Poised...

It was a rainy day. The gardens needed the rain for sure and this should get us through the weekend nicely. We had steady rain all morning and then some heavy showers later in the evening. The sun made a brief appearance and I should mention the two photos (one above and one below) were from early yesterday evening (Wednesday) before my tour with the Wisconsin Hardy Plant Society. I love that view of the formal gardens from the back porch and that 'Strawberry Fields' globe amaranth (Gomphrena haageana) seen below looked great with the early evening light.

While I did make it in to the gardens a couple times today, the focus was on the continued preparations out in the plant sale which were skillfully managed by Janice. I had two radio interviews to promote the sale and lots of indoor preparations with event signage, etc. We still had a nice turnout of volunteers for primarily inside work and our grounds staff kept busy as well. It's always nice to do a little tidying on a rainy day and it was very much needed!

'Strawberry Fields' globe amaranth (Gomphrena haageana) - annual

The photo above and all the ones below are from the Fall Plant Sale this afternoon. Above are some of the many shrub options that we have available. Janice had more helpers this morning for pricing with Joy, Rob, Renee, Shirley, Karen and Tina. This group did a great job tagging this morning and shifting plants around under Janice's direction. With the rain, inside projects abounded. Pat M. and Dr. Gredler worked on preparing lights for the Holiday Lights Show (HLS) while Eva cleaned and oiled tools. Gary B. had many indoor projects and Del was in to help too. Alan helped inside and then worked in the drizzle to finish an edging project at the Horticulture Center. Vern, Dave, Jim and Ron Y. worked on their carpentry projects and Dick H. helped the carpenters and assembled some new signs. Maury ran errands for us as did Gary S. Lloyd came in to help for a bit and Peg did a nice job organizing our tool shed. Bill O. worked on some equipment and there were many other volunteers coming and going all day. We also saw Cindy, Bobby K. and his wife, Marleen, Janet M., Janet V., Chuck S. and many others today.

Larry H., Janice and Big John all had a wide range of projects today. Janice's focus was on the plant sale set up while Larry helped with some watering in the hoop house and lots of organization and clean-up. John ran multiple errands and had myriad tasks related to the gardens and the plant sale. It was a busy day but we're poised and ready. Below is just a "small smattering" of what to expect at the sale. RBG Members are invited to the Members Only Pre-Sale tomorrow (9 am - 4 pm) where they get a sneak peak and 10% discount (over the entire sale). We'll accept new memberships on the spot with shopping to follow immediately for anyone interested. The sale continues Saturday and Sunday (same hours) at the Horticulture Center.