Butterflies Galore!

Today was unique in that I didn't have much time to take photos, but no worries as I've been wanting to share these recent butterfly photos from Marsha Mood.  Marsha takes lots of photos out in the gardens (and elsewhere) and is very generous with sharing the wide range of beautiful photos that she takes While I don't know all the names of these butterflies, few would argue that they aren't a beautiful addition to the garden setting and I like to think our plantings encourage a "bumper crop" each year!

Our gardening volunteers today included Kathy, Kay, Mary and Myrt.  All four ladies did a nice job primping out in the gardens which continue to look fabulous.  The 1.25" of rain we had last night was very timely and allowed us to focus on other gardening tasks today besides watering!  Dr. Gredler came in for mowing, Dick H. was in for runs to the dump and Vern had some carpentry projects.  The Chestnut House volunteers stopped by to check on their raised planters which look great.  Pat M. continue to work on some Holiday Lights Show (HLS) preparations and we saw many others today as well.

Our grounds staff started the day with some brief projects inside as it rained for a good 20 minutes or so around our 7 am start time.  After the rains, the crew moved on to other projects.  Cindy potted up more of our new daylily (Hemerocallis) varieties and shifted to some weeding duties.  Cheryl continued her tidying and weeding in the azalea/rhododendron garden.  Larry H. did quite a bit of path "repair work" as the rains always create some washouts.  He also mowed and helped with some other projects.  Terry helped haul the debris of two trees that Big John removed out in the arboretum.  Terry had some other projects and John moved on to helping with water features, pruning and tidying up in the Jungle Garden.  Bob K. continued his cleaning efforts on multiple water features and has a large re-graveling project near the Horticulture Center.  I had a road trip to pick up some donated trees, placed plants for installation tomorrow and am shifting towards lots of preparation for our annual Fall Plant Sale (details soon on our website!).  Enjoy Marsha's photos!