After everything, spring had arrived — and a week before opening day, Tizer Botanic Gardens and Arboretum was coursing with energy.
A half-dozen volunteers – friends, neighbors, kids — were raking the trails, picking up branches, watering shrubs, and laying straw to dry up the mud around the nursery. The greenhouses were packed with annuals and perennials, and trees, balled and bare-root, were crammed outside; a truck had delivered 1,300 the day before.
Belva Lotzer was on top of things: After more than two decades here, she understood that the operation has a certain rhythm and inertia. Soon, nearly everything would be in place: A few more deliveries would come in over the next week or so, and the trees and shrubs would have to be priced – not an inconsequential task. But her energetic staff had been around this block before, and at this point, she said, “it just steamrolls ahead.”
