Delivery Day

We had some decent rain overnight and more today in two good patches.  It was a "timely soaking" as the gardens suffered through a hot and dry weekend for the most part and the rainfall helped alleviate some impending watering needs.  I was over at the Horticulture Center all day getting ready for the Fall Plant Sale which starts this Friday as a RBG Members Only Pre-Sale (10% off which extends throughout the sale).  The sale runs through the weekend (9 am - 4 pm daily) for the general public at the Horticulture Center.  Check out www.rotarybotanicalgardens.org for more information on this event and consider becoming a member on Friday and shop immediately!  The curve ball for me is that I didn't get many images today as we were unloading deliveries along with other pre-plant sale tasks.  The first six photos in this blog were shared this weekend by Ken Tapp who captured some great pollinator activity out in the gardens; much of which was on the annual Mexican sunflower (Tithonia rotundifolia 'Torch') seen in photos 1, 2, 3 and 6!  Note the tagged monarch n the fourth photo down.  Thanks for sharing Ken!

With the long Labor Day weekend and a rainy start to the day, we didn't see a lot of volunteers but had some great help from those that meandered in to the Horticulture Center.  Patrea (above) worked all morning on processing dangling icicle lights for the Holiday Light Show (HLS).  Pat M. was in to set some of this set up for Patrea and he had quite a few HLS-related tasks as well.  Pat helped both in the morning and afternoon.  Kathy (below) helped inventory and price bulbs for the plant sale (along with Cindy and Cheryl).  Alan and Lloyd came in to help out with some gardening projects and also helped with much of the delivery unloading.  Bill O. and Dr. Gredler braved the rain and did all of their mowing duties out in the gardens.  Maury and Dick H. went on a road trip to pick up some plants and other supplies for the plant sale.  Maury also ran quite a few errands too. Vern was working on some carpentry projects  We also saw Dr. Yahr, Bev D., Jim D. and many others.  Our Garden Development & Maintenance Committee (Big John, Larry H., Christy, Christine, Iza and Gary) all met this morning as well.  Larry O. popped by as well and it was good to see him too!

The kale (Brassica oleracea) seen both above and below will be part of the Fall Plant Sale as well ($5 each!).  The bottom photos shows some of the mum unloading during the first of two deliveries.  These gigantic mums are only $8 each this year.  We also had two trucks (one huge one) with perennials and two van loads of asters!  More will be arriving tomorrow and we'll begin all the sorting and tagging as well.  The grounds staff had a very busy day.  Everyone was on hand (Big John, Terry, Bobby K., Larry H., Cindy, Cheryl and Janice) and everyone bounced between indoor and outdoor duties depending on the weather.  Everyone was also involved with some degree of unloading as it was a busy day for these plant sale deliveries.  Some gardening was accomplished but much of our work was over at the Horticulture Center.  Gardening and event preparations will also be the order of business tomorrow too!