The Best (& Busiest) Day Of The Year

My blog title today refers to the fact that we had perfect weather with sunshine, a light breeze and temperatures right around 70 degrees F. Just perfect! We also had more volunteers helping today than I've seen since last fall. The morning break room must have had over 30 volunteers and I'm not sure I would be able to remember everyone I saw this morning. I had to make a run for more plants this morning (Ahren's Acres, Brodhead, WI) for the last of our plant sale plants and some for the grounds as well. I returned with all of our neat basils (Ocimum) and some other goodies as well. With everyone selling plants nowadays (including us!), always patronize your local garden centers and nurseries first!!! Janice had the tagging crew working at full speed. The top pictures show some of our many helpers today. We literally have over 30,000 plants that require their own labels and in some cases, their own color-coded pricing tags. This is a lot of work but our "many hands" approach worked well. Thanks to Ellen, Pearl, Don, Ruth Ann, Mary, Kathy, Magda, Glenna and all the people I'm forgetting! To the right is Bill O. doing a great job "meatballing" our boxwoods (Buxus hybrida 'Green Velvet') near the pergola in the French formal garden. Bill is a top notch pruner and we're lucky to have his talents.

When I returned to the Horticulture Center this morning with my load of plants, I found a full parking lot and the Grumpies also in full swing. Del and Ron Y. set up our temporary parking lot for the plant sale and moved on to some mulching. Bob C. was out "air edging" which involves a sharp spade and the redefinition of some of our beds in turf areas. Big John and Pat also worked on mulching projects this morning and transitioned to more painting. Pat continued work on the back porch and John has been working on the arched bridge. The guys are doing a fabulous job and the results are readily apparent. The gazebo will be our last target structure. Dr. Gredler was also in for mowing and some turf repair. Larry worked on may projects including quite a few related to the looming sale. Our Thursday "Grumpettes" included Marilyn, Mary R., Suzy, Karen and Donna (new). These ladies joined Jenny in the sunken garden and they did a great job tidying up before our first garden wedding of the season (this Saturday!). The ladies all then transitioned to the rose garden for similar tasks. Janice orchestrated the plant sale duties all day and Marianne was in later to help get the cash registers and other details ready for tomorrow. We also saw Bob T., Maury (ran many errands), Gary, Chuck S., Lori, Dr. Yahr, Deb G. and many others. My memory was seriously tested today with seeing so many great volunteers helping out! We're ready for our RBG Members Only pre-sale portion of the Spring Plant Sale tomorrow (9 am - 4 pm) at the Horticulture Center. Aside from my plant run and some major desk work, I was able to head out in the garden for two rounds of herbicide application. I kept my camera with me and took the photos above. The top photo shows some of our peonies (Paeonia) mixed with ornamental onions (Allium 'Purple Sensation') along Palmer Drive. Two photos up shows the nice white blooms of the Chardonnay Pearls slender deutzia (Deutzia gracilis 'Duncan') which has nice golden foliage as well. The buds of these white flowers stay rounded early in spring (hence the name Chardonnay Pearls) but open up nicely. Not many gardeners know deutzias but there are some nice varieties out there. Directly above is the hosta (Hosta) variety 'Percy' which I thought looked quite robust in our Hosta Hollow Garden. While we currently have about 400 varieties of hostas, I do hope to add another 200 varieties this year. The Wisconsin Hosta Society will be having a meeting/tour at the gardens in mid-June and I want to show off our "growing" collection (literally and figuratively!)! To the right are the fragrant white blooms of the golden black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia 'Frisia') in the English cottage garden. We have about six specimens of this tree around the gardens where they have been positioned for their bright coloration which is the most intense this time of year. The sweet fragrance of black locust is delightful. To the left are the bloom clusters on the red buckeye (Aesculus pavia). I've shown these blooms a couple times already this spring but make no apologies as I can't stop taking pictures of these bright flowers! Early hummingbirds should be targeting the blooms on this small-statured tree very shortly.

Tonight was the Local Artisan Fair at the gardens (4 pm - 8 pm). I'm sure it was a success as these types of events seem to continue to attract increased attendance each time we have them and the weather was perfect. With a nice forecast for Mother's Day, we expect to see some large crowds and our Mother's Day Brunch is almost sold out (500+ attendees). We hope all brunch attendees will then head over to the Spring Plant Sale! Although our white tulips (Tulipa) are done in front of the Parker Education Center, our white ornamental onions (Allium 'Mt. Everest') are blooming strong. To the right are some of the 500 that are currently blooming out front. These "puff balls on a stick" are quite architectural as they appear to be floating. We had the Horticulture Club from Jefferson (WI) High School come visit the gardens today and I was able to give them an introduction to the gardens. They looked like a nice group of kids and perhaps our next generation of garden workers, volunteers and supporters! Below are shots of the fern/moss garden (Ma Chii' in the distance) and the Japanese Garden respectively.