Plant Sale Is Ready To Roll

Aside from a few minor tweaks that we'll do tomorrow morning, the 13th Annual Fall Plant Sale is ready to go and we look forward to the RBG Members only presale tomorrow (9 am - 5 pm, 10% off). We had oodles of help today both at the sale and out in the gardens. It was a great team effort all around. The top photo is a close-up of an ivy geranium (Pelargonium peltatum) called 'Precision Red Ice' that is part of our Ball Seed display/trials. Directly above is Dr. Yahr, founder of the gardens, planting around the new lower pool of the Japanese garden waterfall/stream system. He and John did some significant planting in that garden today. Marianne had a good group of helpers for the plant sale with Magda (to the right), Shirley (to the left), Doris, Cathy, Nancy, Dennis, Cindy and Gary. The volunteers helped with pricing, arranging plants, watering and myriad other preparations. This was our morning shift although Cathy came back in the afternoon as well. Mary R., Suzy, Glenna and Karen did a nice job weeding throughout the Japanese garden and our afternoon "shift" of Myrt, Mary, Gena and Nancy did a nice job doing clean-up in the woodland walk garden. The morning Grumpies helped with various activities as well. Bob C. and Steve B. (new Grumpy today) worked on path clean-up while Ron B. helped in the plant sale. Ron W. and Maury ran out for more "loaner" wagons (see below) and Bob A. worked on the new Japanese garden fence replacement with Dick H. Dr. Gredler was here to work on his mowing rounds too. We also had a new "Grumpette" named Jenny start today and she worked with Janice all morning. Urban and Rose repainted one of our primary entry gates and Urban was back later to start preparing another gate for some touch-up work. We also saw Mary W., Mary D., Geesje, Kris, Kelli, Guy F., Bill, Little Jerry, Ed G., and so many others. It was "traffic central" over at the plant sale and we had to gently shoo out some premature shoppers that were scoping out the sale. To the right is the start of the sweet Autumn clematis (Clematis terniflora) blooms out near the pergola. In about three weeks, those vines will be at peak and will provide a wide radius of divine, sweet scent. Further below is a shot of the plant sale with our early morning helpers.While Marianne was immersed in the plant sale, the rest of the grounds staff had various duties out in the gardens. Larry continued running irrigation, did his push mowing rounds and helped with various plant sale preparations as well. Big John did lots of watering this morning, planted with Dr. Yahr, weeded and helped water in the plant sale. Janice was here to get our various volunteer crews going and helped with the initial orientation of our new volunteers today: Jenny and Steve. Her Thursday group of volunteers that will be starting again soon also came in for an orientation and tour. It was a good sized group of young volunteers and we look forward to their involvement here at the gardens. There should be plenty of action out in the gardens yet this fall. To the right is the foliage of the 'Golden Zebra' foamy bells (Heucherella) that we have both out in the gardens and in the plant sale. This shot was taken in the plant sale today. That foliage is dynamite and the lighter margins are actually a nice golden yellow in spring and later fade to this chartreuse in the summer heat. To the left is the variegated purple fountain grass (Pennisetum setaceum 'Fireworks') that we used so much last year and haven't neglected to use it this year around the gardens. It has worked quite nicely as a container specimen as seen here in a formal garden urn. To the right are the spiky seed capsules of the castor bean (Ricinus communis). This is the variety called 'Carmencita Pink'. The variety 'Carmencita Red' has deep red capsules. Each one of these capsules contains three very poisonous seeds. However, the plant, despite it's bad rap by some, has many industrial uses and for us is a nice tropical that can reach heights of 12' regularly each summer. Directly below is a bloom from one of our Sunny Knockout roses (Rosa 'Radsunny') in the formal rose garden (note the artistic dew). This is a rose that just emerged as it is a deep yellow. Older rose blossoms of this variety age to a yellow-cream and the wide range of yellows on any given rose of this variety looks interesting because of the contrast. The bottom picture is from across the observation pier to the distant arched bridge..

Plant Sale Almost Ready

Another beautiful day as far as the weather was concerned. This is the weather I could live in year round (nights in the 50s and days in the 70s). Sign me up. Above are some of our borrowed wagons ready to put in to service this Friday when the sale starts for RBG Friends Members from 9 am until 5 pm (10% off the duration of the sale for RBG Members). Directly above is a nice shot in the Japanese garden that will have a "re-dedication" event next week to note the improvements and hopefully secure more support for this popular garden area. We had a good dozen or so volunteers show up to help with the plant sale preparations (thanks Barb, Bev, Bonnie, Darlene, Olive, Dennis, Ellen, Pearl, Don, Audra, Cathy, Jenny and Luis!). They worked on a wide variety of tasks including pricing perennials, tagging shrubs, watering, unloading deliveries, organizing plants, setting up our bulb offerings, etc. We have another group coming in tomorrow too. Marianne was the "master of orchestration" and kept everyone moving along. It was a nice group of volunteers and many were veterans of this process. Dennis went out in the gardens first to collect the last 11 butterfly art projects for the auction this Sunday (1 pm - 3 pm) at the Parker Education Center. To the right is the dinosaur kale (Brassica oleracea 'Lacinato') that is catching lots of attention this time of year with steel grey/blue, puckered leaves and a strong presence in our blue/yellow theme. Other volunteers included Dr. Gredler, Bill O., Dr. Yahr and Jumbo Jim had four RECAPPERS with him today to continue tidying up of the Japanese garden.

The staff also kept quite busy today. Above and to the left is Terry who was pruning boxwood (Buxus 'Green Velvet') hedges today with Marv. The guys also did lots of watering and spent some quality time in the Japanese garden touching up many of the sheared specimens as needed. Big John and Pat went on a road trip to pick up plants for the plant sale and returned with close to 1,000 nice perennials that will be in the sale. Both guys then moved on to weeding, container watering and some general watering as well. Marianne was out in the plant sale all day and may have a repeat performance tomorrow (see Marianne to the right with three of her tagging ladies). Directly below are Don and Pearl helping to tag shrubs. They also take care of their own garden space out in the gardens and it looks the best it ever has this year. I've shown it many times on the blog. Further below is a bee working on the turtlehead (Chelone obliqua) in the sunken garden today. It was interesting to watch the bees force themselves entirely in to these interestingly-shaped flowers and note the huge pollen sacs on this bee! I worked with Jenny today on getting out more shrub signs for the plant sale and bounced between some other time-sensitive tasks. I was able to get out in the gardens and took lots of pictures as I strolled. We have some small projects occuring that I had to check on and it was nice to see another healthy crowd enjoying the gardens. As the first Wednesday of the month, it was free admission day and we saw plenty of visitors of all ages enjoying the gardens. The free admission days have been very well attended and I'm sincerely pleased to see so many people at the gardens. However, the intent of the free days was to target a demographic that may not have the resources to pay admission or become a RBG member. That's very important to us and we want everyone to have access to the gardens. However, we also see lots of garden clubs, smaller groups and "others" that don't fit that target demographic that are also taking advantage of those days. That's the way it goes but as a struggling non-profit, we rely heavily on all financial support, which of course includes admissions and memberships. To the right are the fruits on the female fringetree (Chionanthus virginicus) that has beautiful, wispy white flowers in mid-spring and this nice showing of fruits this time of year. This small tree is great as a hardy understory tree in part shade and both the male and female have nice white flowers and get a clear yellow fall color. To the left are some mallards (heads down) scrounging for food or just "mooning" me....I think we've seen the most wildlife here this year. I have some neat hummingbird photos (recent) from Santos that I'll share tomorrow. Speaking of wildlife, check out this chipmunk to the right working on a tomato. I watched this guy eat half this "tennis ball-sized" tomato in about 20 seconds!

We're continuing our promotion of upcoming events that include the Ornamental Grasses talk by Nancy Nedveck of The Flower Factory on September 28th (6 pm - 8 pm). We also still have room on our October 6th Bus Trip up to Madison, WI. We'll be seeing Allen Centennial Gardens (UW-Madison campus), Olbrich Botanical Gardens (Madison) and we'll also stop at The Flower Factory for some late season perennial purchases. The itinerary is on our website and we hope to have a full bus. Contact me with any questions at (608) 754-1779. We also have a neat travelling opportunity to the Netherlands next April that may be of interest. Below are two visitors today enjoying the view across the pond from the North Point garden. At the bottom is the woody, spiny fruit capsule of the sweet gum (Liquidambar styraciflua). We have one of the larger, Northernmost specimens that is about 35' tall. Known for awesome fall color of yellows, oranges, purples, reds, etc., this tree also has a long history in the lumber industry. The bark is quite textural and gave rise to the other common name, "alligator-wood". It is called sweet gum because pioneers would peel the bark, collect the thick, sweet resin underneath and chew it like gum. Interesting. More plant sale preparations tomorrow.

Preparations In Earnest

The weather was perfect both yesterday and today with sunny skies and highs around 70 degrees F. The grounds staff was divided on wearing jeans or shorts today....The image at the top shows just a few of our perennial, dwarf asters (Aster sp.) that will be offered at the plant sale (only $5 each!) starting this weekend (September 10th and 11th from 9 am until 5 pm). There will be a presale for RBG Friends Members however on this Friday, September 9th from 9 am until 5 pm. RBG Members will receive 10% off on all plant sale purchases that day and thru the weekend as well. Many staff and volunteers worked on more plant sale preparations today and the next two days are filled with pricing and arranging plant material as it is delivered. The image directly above is an area between the new North Point garden and the alpine garden. This space was used to stage materials over the past couple of months but will soon be developed as a "rockery" with neat rocks and boulders spaced throughout this berm. We will plant all the little "pockets" with bulbs this fall and both perennials and woody plants next spring. To the right is another nice shot of the 'Hot Biscuits' amaranth (Amaranthus cruentus) which has such a neat flower color that has attracted plenty of attention over the past month or so. To the left are the trumpet-shaped blooms of the 'Perfume Lime' flowering tobacco (Nicotiana hybrida) that looks great all summer (smells good too) and this plant combines well with pinks and maroons.


Volunteer assistance was very impressive this morning. Labor Day allowed us to shift our Grumpy Day to today and we had a full house of both staff and volunteers. Shirley and Deb came in to help Marianne start pricing bulbs (see Marianne below and to the left) and get our shrub offerings labeled and priced. Urban and Rose stopped in to discuss their two current painting projects. Bob C. and Ron W. did a nice job setting up our temporary plant sale parking lot and the guys helped Marv, Terry and I haul and deliver some plants this morning. Dennis and Ron B. worked on taking down the butterfly art projects so they can be cleaned up and prepared for the auction this Sunday (1 pm - 3 pm) at the Parker Education Center. Deb was in to talk about the auction and she and Bev have done a nice job coordinating and maintaining this display. Dave, Vern, Bob A. and Jim continued their work on the Japanese garden fence which is looking quite nice. Gary and Del watered much of the plant sale and helped unload two mum deliveries that arrived today (see to the right, $7 mums!). Maury worked with Dick P. on some projects and ran out for some supplies and other items. Dr. Gredler was in later to mow as was Bill O. With the grass having so much dew this time of year, we try to tackle it after it has dried a bit to minimize the mess. We also saw Kelli, Kris, Jean and Polly today. There is a neat international travel opportunity next April (10th thru the 17th) when RBG is hosting a trip to Holland to see all sorts of neat things. This is a horticulturally-based trip and details can be found at www.rotarybotanicalgardens.org. The fact that I'm going on this trip should hopefully not deter you from looking in to it further.

Marv and Terry worked on removing three dying birch (Betula sp.) trees, our plant delivery,moving rocks, shearing and some other projects. Aside from her cutting display, Marianne worked the plant sale preparations all day. Janice put out more new labels, tidied up various garden areas, helped water and kept the mum labels coming as new ones arrived. Larry worked on weed whipping and removing a crabapple (Malus sp.). Big John and Pat both worked on push mowing right away and went on to do some weeding and container watering. Pat finishes up tomorrow and we hope to see him next summer as well. He'll still come in as a Grumpy though. I worked most of the day on creating more shrub signs for the plant sale but was involved with unloading incoming plants as were all the staff. To the right is the start of fall color on the Tiger Eyes sumac (Rhus typhina 'Bailtiger'). Although it's a bit early, we see hints of fall color on other trees and shrubs as well. Directly below is a huge patch of 'Blue Spruce' stonecrop (Sedum reflexum 'Blue Spruce') that were planted by Pat months ago in the alpine garden. This rounded area and others beyond that bridge, had blue carpet junipers (Juniperus sp.) growing as a groundcover to look like flowing water. Over the winter, some varmits nibbled the roots underground creating a mostly dead patch. We're trying this creeping sedum to create that same look of flowing water and I'm pleased with how well the sedum are growing. When they bloom chartreuse, that might look weird, but I do like the shade of blue this plant provides. At the bottom is the Dahlia 'Dahlinova Hypnotica Lavender' which is one of the seven "contestants" in our American Garden Award (www.americangardenaward.com) program that will finalize voting at the end of the month. This plant is currently the most popular but has some competition (see the website). Dahlias hit stride this time of year so this selection should have a strong finish.

Sprinkles

It has been overcast for most of the day but we briefly had that odd combination of pounding rain with full sun streaming down. We must have had our own rain cloud as many other parts of town didn't receive any rain. It really came down for about 5 minutes and it was over. We kept with our irrigation and watering schedule regardless which is always wise in case we don't get the quantity of desired rain. There is a chance of rain this evening and thru tomorrow as well. The top picture is a neat rose (Rosa) in our rose garden. This is another Bailey Nursery introduction in their Easy Elegance series called 'Golden Eye'. With the cooler nights and days, our shrub roses are sending out another nice flush of blossoms. I feel our rose garden has the most blooms in June and September. As a popular wedding spot, it's nice to have decent color and scent in this formal garden space. Directly above is the golden pineapple sage (Salvia elegans 'Golden Delicious) that should have red flowers at the end of the month (barring any early frost!). To the right is the 'Delicata' squash (Cucurbita pepo) that is extremely popular for its deliciously sweet taste that has also earned it the name of "sweet potato squash". This squash is commonly baked or stuffed and the seeds are tasty as well. High in fiber and potassium, this squash also has vitamins C, B and many other nutrients. Nice shot to the left of the terrace garden border with the effective repetition of culvert pipe planters with blue lyme grass (Elymus arenarius 'Blue Dune') poking out of the top.

We had some nice volunteer assistance today. Kay was in to tidy up in the North American garden and continues her purging of spent annuals and continues to target our ever-diminishing supply of weeds. She hauled back plenty of debris and we'll see her next week for plant sale preparations. Dr. Gredler did his Friday mowing around the gardens and continued his turf aeration program. Larry and Amy H. came in to scope out an assigned garden opportunity and it looks like they'll maintain part of the fern & moss garden. Larry is also a Grumpy during the week. Our Home Garden Tour Committee met which included Jean, Tim, Bill, Cora, Barb and me (sans Janet, Patrick, Dave and Ruth). We have our seven homes selected for next year already and will move for even earlier promotion of this fun event. Maury went out to pick up more cardboard flats for the plant sale and is about half done with that task. The flats are very handy for the sale. Bill O. came in this afternoon to do our arboretum mowing. Urban was here bright and early to sand our entrance gates in preparation for a repainting by Rose early next week. She has a good hand for painting and she and Urban are a good team that has tackled this project and many like it in the past. Rollie and Andy came in and did some timely brick work for me too. We also saw Dave G. and others here today. To the right is the 'Black & Blue' Brazilian sage (Salvia guaranitica) that looks great throughout our blue and yellow theme this year. This annual species, native to a wide range of South America, gets up to 36" tall and attracts lots of hummingbirds. I've seen more butterflies and hummingbirds this year at the gardens than ever! You can see how this variety gets its name with those interesting electric blue flowers emerging from black calyxes. Directly below is the fine textured foliage of the narrow-leaf male fern (Dryopteris filix-mas 'Linearis'). Those visitors that take the time to examine the detail of the ferns in the fern & moss garden will undoubtably find some really neat features and subtle differences amongst the wide variety of ferns in that garden space.

Directly above is the fruit cluster of the American elderberry (Sambucus canadensis) which was previously a nice white flower cluster back in June. It looks like the birds have taken about half of these little berries. The edible fruits have a long history of consumption as well as medicinal use by many cultures. There are many other species of elderberries (around the world) with similar, valuable fruits. Current research is looking at the benefit of the high level of antioxidants and other nutrients of elderberry for combating cardiovascular disease, diabetes and influenza among other ailments. To the right is another of our Japanese lanterns, this one near the waterfall in the fern & moss garden. We have about eight nice lanterns, many of which were donated by the founder of the gardens, Dr. Robert Yahr. To the left is a huge leaf from the elephant ear (Colocasia esculenta) near the kiosk. With the heat, fertilizer and adequate moisture provided this year, all our elephant ears are enormous.

The grounds staff kept busy today and I finally had a good upper body workout after moving all the shrubs around to fit them in for the plant sale. Terry and Janice push mowed right away and Terry then worked with Marv on watering, running irrigation zones, tidying before the weddings (one in the rose garden tonight), gravel work and loading up some plants for a delivery. These guys work together well and were Siamese twins in a former life I'm sure. Aside from mowing, Janice continued putting out our new labels, watered plant sale items and put up her mum signs. Marianne did her normal tidying out in the gardens and the cutting display. Later she helped water in the plant sale and is getting everything together for the "short week" of preparations next week before the sale starts on Friday, September 9th for RBG Friends Members only (9am-5 pm, 10% off). I worked on plant sale preparations as well. To the right is a seed head from the ornamental millet (Pennisetum glaucum 'Purple Majesty') in the Ornamental Edible and Compact Vegetable collection. Look closely and see what the finches are doing. They sure love the seed and we're seeing them increasingly target these seed heads as they ripen. Directly below is the always showy cardoon (Cynara cardunculus) in the same area as the millet mentioned above. Janice continues to cut back the lowest leaves on this artichoke (Cynara scolymus) relative as they flop. The bold texture of this silver plant is quite fetching even when we don't see the huge violet-blue flower clusters. At the bottom is another shot of the North Point garden which continues to be photogenic and will host another function tomorrow.

The Shrubbery Arrives!

It was darn hot today and it brought back memories of that heat wave back in late July / early August. Today was very "reactive" as we had two deliveries of shrubs come in for the plant sale (see top picture) and about 600 asters. Thankfully we had volunteers on hand to help unload the trucks and we made quick work of it in this heat. Our shrub offering this year for the sale is quite impressive and also includes some choice conifers. The image directly above is a colorful cosmos (Cosmos sulphureus) called 'Sunny Red'. This cosmos gets about 30" tall and while the flowers aren't truly red, they glow with a luminescent orange. This species of cosmos requires very little "deadheading" and is maintenance free in nice sunny areas with decent soil. To the right are the exquisite blooms of the hyacinth bean (Dolichos lablab) in our Ornamental Edible & Compact Vegetable Display this year. The flowers are beautiful as are the soon to follow, shiny purple bean pods. I've heard mixed thoughts on the edibility of the beans which apparently is connected to boiling them before consumption. ??? Research this before you nibble as we only use this as an ornamental as there are so many yummy bean varieties out there. To the left is our most-asked-about annual this year. This is the Persian shield (Strobilanthes dyerianus) that I've featured in the past and have actually grown here at the gardens every year. Could you verbalize a description of those leaves to a friend? We have visitors describe it and say things like, "It's sort of violet, blue, maroon, silver..." Tough to describe but easy to enjoy. We obtain these as small plants every year and put them in partly shaded areas for foliage interest. Full sun can crisp the edges and in full shade, they wouldn't grow much.

Lots of great volunteers today with Grumpies, Grumpettes, RECAPPERS, afternoon weeders, etc. Ron Y., Bob C., Dick H. and Del put up two more tents today for the plant sale while Rollie and Ron B. ran out to pick up our borrowed wagons for the plant sale. The guys moved on to other projects later in the morning. Pat worked on filling MANY buckets with gravel and these will be used for our plant sale signs. Dave, Jim and Bob continued work on the Japanese garden fence and Maury (and Pat) ran out for cardboard flats for the sale. Dr. Yahr was here and watered some newly planted trees while Dr. Gredler continued his aeration rounds. Our morning Grumpettes included Suzy, Karen, Mary and Glenna. They did a nice job weeding here and there. Our afternoon crew (Mary, Nancy and Myrt) also weeded but ran in to the tough temperatures and stayed in the shadier gardens. Jumbo Jim came with two RECAPPERS and their timing was perfect to help unload plants and water all the new plant sale items. Hal and Doris were in to primp their garden area as well. We also saw Kelli, Lilian, both Bill O's and many others. Above and to the right is the 'Elephant Head' amaranth (Amaranthus gangeticus) with such interesting flower clusters. And who says red, orange and pink can't go together!? When it is a "quilt" of impatiens (directly below), it will always look good. These plants are all over 24" tall and have filled in nicely. Last year a photographer apparently had their clients stand in the middle of this (yes, unbelievable, but it happens!) for a photo and it was pretty beaten down. Directly above is one of our verbena (Verbena hybrida) varieties still looking pretty good and sending up fresh blooms. This is 'Obsession Coral w/ Eye' and really has done well all year and "shrugs off the heat" as they say. Our small staff today kept busy. Larry ran irrigation like a mad man and was shifting zones around to avoid volunteers and visitors. He also push mowed his areas of responsibility and worked on many different tasks including our major plant unloading. Big John also helped with unloading and worked on lots of watering throughout the day, including most of the containers. Janice helped our morning volunteers, watered our marigold (Tagetes) collection and worked on placing more of our new labels out in the gardens. I worked primarily on the plant sale and also helped unload and water. The four flowers here are all moss roses (Portulaca grandiflora) and are part of a new series from PanAmerican Seed. These are 'Happy Hour Banana', 'Happy Hour Coconut', 'Happy Hour Orange' and 'Happy Hour Peppermint' respectively. I've always loved moss roses and they sure are effective in tough soils and sunny locations. Unfortunately, their close relative purslane (Portulaca oleracea) is a major nuisance here and has avoided our eradication efforts over the past decade or so. We've had a nice arrangement with Ball Seed, PanAmerican Seed and Takii Seed over the past couple of years to feature their plant material at RBG. While some of the varieties are currently out in the market, many have not yet been released. I take informal notes and make some observations of each variety along with photos and we pass this information back to the seed companies. If we had more acreage, I would be interested in more formal trials similar to what the Chicago Botanic Garden is doing at this point. However, that would also require more staff and some lengthy evaluation windows, particularly for woody plants and perennials. Below is the 'Kahori' dianthus (Dianthus hybrida) that is one of the seven entrants for the American Garden Award program (www.americangardenaward.org/). The AGA extended the voting for another month (until the end of September) and if you check out their website, you can get more information on this program but also see the current status of the voting. This neat little dianthus is in last place but certainly has some stiff competition! At the bottom are some of our 'Tumbling Tom Red' and 'Tumbling Tom Yellow' tomatoes spilling out of our culvert pipe planter at the Horticulture Center. More plant sale work tomorrow and it looks like another hot one!