Above is a nice shot of the Nancy Yahr Memorial Children's Garden ("Pollinator's Paradise") taken recently from a hot air balloon above the gardens. Dennis and Gena (RBG volunteers) floated over last week in the balloon I featured in a recent blog (photographed by a RBG volunteer on the ground!) and took some nice shots of the gardens. They sure bypassed paying admissions but we'll catch up with them shortly regarding this flagrant trespassing in our air space. That garden is filling in nicely and we're seeing lots of butterflies on these sunny days in that colorful space. It was relatively quiet today with a small grounds staff and a handful of volunteers. However, the gardens were quite busy with visitors which was great to observe. We had a nice soaking rain overnight that amounted to about 6/10" but combined with rains from last week, the gardens were nice and damp. It was one of the few days since May that we haven't had to run any irrigation or set up sprinklers. Below is the double perennial sunflower (Helianthus x multiflorus 'Sunshine Daydream') in the sunken garden looking sharp. These blooms are almost 4" in diameter and the plant is about 5' tall or so (clumping).
Kay (above) and Terri (below) did a great job weeding the peony (Paeonia) bed along Palmer Drive and then shifted over to the Potter Daylily Collection which needed their attention as well. With recent rains, the weeds have made a comeback but at least they are relatively easy to pull! Dr. Gredler and Bill O. came in to do their mowing and both Mary and Roy W. stopped by this morning to do more planting in the shade garden. Mary W. was in for some office work and helped lead a tour out in the gardens. Ron K. was in the woodland walk this morning for clean-up and some perennial planting. Karen M. was in to tidy in the Japanese garden all morning but otherwise, it was fairly quiet.
The grounds staff consisted of Terry, Janice and myself. Both Terry and Janice had push mowing duties and worked on a variety of projects too. Terry also planted shrubs, sheared, watered containers and did a nice round with the blower to tidy up paths. Janice also did plenty of weeding, did the cutting display, watered, staked and tidied in many locations. I had a presentation (via phone) this morning and had some meetings and a tour. It was a "quick day" for sure. We hope to have a busy weekend as the weather looks quite favorable. Below are more recent images in the gardens (identified under each image).
'The Rocket' ligularia (Ligularia stenocephala) - perennial
'Jester' ornamental millet (Pennisetum glaucum) - annual
'Blonde Ambition' blue grama grass (Bouteloua gracilis) - perennial
'Sylphid' plume (Celosia argentea plumosa) - annual
'Persian Carpet' zinnia (Zinnia haageana) - annual
the raked "sea" in the Japanese gardens
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