Is It October Already?

Recent weather sure makes it feel like October. My favorite time of year includes the 70 degree days and 50 degree nights; but not in August! Above is the 'Autumn Colors' gloriosa daisy (Rudbeckia hirta) that is in our seasonal Rudbeckia collection. Many of our collections, while still having some color, are starting to look a little rough and we're removing seasonals as they wimp out. We hope September will be a warm month but are seeing signs of an early fall (including plenty of early cottonwood leaves falling down). Recent bad news includes a positive diagnosis regarding late blight in our tomato collection. Interestingly enough, this is the blight that caused the Irish potato famine and has huge repercussions throughout the potato crop in WI, not just our tomatoes. See www.extension.org/pages/Late_Blight_Identified_in_Wisconsin;_Gardeners_and_Growers_Need_to_be_Alert for more information and note some blight symptoms in the recent photos below.
Despite the blight thing and cool weather, the gardens are still looking great and we had a bumper crop of volunteers today as well as our Monday grounds staff. Little Jerry worked on pruning in the Japanese garden along with Karen. Marv and Terry composted, rototilled, planted a tree, edged and otherwise kept occupied. Larry worked on cleaning out the sunken garden pond (no small task) while Marianne worked in the irises, entrance garden and did her cutting display. Rose was here working on relettering the benches while Mary and Kristine weeded and tidied up various beds and borders. Jim brought down two RECAPPERS and they accomplished a lot of clean-up work around the gardens. It was another great Grumpy day with most of the guys helping set-up tents (John, Del, Dick P., Maury, Gary, Bill, Ron, Ed and Mike) for the plant sale and moving on to other projects. Urban and Dick K. worked on mulching an area and everyone kept fairly busy. Dr. Yahr was here as well. The carpenters (Bob, Vern, Jim and Dave) worked on installing air edging and finishing some carpentry projects. Deb, Bev and Robin came in to work on preparations for the GardenFest (Sept. 12) this afternoon and of course, Dr. Gredler was here to work on various projects including his new berm creation. See below for some colorfully inviting respite down near the wishing well garden. At the bottom is a very neat perennial called Hungarian daisy (Leucanthemella serotina) that blooms late, is over 6' tall and offers a nice splash of white in September. Great for the back of the sunny border.