Sunday, June 15, 2008

Whittling Away...


The before and after shots above sum up our productive Saturday work day. We had about 25 people show up to help plant our largest annual bed at Rotary Gardens. We put in about 6,000 annuals in this location and three other volunteers planted an additional 1,000 annuals in another location. It's nice to see our supply of "yet to be planted" diminish as a result of so much volunteer help. We'll continue to plant thru the coming weeks and are pleased with our progress thus far. More rain and flooding is on the way and will affect the gardens again. Our pond is on the rise and will probably surpass earlier "high water marks" by next Wednesday. Downtown Janesville is beginning to take on more water as well. Yes our lawns are all a lush green but what a price to pay as Mother Nature again shows us who's in charge!

I took the image at the top of the post at the home of Nancy, one of our RG volunteers. This is the "tumbleweed onion" (Allium schubertii). Planted as a bulb in October, it has enormous, 12-15" diameter bloom "spheres" in June. It is only 18" tall but packs a lot of punch. I feel it is marginally hardy and/or very touchy in terms of becoming perennial. We've had it bloom at Rotary Gardens but not last more than 2 years in the ground. What an "other wordly" look though!

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