Back To Business

Today was overcast the entire day with the perpetual threat of drizzle. At the time of typing this blog, it hadn't rained yet but I think we'll have received something by tomorrow. It was a great day for photography out in our early Autumn garden (see formal gardens above - this morning). Despite the chance of rain this morning, we had an excellent turnout of volunteers with everyone hustling to beat the rains which looked imminent at the time! With the Fall Plant Sale being over, we still have mums and bulbs that we'll be selling out of the Garden Gallery at the Parker Education Center. Mums are $7 each and bulbs are priced as marked. Overall, the sale went fairly well although it would have been nice to sell more as this is a vital fundraiser for the gardens. We still have bagged mushroom compost as well and will come up with some opportunities yet this season to pick up some of that product. Below are some other images from today.

American cranberrybush viburnum (Viburnum trilobum) - woody shrub

'Autumn Colors' gloriosa daisy (Rudbeckia hirta) - annual

'Moonlight' caladium (Caladium sp.) - tropical

The Grumpies above (left to right are Dick H., Ron R., Dick P., Gary, Lloyd, Larry H. and Gary B.) took down our large plant sale tents in quick order and some of the guys continued working on dismantling some of the plant sale tables. Larry H., Lloyd, Ron P. and Gary B. were also out collecting leaves and debris off the paths. The carpenters (Jim, Dave and Bob K.) headed out to work on a siding project and Ken (below) started painting our giant Adirondack chairs. The third photo down shows Dave and Jim (driving). Bob also had some other projects including electrical troubleshooting with Larry (see second photo down). Shirley, Kay and Eva all worked on tidying up the entrance garden and purging spent annuals. They came back with plenty of loads of debris. Maury ran more errands and helped haul mums up to the Parker Education Center for purchase. Del helped water the mums and we also saw Dr. Yahr, Bill O., Rollie and many others today.

The grounds staff was able to salvage an entire day outside with plenty of gardening tasks. We did finally get a little drizzle at the end of the day. John and Terry hauled bulbs over to the gift shop, ran our borrowed wagons back (thanks Flower Factory!) from the plant sale and had myriad other tasks out in the gardens. Cindy did a nice job tidying up the front entrance garden and Nancy Yahr Memorial Children's Garden. She's poised to do more mum planting later in the week as well. Larry ran irrigation all day, did some push mowing and had various other tasks as well. I toured the gardens briefly and was happy to see that our tropicals made it through the last three nights of 40 degree F temperatures. The gardens continue to transition smoothly in to Autumn but are still very colorful. I'm also working on details for our next big event; the Holiday Lights Show. Below are additional images from today.