More Of The Same

Today was another rainy day for the most part with some gaps between the showers. The sun made a brief appearance here and there although it was dark clouds most of the day. I had today off but came in to touch base with the grounds staff and Grumpies. Nice shot above demonstrating Bill O.'s pruning abilities on some weigelas (Weigela florida) near one of our entry signs. Weigelas have a looser form usually but shearing is effective in making them fill out (if you like the "meatball look"!). Bill did these to keep the sign visible. Below is the 'Savannah Supreme' plantain lily (Hosta) in the gazebo garden with neat, variable streaking in the leaves. Larry, Janice and Big John were in early today although John hasn't been feeling the best and headed home early as it was a downpour this morning. Janice worked on running new labels out and some other projects. Larry had a list of things to do that didn't include irrigation! Before I left, I saw Jim, Bob A., Dave and Vern and also saw Dennis working on paths. The carpenters did a great job on their bridge (see directly below) near the new waterfall in the Japanese garden and will finish it up next week if the weather cooperates. Suzy came in to weed but I'm not sure how long she stayed with the showers. I work a half-day tomorrow then am heading to Milwaukee. I'm going to try to get to Boerner Botanical Gardens if time allows and see how things are going there. This rain, while unfortunately causing severe floods in other areas, is most welcome at RBG and this soaker will be long-appreciated as we head in to a potentially dry August. Unfortunately the "skeeterz" will respond to this moisture too...
Further below, I'm using some photographs from yesterday that were taken in the Ornamental Edible / Compact Vegetable display. The top picture is the 'Britton' beefsteak plant (Perilla frutescens). I've grown many different perillas in the past but this one looks the neatest to me. Already at 3' tall, this herb has green textured leaves with maroon undersides. Cultivated in the Far East, the leaves of this mint family herb can be used young in salads and have a mildly sweet flavor. The leaves, when rubbed, smell like a basil/mint combination (not bad...not good...interesting). Further below are more compact tomato plants (Lycopersicon esculentum). Althought the fruit hasn't ripened on either of these ('Totem' at the top and 'Red Robin', ummm, at the bottom), the plants themselves are about basketball sized and very suitable in a container where staking would not be necessary. As determinate varieties (and all our compact tomatoes are determinates), they produce all their tomatoes at one time (and are naturally more compact) as opposed to producing on sprawling vines throughout the summer (termed indeterminate). It's been fun to experiment with some of these including that 'Micro-Tom' variety I featured in the blog yesterday. I'll try to blog tomorrow if possible but will certainly catch up this weekend. Check out our website at www.rotarybotanicalgardens.org for upcoming opportunities!