We've noticed lots of hummingbirds lately and this one above was caught with the camera of Santos out in the gardens a couple of days ago. Today started with a light drizzle and fluctuated between a light mis
ting and a moderate downpour. The gardens will benefit from the rain although the plant sale has not received that benefit today as customers have been few and far between. I was able to get on the local radio (WCLO) to promote the sale but mentioned that an umbrella might be a nice shopping accessory! Marianne came in this morning to get money settled and came back later to fill in for me due to some meetings. The sale has been slow to say the least with one more day to go. I was excited to see the plant to the left out at Jean's Earthspirit Farm yesterday. This i
s the Arizona fuchsia (
Zauschneria arizonica) which is hardy to zone 5 and likes heat and tough soils. She had it all over the place and it has overwintered for her and was blooming very strongly. The masses of orange/red tubular flowers were very conspicuous and I'm determined to use lots of it next year in our alpine garden to extend color in to the fall. If you like orange/red in the shade garden, plant Italian arum (
Arum italicum) which will form these fruit clusters (see to the right) in September and offer this color until snowfall. These look very similar to our native Jack-in-the-pulpit fruiting structures. WARNING! Italian arum is an invasive in the Pacific Northwest. See
www.westerninvasivesnetwork.org/pdfs/factsheets/ItalianArumFactSheet.pdf for more information. The leaves of this plant are pretty neat too (see below) and will foliate in very late winter. The foliage is quite ornamental and the fruits are a real "eyecatcher"! See the bottom photo of a nice clump of fruits that I saw at Swarthmore College this summer.
Little Jerry mowed today (mostly in the rain) and Dr. Gredler was able to do some seeding and ran a load of debris to the dump. Although it was consistent rain from 7:30 am until 2 pm, Bill and Larry went out in rain gear and cleaned up debris and worked on some faulty water spigots. Janice helped run the plant sale, worked on labels and kept busy with office work. I've been at my desk catching up on various tasks including ordering the last of our bulbs for planting in the coming weeks. We also saw Maury, Vern, Urban, Rose, Chuck, Margaret, Gary, Doris, Patti and Sally today and all volunteered as the weather or their situations allowed. I finally cleaned my pool at home (below) but wont have much time to use it with cool weather approaching.
Just kidding. This is at Chanticleer in Wayne, PA.
We've noticed lots of hummingbirds lately and this one above was caught with the camera of Santos out in the gardens a couple of days ago. Today started with a light drizzle and fluctuated between a light mis
ting and a moderate downpour. The gardens will benefit from the rain although the plant sale has not received that benefit today as customers have been few and far between. I was able to get on the local radio (WCLO) to promote the sale but mentioned that an umbrella might be a nice shopping accessory! Marianne came in this morning to get money settled and came back later to fill in for me due to some meetings. The sale has been slow to say the least with one more day to go. I was excited to see the plant to the left out at Jean's Earthspirit Farm yesterday. This i
s the Arizona fuchsia (Zauschneria arizonica) which is hardy to zone 5 and likes heat and tough soils. She had it all over the place and it has overwintered for her and was blooming very strongly. The masses of orange/red tubular flowers were very conspicuous and I'm determined to use lots of it next year in our alpine garden to extend color in to the fall. If you like orange/red in the shade garden, plant Italian arum (Arum italicum) which will form these fruit clusters (see to the right) in September and offer this color until snowfall. These look very similar to our native Jack-in-the-pulpit fruiting structures. WARNING! Italian arum is an invasive in the Pacific Northwest. See www.westerninvasivesnetwork.org/pdfs/factsheets/ItalianArumFactSheet.pdf for more information. The leaves of this plant are pretty neat too (see below) and will foliate in very late winter. The foliage is quite ornamental and the fruits are a real "eyecatcher"! See the bottom photo of a nice clump of fruits that I saw at Swarthmore College this summer.
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