Poised & Ready

Today was another crazy day that combined plant sale preparations and garden activity. My blog is being posted a bit later than usual as we had our very late bulb delivery (for the sale) finally show up at 3 pm. Big thanks to John, Janice, Jenny and Pat R. for helping with the quick processing. Both staff and volunteers were involved with both activities and some bounced between garden work and helping set up the plant sale. The parking lot at the Horticulture Center was full all morning and we easily had well over 40 volunteers at one point in the morning. It's nice to see the dedicated teamwork that exists not only with garden tasks but when we are preparing for these larger events. We'll have volunteers heavily involved with the Fall Plant Sale facilitation as well. See our website for more details on the sale which is set up and looks impressive! Above is the 'Alcazar' torch lily (Kniphofia sp.) in the entrance garden which really caught my eye today. These were started back in spring and are just starting to bloom splendidly. Not far away from this torch lily I saw the Autumn crocus (Colchicum autumnale 'The Giant') emerging as seen below. These already sent up foliage and spring and like to bloom in September (not a true crocus though!).

We had a dynamic group of volunteers helping with the plant sale this morning. Directly below is Bob K., who along with Lloyd, watered all the mums and asters which is at least a daily chore but sometimes a twice daily task! The second photo down shows Tina (left) and Cindy who were helping in the plant sale with tagging and pricing duties. Tina also did some watering. Other "taggers" today included Alice C., Magda, Sandy C. (who took a bee sting for the team), Pat R., Shirley H., Sidley and Ellen. The third photo down shows Sidley, Pat R. and Alice (balancing) from left to right in the asters (only $5 each!). The next photo down shows Rollie (left) and Ron putting up the temporary parking lot with Lloyd after Big John pounded in all the posts (in very dry soil). We had some great help in the sale and will have around 25 volunteers helping each day of the sale (for RBG member only tomorrow).

Work out in the gardens continued with Grumpette and Grumpy help. The Grumpettes, including Marilyn (above), Vicki (below), Mary R. (second photo down), Karla and Eva all worked in the front entrance garden tidying up the orange collection with removals, snipping, weeding, etc. The ladies did a great job. The fourth photo down shows Magda who planted in her garden area after spending the morning helping in the plant sale. Now that's dedication! Betty H. was also in to tend her two garden areas. The Grumpies worked on many projects and out in the gardens, they did quite a bit of leaf collection. The third photo down shows Ron P. (left) and Bob C. in the sunken garden collecting leaves with Ron B. (off camera). Larry H. and Steve were also out collecting leaves near the fern & moss garden. Dave T., Vern, Jim and Ron Y. worked on the new benches but spent time repairing and checking over the carts for the plant sale. Dick H. ran to the dump, did some welding repairs and helped with other duties as well. Dr. Gredler was in for mowing duties and we also saw Gary, Dr. Yahr, Marsha M., Jan R., Jean S., Barb T., Joy O. and many others. Lisa I. came in to check over the daylily (Hemerocallis) collection (her baby) and flagged spots for removals and new additions. Del and his daughter planned and prepared a great pizza party in appreciation of the Grumpies and Grumpettes. It was well received and much appreciated. The fifth photo down shows our full break room this morning!

The grounds staff was lean and mean today. Cheryl was here for a half day and focused mainly on watering and container watering. I'm not sure she had much time for gardening but the watering has become vital. Larry ran irrigation all day, push mowed, helped with plant sale set-up, watered containers, put up sprinklers and bounced between myriad projects. Big John was the sprinkler maestro again and covered a lot of real estate. He also was heavily involved with plant sale preparations, container watering and worked on some other projects as well. I was able to check on everyone out in the gardens but spent most of my time in the plant sale and with making signage for the sale. Jenny and Janice worked the sale all day and the majority of their duties revolved around preparations. Below are some additional images from today.