Even thru the drizzle this morning we had a nice customer turnout. While it was never overwhelmingly busy (which would have been ok), we did have very solid, steady traffic throughout the entire day (9am-5pm). Again, volunteers were instrumental in the success of the day and we couldn't have done it without them. Plant sale volunteers help customers, load up plants and run the cash registers for the sale. We can be identified easily by our "construction orange" vests as seen above. While we're only out of a few items (mainly shrubs), plants are moving quickly, including the pansies below. We've had lots of questions about these pansies (
Viola x
wittrockiana) and are they the "winter hardy" kind? Pansies are actually hardy, but short-lived perennials that prefer our cooler summer months, hence all the sales of pansies in both spring and fall when they look great. Any pansy planted now, watered in well, nurtured and then insulated (snow hopefully, but mulch is ok too) over the winter, will be alive and perk up quickly in April and look fabulous thru June. July and August are rough on pansies as they resent the heat and wont bloom strongly. However, if they are still alive late in the season, they should perk up as it cools down. Pansies don't live very long though and are effective simply as annuals as well. We like to overplant our bulb plantings with pansies. Imagine installing yellow tulips yet this fall and overplanting that space with blue pansies. In May, you'll have a wonderful combination as the yellow tulips come up thru, and bloom above the pansies. See below for our tables o' pansies.
Larry was here briefly this morning and Bill came in to clean-up a garden area for a wedding this evening. With the start of our "free week" (Sept. 11-17), we've had lots of visitors in the garden, many of which have trickled over to the sale. We've had lots of compliments and questions regarding the gardens and are happy that everything still looks so good. Marianne has again run a nice sale day (seven more to go!) and RBG is fortunate to have her organizational and retail skills! Nice shot below of 'Speckled Swan' gourd which is one of many that people are noticing and asking about. There seems to be quite a bit of excitement regarding the gourd collection and hopefully we'll carry over that momentum in to next year and have gourd-related activities and events. The bottom picture is the fruiting structure of the seven son flower (
Heptacodium miconioides) that I alluded to in yesterdays blog. Dr. Dirr's
Manual of Woody Landscape Plants describes the transition from white flower to what you see below as this: "seven-flowered (hence the name), thryselike inflorescences will develop in to a green capsule with sepals that turns rose-purple and adds three more weeks of interest to the plant." I think that translates in to "cool".
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Even thru the drizzle this morning we had a nice customer turnout. While it was never overwhelmingly busy (which would have been ok), we did have very solid, steady traffic throughout the entire day (9am-5pm). Again, volunteers were instrumental in the success of the day and we couldn't have done it without them. Plant sale volunteers help customers, load up plants and run the cash registers for the sale. We can be identified easily by our "construction orange" vests as seen above. While we're only out of a few items (mainly shrubs), plants are moving quickly, including the pansies below. We've had lots of questions about these pansies (Viola x wittrockiana) and are they the "winter hardy" kind? Pansies are actually hardy, but short-lived perennials that prefer our cooler summer months, hence all the sales of pansies in both spring and fall when they look great. Any pansy planted now, watered in well, nurtured and then insulated (snow hopefully, but mulch is ok too) over the winter, will be alive and perk up quickly in April and look fabulous thru June. July and August are rough on pansies as they resent the heat and wont bloom strongly. However, if they are still alive late in the season, they should perk up as it cools down. Pansies don't live very long though and are effective simply as annuals as well. We like to overplant our bulb plantings with pansies. Imagine installing yellow tulips yet this fall and overplanting that space with blue pansies. In May, you'll have a wonderful combination as the yellow tulips come up thru, and bloom above the pansies. See below for our tables o' pansies.
Larry was here briefly this morning and Bill came in to clean-up a garden area for a wedding this evening. With the start of our "free week" (Sept. 11-17), we've had lots of visitors in the garden, many of which have trickled over to the sale. We've had lots of compliments and questions regarding the gardens and are happy that everything still looks so good. Marianne has again run a nice sale day (seven more to go!) and RBG is fortunate to have her organizational and retail skills! Nice shot below of 'Speckled Swan' gourd which is one of many that people are noticing and asking about. There seems to be quite a bit of excitement regarding the gourd collection and hopefully we'll carry over that momentum in to next year and have gourd-related activities and events. The bottom picture is the fruiting structure of the seven son flower (Heptacodium miconioides) that I alluded to in yesterdays blog. Dr. Dirr's Manual of Woody Landscape Plants describes the transition from white flower to what you see below as this: "seven-flowered (hence the name), thryselike inflorescences will develop in to a green capsule with sepals that turns rose-purple and adds three more weeks of interest to the plant." I think that translates in to "cool".
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