Rotary Botanical Gardens - Hort Blog: Prayers Answered

Right after I finished my blog yesterday complaining about the lack of rainfall...it rained. While it came down heavy at times, we ultimately had a good soaking with 1.7" coming down over a couple of hours. Overcast skies have made it humid today but nothing will be drying out for awhile! I sure sleep better at night after a good rainfall. Above is a nice shot of the English cottage garden today and below, the Thomas Jefferson Collection is looking great. It was nice to see some children from a summer camp (second photo down) enjoying that garden with a scavenger hunt provided by Kris K. and Megan. The next two photos down feature the Nancy Yahr Memorial Children's Garden which looks gorgeous with the "Pollinator's Paradise" theme for the second year in a row. This garden is comprised of a wide range of plant material with a very strong focus on All-America Selections (AAS) winners. In fact, this garden is also our AAS Display Garden and is entered in the AAS Landscape Display Contest with our goal of a three-peat, first place victory for RBG. Today was another productive one with many volunteers and staff keeping busy out in the gardens and at the Horticulture Center.

Thomas Jefferson Collection

same as above with kids!

The Pollinator's Paradise (above and below)

The impatiens trials are going well (above are 'Bounce' and 'Big Bounce' hybrids)

Grounds staff had a productive day including Big John with his fancy hip waders above. John was working on rebuilding a shoreline retaining wall and also helped push mow, repair path washouts, etc. Larry replaced irrigation heads, push mowed and checked over our water features. Pat (half day) worked on push mowing, path tidying and some other tasks. Cindy did some weeding and tidying in the formal gardens, terrace garden and shifted down to the Nancy Yahr Memorial Children's garden for more tidying (looks awesome! come see it now at peak!). Janice had a wide range of tasks including weeding, clean-up, the cutting display and getting ready for our Ice Cream Social tonight (volunteer event). I was able to tour the gardens and am buried in event closure (Home Garden Tour) and event preparations (Fall Plant Sale).

Our reliable Tuesday Corp of Volunteers showed up today. Above is Ron K. who continues to tidy and plant in the woodland walk garden. I said I'd mention in the blog that his garbage can in this photo is filled with 200 lbs of debris and he suggested I mention bowling balls....Regardless, it doesn't take Ron long to fill one of these! Kay (directly below) worked her weeding and tidying magic along the back of the shade garden along the sunken garden hedges. These areas have been relatively neglected and look great now. Eva and Kathy (next photo down) continued their weeding onslaught in the Potter Daylily Collection and continue to pull out lots of weedy grasses and thistles. The third photo down shows Cookie (left) and Resa out in the gardens. The ladies finished tidying up the North point garden, their assigned garden, and moved on to the alpine garden which really needed the attention. The fourth photo down shows Mary and Roy in the Jungle Garden. When they weren't leaning on their tools, they were a weeding whirlwind in the shade garden, Jungle Garden and beyond! The fifth photo down shows Vicki weeding along the periphery of the Nancy Yahr Memorial Children's Garden. It's amazing how quickly weeds will re-infiltrate an area and we're combing the entire garden now for the latest generation of weeds! Mary Kay put in significant time organizing the reference library and Bill O. was out for mowing duties. Urban came in to prune a weeping willow (Salix) near the shoreline and Maury ran some errands for us. We also saw Dr. Yahr, Bev D., Art H. and many others today... Further below are more plant photos from today.