Action Packed Tuesday

Today was very productive as we had a larger-than-expected turnout of volunteers which ended up working out quite well. With the threat of rain tomorrow, I think many volunteers decided to come in and help today. At one point this morning, we had 15 volunteers in action which is remarkable for a Tuesday. Lots of planting was accomplished today with another 4,000 plants being planted by both staff and volunteers. Above is the start of some of our Oriental poppies (Papaver orientale) which are doing well in the English cottage garden. Not sure which variety this is but the flowers combine nice with surrounding ornamental onions (Allium) as well! Below are some other photos from today.

Golden Shadows pagoda dogwood (Cornus alternifolia 'W. Stackman')

'Ghost' hybrid painted fern (Athyrium hybrida) in a nice grouping

We had lots of staff and volunteer activities today and also had some VIPs arrive as well. Some relatives of the famous WI hosta breeder Eunice Fisher stopped by today. Eunice also helped found the American Hosta Society. Above is Janice with Ed Fisher (95 year old son of Eunice) and Kathy and Jenny (far right), two great granddaughters of Eunice. Both Olbrich Botanical Gardens (Madison, WI) and RBG are trying to feature the entire Eunice Fisher collection of hostas and the Fisher family (led by Jenny) is helping to research and acquire rare Fisher hosta varieties as we share/swap/procure/install additional varieties over the coming months. We were brought hostas today and we sent the gang off with some too for Olbrich! Janice gave them a tour and this trio were great to talk with this morning. Dr. Gredler (seen below) was in for mowing as was Bill O. The second photo down shows Betty (left) and Renee weeding this morning and the ladies moved on to other areas as well. Kay planted and tidied her area in the shade garden this morning and both Roy and Mary came in for more planting in the shade garden. Kelley and Sue (third photo down...Kelley with her eyes shut) did a great job tidying and planting their section of the shade garden and put lots of color out there. Ron K. tidied up the woodland walk garden and both Eva and Kathy worked on weeding out two areas in anticipation of planting later this week. Vicki and Steve (fourth photo down) were in almost all day and they single handedly (actually four hands) planted 3,000 impatiens in that berm! Cora and Jane planted over 20 large containers this morning and will return for more next week. Karen came in for work in the Japanese garden and Urban (fifth photo down) did some pruning. Vern (sixth photo down) came in for painting duties on a repaired gate for the Scottish garden. Bob T. was in most of the day for his air edging duties and we also saw Dr. Yahr (seventh photo down), Gary S., Maury, Mary Kay, Janet M. and many others. Our Home Garden Tour committee met early in the evening as well (Barb, Bill, Janet, Marcia, Tom, Sue, Jean and Cora). Mark down July 12th for this great event and see our website for more details! Tickets are on sale now at both K&W Greenery and RBG. It was a crazy day but everyone kept up (me, just barely).

Dr. Gredler ("Superintendent of Sod")

Betty (left) and Renee

Kelley (left) and Sue

Vicki, Steve and 3,000 impatiens

Urban (apparently didn't get the memo about not wearing dark socks...)

Vern the painter

RBG Founder - Dr. Robert Yahr

I spent the morning keeping ahead of six planting projects and was lucky to do so! I also made a run for more plants and we'll have plenty to install over the remainder of the week and at our Saturday Volunteer Workday (June 7, meet at 8 am at the Parker Education Center). Larry checked water features, ran irrigation, push mowed, weed whipped and watered. Pat also push mowed, cut back bulb foliage and helped with some other projects. Big John did quite a bit of rototilling and bed preparations as well as watering and preparing space for a new bench. Cindy tidied multiple areas and moved on to a significant planting project with Cheryl who also had areas to tidy as well prior to planting. Janice worked on planting more of the Thomas Jefferson Collection, did the cutting display, met with our VIP guests, gave them a tour and also watered among other duties. I brought back more plants to replace those I took out of the holding yard earlier for planting! More plant shots below! Above is 'Batik' iris (Iris germanica) which is beautiful and hard to photograph!