A Day Of Deliveries

It was a crazy day of deliveries for the Fall Plant Sale (see our website for more event details) and the weather turned hot and sticky quickly! I hope we get that rain tomorrow but as always, we wont count on it. Above are the Grumpies unloading our second to last delivery of mums this morning. These will only be $8 (plus tax) by the way! We had some great help with this delivery and some of the others later in the day. We also had deliveries today of shrubs, asters and large load of perennials. Ron W. and Rollie M. made a trip for our borrowed plant sale wagons (thanks Flower Factory!) and some other plants for the sale. It was a productive day for both the pre-plant sale and ultimately out in the gardens. I reminded the volunteers today that while the plant sale is an important fundraiser (one of our top 3), we still have many visitors this time of year and need to keep everything looking nice and tidy (which it does of course!). Below are some of the many shrubs being offered for the sale as well. We had some great help unloading these shrubs and hope to "unload" them at the sale as well. The hydrangea (Hydrangea paniculata) in the foreground is the 'Little Lime' variety and looks sharp. We are trying to group both shrubs and perennials by full sun or shade preferences. Further below are some other recent shots from the gardens.

shrubberies for the fall plant sale

'Stripe It Rich' golden Hakone grass (Hakonechloa macra) - perennial

colorful annuals in the "Pollinator's Paradise" (note colorful, raised planter)

'Korean Snow' plantain lily (Hosta) blooms - perennial

'October Skies' aromatic aster (Aster oblongifolius) - perennial

Our Monday volunteers kept busy today and as mentioned above, many helped with unloading duties over the course of the morning. Above are Ron P. (left) and Larry H. raking along with Gene (below) this morning. The guys had no trouble filling their cart with leaves and other debris. It will only get worse as the weather heads in to fall but we're at least keeping the paths fairly clear on a day to day basis. Lloyd helped water mums with Mary W. (who did lots more watering out in the sale). Lloyd later moved on to leaf collection as well. The second photo down shows Bob C. (driving) and Ron B.out in the gardens where they were bringing in the sun garden art projects for processing prior to their auction this Sunday at 1 pm. Dick H. helped bring in the stakes from these suns and did some runs to the dump as well. Eva spent the morning in the sunken garden tidying up and came back with some monstrous loads of leaves and debris. Stan (third photo down) spent time working on repairing the bamboo in the Ma Chii' window (fern & moss garden). He also did some gardening and is a huge asset in the Japanese garden. Ron W. and Rollie went on their double road trip (much appreciated) and the quartet of carpenters (Ron Y., Dave, Vern and Jim) continued making their three new, custom cedar benches. Maury ran some errands for us and both Gary and Pat had label duties including some inventorying and creating new signage. We also saw Deb G., Janice, Elsa, Del, Dr. Yahr, Kris K., Gerry B. and many others. Art H. organized a breakout meeting of our Horticultural Therapy Committee this afternoon which also included Mary W., Karen B. and Elaine W.

The grounds staff had a sweaty day with plenty of watering and plant unloading. Terry was off today. Big John set up a lot of sprinklers and kept them moving around the gardens. He also planted mums, watered containers, helped with deliveries and worked on some other odds and ends. Larry ran irrigation, push mowed, helped with unloading and watered as well. Cindy worked on various hand watering duties, tidying, plant unloading and more watering at the end of the day. I spent most of the day at the Horticulture Center helping with deliveries and preparing for our pricing teams later in the week. I will be "living and breathing" the fall plant sale over the course of this week. Below are some other shots of interest from today.