Tuesday, September 9, 2014

Pre-Autumn Beauty


It was another beautiful day out in the gardens with lots of visitors enjoying a stroll.  We also had some visitors from England that seemed to enjoy their visit.  It was a sunny day around 77 degrees F with blue skies although much needed rain is looming for tomorrow.  Above is a clump of 'Heart of the Jungle' elephant ear (Colocasia esculenta) in the sunken garden and below are some containers nearby in that same space with 'Maurelii' red Abyssinian bananas (Ensete ventricosum) as centerpieces.  Our Extended Plant Sale Clearance (9 am -  2 pm) continued today with some success and moderate foot traffic.  The sale will continue (same hours) every day this week and finish up this Saturday, September 13th.  Our volunteers and staff had a busy day today as we continue to tidy the garden during this "pre-Autumn" stage.  Below are some additional images from today.


the Jungle Garden
mums will carry color well in to October (here in the English cottage garden)
 
Our volunteers were not only helpful out in the gardens today but were also plant sale patrons!  Above are Patrea (left) and her mom Sally; both of whom are RBG volunteers.  Our plant sale help included Karen and Tina (in prisoner orange) below.  These sisters were a big help out in the plant sale yard along with Mary W. and Marleen G.  Pat R. ran the register and did a nice job and appreciated additional help from Polly.  Our gardening volunteers included Betty and Shirley (seen two photos down with Betty to the left) who did a great job clearing spent annuals in their two garden berms.  Larry H. (third photo down) was a huge help with collecting leaves out in the gardens and joined our Garden Development & Maintenance Committee meeting which also included Maury, Gary S., Big John, Christine R., Dick P., Hal R. and Iza G.  Barb and Kay (fourth and fifth photos down respectively) did a wonderful job tidying up a portion of the shade garden and then worked on primping the red border which looks great after their attention.  Ron K., Don C. and Pearl C. worked in their areas as did Magda (sixth photo down) along with the assistance of Marleen.  Marleen also helped in the plant sale later in the day.  Vicki was here all afternoon and collected three times her weight in leaves (no small task!).  Urban was in as were Chuck S., Elsa, Mary Kay and many others today.  The seventh photo down shows Dr. Robert Yahr (RBG Founder) in the Nancy Yahr Memorial Children's Garden today.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The grounds staff kept busy today with plenty of gardening action.  Janice helped with the plant sale most of the day (the sale continues daily this week, 9 am - 2pm, until Saturday) but was able to get out in the gardens for a bit of gardening.  Cindy and Cheryl both had multiple areas to check for tidying needs, weeding, leaf collection, sweeping and the removal of spent annuals.  Larry push mowed, ran irrigation and shifted between various projects.  Big John also push mowed, planted more mums and worked on myriad other projects as well.  I continue to help with the plant sale and am chipping away at my "inbox" which never seems to get emptied.  Below are additional photos from this morning and a neat photo at the bottom from  yesterday.
 
'Solar Cascade' goldenrod (Solidago shortii) - perennial
'Fidel's Red Cigar' cigar flower (Cuphea ignea) - annual
'The Giant' Autumn "crocus" (Colchicum autumnale) - perennial (foliage was up in spring)
Here's one of the giant Adirondack chairs yesterday with (left to right), Jim, Vern and Dave!

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