Tuesday, May 6, 2014

Plant Sale Focus

 
Today was a beautiful day and I think I received my first light sunburn of the season.  The weather was perfect with sunshine all day long.  We had some great progress out in the Spring Plant Sale with another four loads delivered today.  Our Tree Sale processing will occur on Thursday with the arrival of all the trees.  Above is a shot of the perennials (organized nicely by Jenny today) and below are 150 small magnolias ready for a nice Mother's Day gift at only $15 each!    Janice, Jenny, Cindy, Cheryl and I spent the bulk of the day in the plant sale but also had help from Pat, Big John and Larry.  Larry and Cindy went on a road trip to pick up the plants seen below.  Everyone had duties too diverse to try to describe. It was a crazy morning out in the yard but we had some great help from Nancy N. (second photo down) and Mary D. (third photo down). Organizing the plants in a logical fashion is quite an art form and everyone did a great job today.  I continue to get pricing information processed with incoming orders and we'll be putting up more signs and information shortly.  With the RBG Friends Only sale on this Friday, we'll need to be ready.  Interested customers can become members on Friday if they like and walk right in to the sale for a 10% discount (for the duration of the sale).  The Tree Sale is open to the public on Friday from 9 am - 4 pm (no RBG member discount).  Further below are a few plant photographs I took today as I spread crabgrass preventer over turf areas that have been prone to that problem in the past.
 
 
 
 
species tulip (Tulipa tarda)
emerging 'Root Beer' coral bells (Heuchera)
Prairie Gem pear (Pyrus ussuriensis 'Mordak')
unfurling leaves of burnet (Sanguisorba tenuifolia)

The gardens were certainly not neglected today.  Pat spent his time air edging in the formal gardens and both John and Larry had garden tasks as well.  Above is Ron K. who spent almost the entire day working on mulching the woodland walk garden.  He did a great job and hauled/spread an amazing amount of mulch today.  Kay (below) worked her "clean-up kung fu" in multiple areas including the shade garden.  Eva and Kathy were also out in the gardens and did major clean-up around the sunken garden hedge of deer ravaged arborvitae (Thuja occidentalis).  Mary and Roy came in for weeding and tidying in the shade garden and were thorough as usual.  Bill O. came in for mowing and helped us unload incoming plant deliveries.  Maury ran errands for us and Stan came in for work in the Japanese garden.  Urban did some pruning and came back with some cartloads of debris.  The last photo is the snake's head fritillary (Fritillaria meleagris) looking sharp as it opens up this week. 


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