Nathan, Amanda, Neal, and I were back at the heavy pruning projects

This time we did it in the collection. We removed 8 large vehicle loads of debris and 7 of them were prunings from accessioned plants. Carole will be happy to hear. But they needed it and we only completely "removed" one plant, a Heptacodium that had hit the "green ceiling" in the form of  a Pterocarya. In the picture Nate is finishing off a large limb from the Pterocarya. Three of the loads were bamboo and that was a tiny drop in the bucket of what we will eventually have to remove, but it's a start. We cut some pieces that were over 4 inches in diameter, I measured them. Cool stuff.

We weren't the only project today; actually we were the least glamorous. Joan had a band of volunteers, interns, and technicians putting the finishing touches on Fern Valley. FV celebrates it's 50th birthday tomorrow and despite the irritation of the ongoing irrigation installation, the collection is beautiful with a few spectacularly colorful thing in bloom.

Jeanette led another group prepping for another glamor event: apparently Top Chef is taping some promotional footage at the Capitol Columns so the plantings were weeded, mulched, and generally touched up. So spring continues busy on all fronts.