Another Day In Paradise

It was another beautiful, sunny day around 80 degrees F. We've had a lot of those this summer although today, the warm up was gradual from an overnight low of 48 degrees F! It's been quite chilly in the mornings but perfect for gardening. The cooler summer has really kept our flower colors quite vivid like the 'Fizzy Rose' cosmos (Cosmos bipinnatus) above which is part of our Cosmos Collection. It's not hard to take good pictures around the gardens and I'm happy to report another day with many visitors out in the gardens. Some rain this weekend would be nice but seems unlikely yet again. Both grounds staff and volunteers had a great day. Below are more photos from this morning.

The "Pollinator's Paradise" themed Nancy Yahr Memorial Children's Garden is looking dynamite as our All-America Selections Display Garden as well!

the red-themed wall planting continues to catch my eye every time I pass by...

the North point garden looks nice with this dark theme and is ready for a small wedding tomorrow

'Little Lemon' goldenrod (Solidago hybrida 'Dansolitlem') looking good at only 18" tall

Our volunteers kept busy today. When I arrived at 6:30 am, Bill O. was already out mowing and getting a jump on the day. Dr. Gredler came in later to do his extensive Friday mowing prior to a busy weekend of weddings. Above are Marianne and Marv who continue to do a wonderful job on our two moss gardens and beyond. They are great workers and thankfully minimize their public displays of affection. Ron K. (directly below) did another nice job in the woodland walk garden and continues to keep up with one of our largest garden spaces. Kathy and Eva weeded in the Scottish garden, arboretum and the Potter Daylily Collection. I sent Kay (second photo down) on a significant weeding mission near the North point garden where she battled weeds as tall as she was (and won!). The third photo down shows Mary W. with 'Thailand Giant' elephant ears (Colocasia gigantea). Mary has been a huge help recently in the herb garden and Jungle Garden among other duties. Maury ran errands for us today including picking up boxes for our looming Fall Plant Sale (see www.rotarybotanicalgardens.org for details!). Dick H. ran some loads to the dump and we also saw Dr. Yahr, Jan R. and many others today.

We had a small grounds staff today (Terry, Janice, Pat and me). We did quite a bit of watering and preparations for a busy weekend. Terry push mowed, set up many sprinklers, watered containers, edged flower beds and tidied up all the wedding garden sites. Pat (half day) also push mowed, weeded and worked on many other projects. Janice also watered, did the cutting display, helped water containers and had myriad other duties. I was able to get out in the gardens for some herbicide work but had plenty of desk work as well.