Plant Sale Almost Ready

Another beautiful day as far as the weather was concerned. This is the weather I could live in year round (nights in the 50s and days in the 70s). Sign me up. Above are some of our borrowed wagons ready to put in to service this Friday when the sale starts for RBG Friends Members from 9 am until 5 pm (10% off the duration of the sale for RBG Members). Directly above is a nice shot in the Japanese garden that will have a "re-dedication" event next week to note the improvements and hopefully secure more support for this popular garden area. We had a good dozen or so volunteers show up to help with the plant sale preparations (thanks Barb, Bev, Bonnie, Darlene, Olive, Dennis, Ellen, Pearl, Don, Audra, Cathy, Jenny and Luis!). They worked on a wide variety of tasks including pricing perennials, tagging shrubs, watering, unloading deliveries, organizing plants, setting up our bulb offerings, etc. We have another group coming in tomorrow too. Marianne was the "master of orchestration" and kept everyone moving along. It was a nice group of volunteers and many were veterans of this process. Dennis went out in the gardens first to collect the last 11 butterfly art projects for the auction this Sunday (1 pm - 3 pm) at the Parker Education Center. To the right is the dinosaur kale (Brassica oleracea 'Lacinato') that is catching lots of attention this time of year with steel grey/blue, puckered leaves and a strong presence in our blue/yellow theme. Other volunteers included Dr. Gredler, Bill O., Dr. Yahr and Jumbo Jim had four RECAPPERS with him today to continue tidying up of the Japanese garden.

The staff also kept quite busy today. Above and to the left is Terry who was pruning boxwood (Buxus 'Green Velvet') hedges today with Marv. The guys also did lots of watering and spent some quality time in the Japanese garden touching up many of the sheared specimens as needed. Big John and Pat went on a road trip to pick up plants for the plant sale and returned with close to 1,000 nice perennials that will be in the sale. Both guys then moved on to weeding, container watering and some general watering as well. Marianne was out in the plant sale all day and may have a repeat performance tomorrow (see Marianne to the right with three of her tagging ladies). Directly below are Don and Pearl helping to tag shrubs. They also take care of their own garden space out in the gardens and it looks the best it ever has this year. I've shown it many times on the blog. Further below is a bee working on the turtlehead (Chelone obliqua) in the sunken garden today. It was interesting to watch the bees force themselves entirely in to these interestingly-shaped flowers and note the huge pollen sacs on this bee! I worked with Jenny today on getting out more shrub signs for the plant sale and bounced between some other time-sensitive tasks. I was able to get out in the gardens and took lots of pictures as I strolled. We have some small projects occuring that I had to check on and it was nice to see another healthy crowd enjoying the gardens. As the first Wednesday of the month, it was free admission day and we saw plenty of visitors of all ages enjoying the gardens. The free admission days have been very well attended and I'm sincerely pleased to see so many people at the gardens. However, the intent of the free days was to target a demographic that may not have the resources to pay admission or become a RBG member. That's very important to us and we want everyone to have access to the gardens. However, we also see lots of garden clubs, smaller groups and "others" that don't fit that target demographic that are also taking advantage of those days. That's the way it goes but as a struggling non-profit, we rely heavily on all financial support, which of course includes admissions and memberships. To the right are the fruits on the female fringetree (Chionanthus virginicus) that has beautiful, wispy white flowers in mid-spring and this nice showing of fruits this time of year. This small tree is great as a hardy understory tree in part shade and both the male and female have nice white flowers and get a clear yellow fall color. To the left are some mallards (heads down) scrounging for food or just "mooning" me....I think we've seen the most wildlife here this year. I have some neat hummingbird photos (recent) from Santos that I'll share tomorrow. Speaking of wildlife, check out this chipmunk to the right working on a tomato. I watched this guy eat half this "tennis ball-sized" tomato in about 20 seconds!

We're continuing our promotion of upcoming events that include the Ornamental Grasses talk by Nancy Nedveck of The Flower Factory on September 28th (6 pm - 8 pm). We also still have room on our October 6th Bus Trip up to Madison, WI. We'll be seeing Allen Centennial Gardens (UW-Madison campus), Olbrich Botanical Gardens (Madison) and we'll also stop at The Flower Factory for some late season perennial purchases. The itinerary is on our website and we hope to have a full bus. Contact me with any questions at (608) 754-1779. We also have a neat travelling opportunity to the Netherlands next April that may be of interest. Below are two visitors today enjoying the view across the pond from the North Point garden. At the bottom is the woody, spiny fruit capsule of the sweet gum (Liquidambar styraciflua). We have one of the larger, Northernmost specimens that is about 35' tall. Known for awesome fall color of yellows, oranges, purples, reds, etc., this tree also has a long history in the lumber industry. The bark is quite textural and gave rise to the other common name, "alligator-wood". It is called sweet gum because pioneers would peel the bark, collect the thick, sweet resin underneath and chew it like gum. Interesting. More plant sale preparations tomorrow.