Seed Orders, Etc.

I spent a good portion of the day continuing my seed ordering efforts. My hope is to have all the seed ordering complete by the end of the month so we can organize our seeds with custom labels and sort them by grower in early February. With temperatures warming to around 40 degrees F and some sporadic sunshine, we had a pretty good turnout of volunteers as is typical for a Monday. The top image is a portion of our entrance sign that was removed to make room for the new digital sign. This symbol was created before I started at RBG and still exists in a couple locations around the gardens. I always liked that graphic and note the arched bridge and gazebo on there. Years ago Rotary International had some issues with RBG using their cog wheel logo (center of that symbol) and we had to stop using it in any way at the gardens after being strongly "discouraged" from doing so (long story). Nice shot of the arched bridge to the left.

The image directly above shows Larry H. (left) and Dennis (right) out in the gardens removing stakes that were part of the Holiday Lights Show event. Larry and Dennis are relatively new Grumpies but have fit in quite well and work nicely together. Marv and Dick W. were also out in the gardens bringing back some HLS remnants for processing. Rollie helped the guys out in the gardens as well. Urban and Pat were out doing more pruning and we'll do another "tour" shortly to identify more pruning priorities. Bill O. helped tidy up after the pruning team and also helped repair our snowblower with Dick H. and Larry (right). We've had recent issues with both our snowblowers but they are now ready to rock and roll. To the above right is Luis who has started assisting Gary with producing woody plant labels for the collection that he just inventoried. Gary and Luis caught up to me quickly today and the labels continue to consistently churn out. Marianne was in to organize some brochures and she also helped prepare some label stakes in advance of sign installation. Del was working on some carpentry tasks while Vern, Bob A. and Jim continued to cut and process the large pvc pipes for my elevated, horizontal planters. Further below and to the left is Vern continuing this work. We'll paint these pipes very shortly. We also saw Maury (ran many errands for us), Kelli, Polly, Chuck S. and others today. Directly below are some geese in their 'V' formation headed over the gardens. The other image shows all the trash and recycle bins from the gardens that will be repaired and painted before going back out in the gardens this spring. I would estimate that we have about 85% of the HLS show taken down and processed. There are still some items (mostly frozen in the ground) out there but we also have lights left up around the main building for a function this weekend. We'll try to get those down early next week if the weather cooperates. That warm weather allowed for a pretty good run of takedown efforts for the show although we know it could have easily been the opposite side of the weather spectrum too. We're starting to prepare for more indoor work as we continue with winter weather. We brought in the first eight obelisks (right) for a new coat of paint (blue). Dr. Gredler has started this conversion already although he pointed out the bottom of the obelisks (seen directly below) and noted they have already been blue and orange in the past! I think some of our oldest obelisks are going on their fifth color! We'll keep up with repainting and staining efforts over the coming months knowing that spring isn't as far away as it might seem. The Bonsai Basics lecture will be held this Wednesday, January 18th from 6:30 pm - 8 pm at the Parker Education Center. Karl Bethke of the Badger Bonsai Society will be giving the lecture. RBG Friends Members are $5 while others are asked for a $10 participation fee. Kris has put together a nice lecture series and a dynamite spring symposium (March 24). Check out www.rotarybotanicalgardens.org for more information. At the bottom are some of our HLS displays awaiting final storage.