Hoping For Rain!

We have a 60% chance of rain tonight and I hope we get a nice soaking. We've been lucky all year with fairly consistent rainfall although we've had a recent, 2 week long dry spell that has resulted in lots of supplemental watering around the gardens. Mother Nature is an affordable sprinkler that I hope will visit the gardens tonight! Regardless, we did plan for no rain by soaking down as much of the garden as possible throughout the day. Nice shot above of the 'Grandpa Ott' morning glory (Ipomoea purpurea) which sure doesn't mind chain link fencing. Peer in to the center of that flower for awhile...mesmerizing isn't it!? We had a nice solid day out in the gardens with both staff and volunteers accomplishing many tasks during both the comfortable morning and the sticky hot afternoon. Below are some other images from today.

'Ruby Ribbons' switchgrass (Panicum virgatum 'RR1') - perennial

'Wallowa Mountains' sandwort - perennial (slowly engulfing this rock)

'Blue River II' rose mallow (Hibiscus moscheutos) - perennial

The grounds staff became "sweatier" as the day progressed. It was around 70 degrees F this morning and over 90 degrees F by mid afternoon. There was at least a slight breeze. The gang had a busy day. Cindy (above) was in for a half day of watering, weeding and other duties. Here she's moving signs out to be more visible for our New Guinea impatiens trial (Impatiens hawkeri). Pat (below) was also in for a half day and also did plenty of watering (gazebo garden below). He's also been repairing some of our sprinklers and is quite crafty on coming up with new ideas and improvements. Big John ran irrigation most of the day, had sprinklers going in many areas, watered containers and he and Terry did a great job preparing a pad for a new garden bench near the gazebo. Terry, aside from overlapping with container watering and bench preparations with John, also had many sprinklers to rotate around the gardens too. He also dug out some larger weeds in select areas. Cheryl watered, potted up some donated daylilies (Hemerocallis), weeded and tidied multiple areas. I spent some time sifting and sorting through our remaining plants (yet to be planted) and we'll plant them soon to clear the yard for incoming Fall Plant Sale items. The second image down shows the flower (umbel) of the bronze fennel (Foeniculum vulgare 'Smokey').

'Smokey' bronze fennel (Foeniculum vulgare)

Wednesdays are always good for volunteers. Eva (above) worked in a couple areas and ended up in the English Cottage garden (seen above) for weeding and tidying. Mary D. joined her later in the morning and the ladies accomplished some significant work. Betty H. (directly below) was here this morning to tidy her two areas and we also had Mary and Myrt (second photo down, Myrt in orange) tackle multiple areas for weeding and leaf clean-up. The ladies also did some tidying in the Japanese garden. Maury F. ran some errands for us and Tom C. came in to finish some electrical work in the woodland walk garden. We also saw Kris K., Bill O. and many others. Further below are some additional images from today (identified under each image).