Rain- A Blessing & A Curse

Our toadlilies (Tricyrtis hirta 'Miyazaki') are blooming three weeks early as seen above which is good news as they normally will start blooming in early October and then get hit with a frost which blackens the entire plant. We then wait another 11.5 months and hope that the blooms don't again get that frost! It seems that we do get to see the flowers more often than not and they are truly exquisite on this tough, part-shade perennial. While there are many other toadlily species and varieties, with more ornamental foliage and/or different blooms, we keep 'Miyazaki' on our "favorites list" for late blooming perennials.

This morning was quite rainy and had an immediate effect on our plant sale and our scheduled volunteer workday. We had only two volunteers come in for the workday and they became drenched a short time later with the next wave of showers. The plant sale was slow early but has picked up over the morning and afternoon. The rain was certainly a blessing for the gardens as we have been running irrigation and putting up sprinklers for the past month just to keep up with drying soils. The rain came down fast at times although as much as we prefer a slower drizzle, we'll take what we can get! To the left is our 'Long Handled Dipper' gourd and to the right is 'Goblin Eggs' which has really colored up nicely. Below is a picture of one of our favorite weeding tools. This is the Nijiri-Gama, Japanese hand hoe that does such a nice job out in the garden. We've had lots of questions regarding this tool so I thought I'd pass this along. Many garden centers carry it and we've ordered it from http://www.garden-gear.com/. Keep it sharp and it will provide years of service. Larry and Bill were the first ones here this morning. Bill emptied garbage and recycling cans around the gardens before leaving and Larry helped prepare for the two weddings in the sunken garden today and helped get the sale up and running. Janice and John came in to facilitate the work day but as it was rained out, they both worked on some other projects and avoided the bulk of the raindrops. Marv came in to help and we saw Dr. Gredler, Dr. Yahr, Del, Maury, Rose, Urban and many other volunteers that helped with the plant sale throughout the day. Marianne kept the sale humming along and we'll have a small clearance sale tomorrow (Sunday) between 10 am and 1 pm. Janice spent some time inventorying and observing the gourds this morning. She's coming up with a plan for winter storage so we can use these for craft-related projects next year. We've had lots of comments regarding the gourds. To the left is the 'Speckled Swan' gourd and to the right is the 'Small Spoon' gourd with that bicolored orange and green look. Very showy. My years as a "finger model" have served me well in presenting these gourds for photographic opportunities. Below are the three new cedar benches that our Grumpies (Dave, Vern, Jim and Bob) are preparing to go out in the gardens as memorials. Well done fellas.