Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Significant Visitor Traffic Today

The past couple of weeks have seen significant visitation at the gardens. As our seasonal displays peak and the weather stays nice, we traditionally see more visitors. However, I can't say that I've seen more people coming thru on a day to day basis. We accomplished a lot today and the three "flood workers" replaced gravel paths that were affected by the flooding. Marv, Marianne, Terry and Jerry kept busy out in the gardens and we'll have to shift to more watering soon if we don't get some rain. The plant above is an interesting Chinese aster (Callistephus chinensis) called 'Hulk'. The actual flower is the white with yellow center with the green "petals" being bracts (modified leaves). This annual gets 24" tall with 4" wide blooms and is a wonderful, long-lasting cut flower. Who says beauty can't be subtle like this!?

Next week will see 2,000 mums, 1500 asters and 20,000 bulbs rolling in for our fall plant sale. The following week will include deliveries of perennials, roses and shrubs. It's hard to believe that this will be our 10th Fall Plant Sale. With our current financial situation (yes, please send a donation, patronize the plant sale, purchase a membership or all of the above!), we really need a successful event. The plant to the right is an interesting annual called 'Fat Spike' amaranth (Amaranthus caudatus) that certainly has an interesting flower form. Reaching 36" in height, this plant should be mass planted and is easy to grow from seed. The orange and blue theme was a rousing success and I already have the color scheme figured out for next year...

No comments: