Three More Seminars Announced!

Our monthly lecture series is 91.66% planned with 11 of the 12 lectures scheduled (December to follow soon!). Check out the education menu on our website at http://www.rotarybotanicalgardens.org/ for more details on these exciting educational opportunities. RBG members may attend for free with all others being asked for a $5 donation. All talks are held at the Parker Education Center from 6 pm until 8 pm. Perhaps purchasing a membership for yourself or a friend (a great gift idea!) would be wise as you will also get myriad other benefits and discounts. Briefly, listed below are the three seminars for September, October and November. The three top images are meant as supporting visual fodder with the sole intent of selective, contagious enticement!


On September 28th, the topic will be Ornamental Grasses. Join Nancy Nedveck, co-owner of The Flower Factory Nursery (Stoughton, WI) for her presentation featuring a wide range of hardy, perennial grasses for all areas of the garden; sun and shade. Nancy is very knowledgeable and not only does her nursery sell over 200 varieties of ornamental grasses, it offers a total of over 4,000 varieties of perennials.


On October 26th, I'll be talking about Spring Bulbs for the home garden. The timing is perfect to promote not only the visual spring merits of planting beautiful bulbs in fall, but also the proper selection, installation, maintenance and subsequent care of these bulbs will be covered as well. We plant lots of bulbs at RBG and I'll mention some of my favorites for colorful impact (and low cost!).


On November 16th, the topic will be Gardens of Stone - Expressions of Our Local Environment. Join John Gishnock, owner of Formecology (Evansville, WI), in an engaging discussion regarding the use of local landscape materials as well as aspects of natural stone work. This will include functional, aesthetic and emotional uses. At Formecology, John works as an ecological designer, project manager and tireless advocated for sustainable approaches to landscaping.
Today was fairly busy in the morning with lots of volunteers at the Horticulture Center. The afternoon was a little more quiet as the day progressed. Dr. Gredler worked on painting projects (primarily Adirondack chairs) with both Urban and Rose. Vern came in to repair one of the new Adirondack chairs and some other odds and ends. Del was in briefly to work on some carpentry and we saw Bill later in the day. We also saw Big John and Jody. Marianne came in and we continued our selective purging of some old photos and slides. See pictures below of Marianne and one of our slide set-ups. Essentially, there is a vast photographic record of the history of the gardens that has been collecting dust for decades. There are thousands of slides, newspaper articles, pictures, notes, etc. We're going thru everything with the intent of selecting the most important/relevant items for either an organized scrapbook (Marianne's project) or for scanning in to a digital format for easier retrieval and use. The value of this history is related to its accessibility, relevancy and potential use. This is a monumental project that will ultimately result in a safer, permanent, organized storage of the most valuable portions of this information. Marianne and I are comfortable purging this information and sifting as needed. I can't imagine this project in 50 years! The graphic of the little girl reading a book is on our brand new poster for the Story and Stroll program here at RBG. This program is developed for pre-school aged children along with their parents or caregivers. Children will participate in a few stories then go for a stroll out in the gardens or play a few games inside if the weather is a factor. This is a popular program and we're trying to get the word out. The information on this program is on our website but we also need people to distribute posters (let me know!). Next week will be intense seed ordering, frantic presentation preparation and the juggling of some special event preparations! It's never dull around here!