Missed The Rain

We had a nice chance of rain last night that went unfulfilled unfortunately which prompted lots of hand watering here at the gardens today. The soil isn't totally dry but we don't want to let it get to that point either! Larry ran irrigation around the gardens and we hit the driest spots with hand watering and hit all the containers again. Nice shot above of one of our Bailey Nursery test roses (Minnesota Red). The rose collection is looking pretty good although I think the Japanese beetles feel the same way. Nice new dwarf zinnia below (Zinnia marylandica 'Zahara Starlight Rose') from All-America Selections. This one has done great in part shade thus far.
We had a small but productive crew today. With Dr. Gredler gone, Little Jerry and Bill took care of all the riding mowing while Larry did all of the push mowing. Kay and Heidi planted a couple hundred pink Angelonias to fill in a space that needed "something". They then shifted to weeding. Barb, Mary and Joyce also hand weeded today. There seemed to be a lot of activity and visitors around the gardens today. It was nice to see Luis, Tom and Donna out taking pictures and enjoying the gardens. There are many talented photographers sharing their digital images with me and I greatly appreciate their generosity. Nice shot below of Art giving a tour last week. The tour guides are the unsung heroes around here as they deal with large groups, lots of questions and variable weather patterns. We have a great batch of volunteer tour guides and note how Art has his tour trapped so they have to listen to his well-crafted diatribe!