Condensed Week

Today was interesting in that it was overcast for a couple hours, then we received about three hours of rain, then sunshine arrived. We made the most of the day though with staff and volunteers as it is vital to catch up after the long holiday weekend. Thankfully rain on Sunday helped keep things moist and additional showers today will help us avoid running irrigation most of the week. The gardens are still very colorful although we need to get our annuals planted over the coming weeks while we also keep up with the weeds. Above is the perennial false indigo (Baptisia australis) beginning to bloom.

We had a nice turnout of volunteers today and staff was involved with projects both inside and outside. Our Assigned Garden volunteers continue to return for weeding and planting and we have a couple new ones as well. This Saturday (May 30th) will be the last day of our Bagged Compost Sale (8 am - 12 noon at the Horticulture Center) so come get some great amendments for the garden or container. This Saturday is also the third in a sequence of five straight Saturday Volunteer Work Days (8 am until 12 noon, meet at the Parker Education Center). We'll be planting many more plants during this fun work morning. This Thursday, May 28th, I'll be giving a lecture at the gardens on "Ornamental Edibles" (6:30 pm - 8 pm) if you're interested. Check out the remainder of our lecture series on our website (www.rotarybotanicalgardens.org) which includes information on many other opportunities. All the photos in the blog today capture color seen this morning before the rains arrived.

Dreamcatcher beautybush (Kolkwitzia amabilis 'Maradco')

red buckeye (Aesculus pavia)

tricolor European beech (Fagus sylvatica 'Roseo-Marginata')

'Carnival Peach Parfait' coral bells (Heuchera)

Our volunteers came in and did a great job before the rain caught up to us around 11 am. Above are Eva (left) and Kathy continuing to do battle with the weeds in the sunken garden. The ladies have advanced over 75% of this space and are headed towards victory soon. We'll plant up these openings soon and hope the next wave of weeds isn't as tough to remove. Kay was also in for weeding and did a nice job out front in the entrance garden before getting saturated. We had Alan, Larry H., Lloyd and Pat M. out front this morning "lifting" our spring tulips (Tulipa). We do this every year as we put in a new color each fall. The boys almost finished before it became too muddy. Dr. Gredler and Bill O. did some mowing while Del continued his painting project. Dick H. had some repairs while Bob K., Dave, Jim and Vern continued on a multitude of carpentry projects. Gary S. came in for label work while we also saw Rollie, Dr. Yahr, Art H. and many others.

Big John and Terry both had plant pick-up jobs today while both also worked on myriad garden tasks. Lots more plants came back to the yard today and we only have a couple trips left. Cindy worked on weeding, inventorying the elephant ear collection, planting and many other tasks. Cheryl had some planting and tidying duties and spent some time inside today. Janice spent time checking over our anticipated delivery items, matched labels, put together the cutting display and had other duties as well. Further below are some additional photographs from today.