94% Humidity

The weather was beautiful over the weekend with plenty of sunshine and some mild temperatures. Today started where Friday left off; rain and drizzle. It is sticky out there but we had a good group out there working thru the day. Nice shot to the left of the fall color of the fragrant abelia (Abelia mosanensis). I'm surprised more nurseries don't carry this shrub as it has fragrant blooms, nice fall color and forms a nice rounded shrub at 5' tall and 5' wide. To the right is the black chokeberry (Aronia melanocarpa) with some nice fall color. Not sure what variety but they should be selected for the best fall color.

Grumpies worked on hauling mums, cutting back perennials, planting shrubs, collecting debris, filling luminaries, carpentry projects and many odd jobs. Thanks to Maury, Rollie, Del, Mike, Bob A., Ron, Roger, Gary, Dr. Gredler, Dr. Yahr, John, Dave, Jim, Vern, Bob C., Charlie, Urban and Doug. We also saw Rose and had Mary here helping Marianne and Janice with lights. Terry and Marv toughed it out and put out lights displays in the drizzle and emptied some of the last of our larger containers of soil and mums. Larry and John planted yews and Larry helped some irrigation guys (Evergreen Irrigation, Rockford) get started on our new garden. Larry continued to test displays thru the afternoon as Janice and Marianne continued their repair miracles on our aging light strands. The image below (taken last week) is of the fruiting structure of the seven-son flower (Heptacodium miconioides), which is actually a large shrub that blooms white very late in the season (late Sept. / early Oct.). The structure below is a capsule with sepals that turns rose-purple and adds another three weeks of interest to this already interesting plant. I would recommend this large shrub (native to China) many times over for its great characteristics, low-maintenance and adaptability.