Ryan and Austin climing it.

    Happy B-day to your day. My dad is 86 as well.

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  10. Garden Girl15 January, 2010

    Donna,
    Thank you so much for "exposing" your Garden to the blogosphere! Your photos are just a small reflection of the beauty of the Garden in the winter. We intentionally plant with winter interest in mind, and you have captured it all so beautifully. Come visit often....we are now open Saturdays!

    Susan Garot,
    Executive Director, GBBG

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  11. Dear Donna, fist I have to say I'm wishing you and your family a wonderful day on your dad's birthday. Congralutations.

    Second love the images. Man you know so much about gardening...I don't so I might call on you when I'm replanting mine next spring.

    Thanks for sharing these images.
    Do love the colored frog.

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  12. I just love that yucca poking out through the snow.

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  13. Your Winter Garden is Heavenly!
    Happy Bloom Day

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  14. I love the photo of the yucca peeking out of the snow. Can't wait for the Hydrangeas to bloom again....

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  15. Hi Donna!

    Thank you for taking us to your Green Bay Botanical Garden. Love all your photos and I enjoyed this post. I love that Adam's Needle Yucca poking out of the snow. They are such tough plants.

    Happy 86th Birthday to your Dad. Wish him all the best.

    hugs

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  16. Thanks for the wintery tour. I love dried plants with snow on them. Beautiful!

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  17. The shadows cast are beautiful, too ...

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  18. those are good winter captions donna. I'm very impressed.

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  19. Hello Donna, thanks so much for your kind words.

    What a good idea to head off the Botanic Gardens. These tall grasses really come into their own in this weather.

    Hope you've had a lovely celebration with your Dad.

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  20. What a fun game. Can't wait until next week!

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  21. The grass is lovely peeking out of the snow. I don't have any grasses planted in my garden but sure have been leaning that way after seeing all the pretty grasses in others gardens. Thanks for sharing the photos.

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  22. I'm so glad you have a winter garden to enjoy. We have to do what it takes to get through the long, cold winter! I'll visit the garden center tomorrow and get my fix with houseplants and seeds.

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  23. I just love all your snow pictures Donna! Snow and sun always look so good together. I especially like the photo of the K.F. grasses.

    As for that new editor, I think I recall the spellchecker disappeared.

    Happy (late) birthday to your dad!

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  24. Hi, drop by my blog I have a little something for you. Stella

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  25. Beautiful winter garden pictures. I like the idea of claiming it as your own via membership. I need to check into that theory! :)

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  26. Hi Donna!

    Thank you for visiting and posting comments to my posts. Wish you a lovely day always.

    We are going away for few days and I will not go on line. We will be going up in the North Coast of NSW to visit friends and visiting places of interest.

    Catch you when I come back..

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  27. Thanks for stopping by my blog. I read yours often. Just got to leave you a comment today!!

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  28. Thanks for stopping by my blog Donna. That garden looks like a lovely place to visit. Thanks for the "tour".

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  29. Donna,
    The Hydrangea and grasses are lovely among the snowy landscape. How I wish we had a Botanical Garden here in Vermont!!

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