The gardens continue to be very colorful. Above is a small vignette in the shade garden which features 'Unstoppable Upright Fire' begonia (Begonia) and the silvery 'Pegasus' begonia (Begonia) as well. We had some nice rain on Saturday which has mitigated our need for irrigation or sprinklers for at least yesterday and today as it still looks quite damp out there. While the temperatures should be increasing this week in to the upper 80 degrees F and lower 90 degrees F, the plants wont mind the warm up. Some of the tropicals, including our Elephant Ear Collection, would sure appreciate the heat! We had another super turnout of volunteers today and with watering needs minimal, we all collectively dove in to gardening projects and many other duties. All the photos in today's blog were taken this morning.
kiss-me-over-the-garden-gate (Polygonum orientale) - annual (drops LOTS of seed!)
'Blue Boa' hyssop (Agastache hybrida) - perennial
'Gnash Rambler' coleus (Solenostemon scutellarioides) - annual
'Boule de Neige' double pearlwort (Achillea ptarmica) - perennial
'Curly Fries' hosta (Hosta) - perennial
I had a tour this morning and lacked the time to photograph all of our wonderful volunteers but was able to capture Eva (above) on her way back to join Kathy with primping and tidying in the entrance garden and terrace garden. The ladies always do a nice job. Rollie (directly below) mowed along with Dr. Gredler. Lloyd worked on path repair and improvements while Ron R. collected leaves and debris from other areas. Vern, Dave, Jim and Ron Y. continued on their carpentry projects which included building some neat raised beds for all-accessible gardening. Dick P. was in to help out and Dick H. ran to the dump and was working on equipment repairs. Pat M. continued with his pre-Holiday Lights Show duties which are significant. Gary was in to help with some pre-plant sale activities and Pat C. popped by for label production. Maury ran many errands for us and Alan continued with his edging/weeding project around the Horticulture Center beds. We also saw Dr. Yahr, Terri N., Karen, Skylar and many others today including Larry Olsen who stopped by around the lunch hour.
We had a quartet of VIPs arrive this morning from Cantigny Gardens (www.cantigny.org/gardens) in Wheaton, IL. I love this garden and have visited many times over the years. The gang can be seen above and we had a delightful stroll through the gardens and talked "shop" all along. We enjoy receiving these visits and making these trips ourselves as we find we have much to share and learn. Botanical garden folks are very cordial and we enjoyed having these folks from Cantigny visit us today.
I spent some time with these folks and moved on to more desk work related to getting our Fall Plant Sale in order and other upcoming events. Big John and Terry hung out today and worked on planting five trees, removing a good sized, dead Scotch pine (Pinus sylvestris), container watering and many other duties. Bob K. cleaned out the far end of the pond including our "water movers", watered, repaired a mower and bounced between other duties. Larry H. did a nice job continuing his mulching work in the Scottish garden and woodland glade garden and did quite a bit of push mowing as well. He is a productive and steady worker which we already knew with his many years as a Grumpy! Great day overall!
'Varied Directions' larch (Larix x marschlinsii) - woody tree
'Midori Sour' elephant ear (Colocasia esculenta) - tropical
'Banana Boat' sedge (Carex siderosticha) - perennial
shade garden annuals featuring 'Blazin' Rose' bloodleaf (Iresine hybrida) in the center
'China Purple' bush clematis (Clematis heracleifolia) - perennial
strawflower (Helichrysum bracteatum) - annual
'Tidal Wave' katsuratree (Cercidiphyllum japonicum) - woody tree
'Elephant Head' amaranth (Amaranthus gangeticus) - annual
the mushrooms are coming up quickly after the heavy rains on Saturday
Mums are starting to arrive for the Fall Plant Sale!....make sure you mark the calendar for September 12th and 13th (9 am - 4pm daily) for mums ($8 each!) and a whole lot more (RBG Members are invited to our Friday, September 11th Pre-Sale from 9 am - 4 pm with everything 10% off)
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