Today was the start of the plant sale as it was our "Presale" for Friends Members of the garden. One of the nice benefits of being a Friends Member is not only getting a 10% discount at the plant sale(s), gift shop and other opportunities but the perk of getting "first crack" at the wide assortment of plants that the public can't see until tomorrow. See
http://rotarybotanicalgardens/support/friend-member-program for more information on the benefits of membership. Of course free admission to the gardens is one of the primary benefits of such memberships. Above is a portion of the sale waiting for a good home. We had fairly steady traffic and saw many familiar faces visiting the sale. Marianne kept everything running smoothly and we had over 20 volunteers helping with the sale throughout the course of the day. Marv, Terry and Janice helped with final set-up preparations this morning and we had the perfect weather for this event. Unfortunately, tomorrow looks a bit unsavory in the morning with rain but what can you do? Nice shot below of our entrance garden slope where our culvert pipes stand sentinel along this 5,000 square foot space that is still looking pretty good despite some very cool mornings and a recent dry spell.
Marv and Terry finished working on a new border they've created and prepared and spent lots of time bouncing around to move sprinklers, set irrigation and water containers. Along with Janice, the guys got the gardens ready for weddings (three tonight...on a Friday night!). Janice also worked at the plant sale, watered, put together the cutting display and kept busy with plentiful projects. Dr. Gredler was here to mow, haul debris off site and work on his turf repairs. Aside from our fantastic plant sale volunteers, we saw Gary, Maury, Laury, Big John, Dick, Art, Bob, Sandy, etc. Mary W. brought in three male RECAPPERS this morning to help water the sale and we had three female RECAPPERS in the afternoon. It was a busy Friday but we managed the gardens and the sale quite well. Tomorrow, the first Saturday of the sale, should be extremely busy and we'll see how the weather holds. One of the woody plants we're selling can be seen below. This is the "seven-son flower" or
Heptacodium miconioides. I'm pointing this nice woody plant out for two primary reasons. I think it's a great plant and we're selling it at our plant sale! This rare member of the honeysuckle family is native to China and has a long history of cultivation although not until the 1980s did it really get a foothold in the United States. Reaching 15'-20' in height, this plant will have a width of 8-10'. With an arching form, this plant also has very ornamental bark but goes in to maximum appeal right now as the white flower clusters emerge. These clusters will later dissipate and reveal increasingly cherry-red capsules and flower-like sepals that steal the show. When I worked at Fernwood Botanical Gardens in MI, we had a 25' specimen of seven son flower and I've seen many large (12"+) specimens at other locations (Olbrich up in Madison has some nice ones). Tomorrow I'll post a picture of the capsules and sepals. Top notch. At the bottom is another hint of Autumn with the oakleaf hydrangea (
Hydrangea quercifolia) starting to do it's thing, which certainly includes superior fall color.
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