The hot summer (and the earlier heat wave) has really taken a toll at the Maple Valley Arboretum. The flower garden was looking really weak (few blooms, lots of bare stems on the shrubs), so I chatted with one of the groundskeepers to find out what happened.
The heat was certainly a big part of the problem, but they also lost pressure in their irrigation system recently and were both troubleshooting that and running hoses to the most critical plants. Really sad to see what had happened, but they were optimistic they could recover. Not immediately, but for next season things looks pretty good. And the problems are limited to the garden area; the rest of the arboretum is in good shape (though the grass is very dry).
The paperbark maples have always been a favorite, and this one had filtered sunlight on the base of the trunk, so I took a shot with the 32mm lens and Phase One back. I used a fall of 10mm on the lens to frame the tree without any distortions.
I say “filtered sunlight” but of course I mean “through the haze of smoke.”
A storm system came in later in the day, and pushed out all the hot air and smoke and it looks like a little rain is in the forecast. The folks at the arboretum will be happy about that.