A Bit of a "Damper"...

More rain today although we did get about three hours before it was time to move back inside. Needless to say, the rain didn't help the plant sale and while we did have some traffic, I would classify it as a mediocre day for overall sales. We hope to do better throughout the week and are really pushing/promoting for a big weekend to finish off this fundraiser.
Marv and Terry planted another 200 perennials in the woodland walk garden before the rains while Marianne continued to operate the plant sale and found time to map out our most recently planted irises. Larry worked on equipment while Jerry and Janice bounced from project to project. We catch up on a lot of indoor work when it rains. The "flood guys" (Rick and Tony, who is new today) started outside replacing gravel paths but then headed indoors as well. The Grumpies weren't totally rained out and were able to do some leaf collection, air edging and shed work.
Neat plant combination (totally be accident) above and to the right. This is 'Daddy Blue Vein' petunia with winged everlasting (Ammobium alatum). Winged everlasting is native to Australia and is known for its cute white button flowers with pronounced yellow centers. Note the winged stems which are quite noticeable.
The hybrid, perennial geranium to the left is a variety called 'Ann Folkard'. We have many of these in partly shaded locations where the chartreuse foliage is quite consipicuous and combines well with the "dusky magenta" blossoms. If we remember, we like to cut all of our perennial geraniums down to an inch or so in mid-summer when they've become floppy to encourage new, compact growth and more flowers. Geraniums are indispensable in the garden in my estimation. The picture below is of a perennial that I just became aware of a couple of years ago. The Hungarian daisy (Leucanthemella serotina) blooms strongly from late August until frost. The clear white flower petals surround yellow centers (2-3" diameter blooms) and when the landscape start to look tired, these blooms are a nice touch of color.and while many catalogs list the mature height of this plant to be 30", I can attest to the fact that it can get closer to 4' tall. Regardless, what a neat perennial for late season color!

Three Down & Seven To Go

Today completed the third day of our ten day plant sale. The image above is from Saturday where we had record crowds and sales. Sorry no blog last night, I was in Chicago at a childhood friend's wedding. Today was beautiful weather and we did quite well overall. It's nice to see not only returning customers from past sales but also some new faces that just heard about the sale. We really do have diverse offerings at the sale and I see very few people leave empty handed. Some customers have to actually make multiple trips to pick up their purchases. Needless to say, we'll have to have a good week and weekend in terms of sales to make our goal. This income has become vital and an absolute essential at this time of year. Well, we're right on track with income thus far but the upcoming weather forecast might put a "damper" on things (pun intended). I missed the Garden Festival which ran Saturday afternoon although I hear it was a rousing success. The Master Gardeners did a great job as usual and kudos go out to Mike, Julie, Bev, Deb, Janice, Jim and the countless others that helped make this third annual event quite memorable. The hot peppers seemed popular and there were even some leftovers that we offered at the plant sale today (see below). An assortment of some of the heirloom tomatoes is also pictured. I believe this will continue to be a successful annual event. For those that aren't easily offended, check out the hairy balls in the bottom picture.Hairy balls (Gomphocarpus) is in the milkweed family and is an annual (4-5' tall) in our climate. I saw this at Olbrich Botanical Gardens (Madison, WI) last year and knew I had to grow it. They used it amongst tall ornamental grasses where the interesting "capsules"? become real eye catchers. A friend also mentioned a David Letterman episode where he and Martha Stuart were laughing at the common name of this plant which is also popular in fresh and dried arrangements. Definitely an interesting plant (and conversation piece...).

It Has Begun...

Our 10th Annual Fall Plant Sale started today with our pre-sale for volunteers and members of our Friends program. The day started off with dark clouds and mist. It was disconcerting to see minimal crowds early on but as the weather improved, customers/supporters came in droves. We did fairly well in terms of sales and had lots of positive comments regarding the quality of the sale. Marianne and I agreed that the plants look the best that they ever have. I'm proud of the group effort involved with getting this sale set up, organized and "off the ground." The volunteers were certainly instrumental but of course Marianne is the captain of this ship. Marv, Janice and Terry helped with finishing touches this morning and we spent some time doing fine tuning prior to the end of the day in anticipation of our biggest sale day (historically speaking).
Tomorrow is also the third annual Garden Festival hosted by the Rock Prairie Master Gardeners. It will be located at the east end of the gardens. There will be all sorts of activities, food, games, educational booths, vendors, etc. There was much setup going on today in regards to this event as well. Our hot pepper collection will be featured and volunteers were picking samples from many of the most interesting varieties. I snuck away from the plant sale to take pictures of some of these peppers before they were picked for the event. It would be an understatement to say that I was impressed by the variability of the peppers in terms of shape, color and even foliage. I can't attest to taste as I'm wimpy even with mild salsa. Below are some of the interesting varieties I ran across (remember, this is only a "smattering" of the 232 varieties!). Those below, in order include 'Shu' (with variegated leaves!), 'Chinese Five Color' and 'Aji Amarillo'.

The 2" Soaker Finally Arrives!

The picture of the sunflower (Helianthus annuus) above was not taken today for sure and was actually taken at the Klehm Arboretum in Rockford, IL. What a great plant for kids to start from seed in spring and observe thru the growing season! Today was overcast and drizzly from about 7:30 am on (still going at 8 pm). We've had close to two inches of rain throughout the day and this drizzle is a true "timely blessing" as the moisture has time to really soak in as opposed to flowing off quickly with a downpour. We've needed this rain for awhile now and certainly don't miss running sprinklers all day. This is also a nice way to water our 15,000 plants out in the plant sale.

In goint thru our woodland walk garden, I spotted another cool sedge that we planted this spring. Called blue sedge (Carex flacca 'Blue Zinger'), this is a good candidate for the shade garden. I love the powdery blue appearance of this sedge but we are considering this one "experimental" as the species is known as a moderate spreader but this variety is said to be more clump forming. We have it in part sun along paths and if it looks aggressive, we'll yank it out and use it in containers. The leaves you see in the image are from our cottonwood trees (Populus deltoides) that always seem to drop early. We're already starting to collect the annual deluge of 1 billion cottonwood leaves (a bit of an exaggeration, but not by much!).

Below is a neat foliage tropical that is a mouthful to say. This is variegated shell ginger (Alpinia zerumbet 'Variegata') that has beautiful striations of cream and yellow throughout long, leathery leaves. What a great tropical for part shade! Buy this as a plant and bring it in as a houseplant to overwinter it and enjoy its increasing size! We've used it successfully in both containers or open planted in beds as seen below in our sunken garden.

August To October in 12 Hours

With highs in the low 70s today, it was quite a change from yesterdays temperatures. Everyone mentioned how brutal it was yesterday. Nice shot above of the sunken garden today. Note the Rudbeckia 'Goldsturm' (featured previously in a blog) behind the bench. Despite looming clouds, we had no rain today but may get it Thursday. We'll see. Still lots of watering occurring today. The "flood fellas" kept busy today with more tree removals and path re-graveling. We had some help out in the plant sale today from Kay, Kristine and Cora. We should have more help tomorrow and did get our last big plant delivery this afternoon. All of our plant sale perennials are checked for labels and receive a label of a specific color that denotes their cost. The sale looks pretty good with lots for everybody.

To the right is a nice shot of one of my favorite begonias (Begonia coccinea 'Sinbad') that has nice pink blooms but is best known for its silver foliage with pink undertones. It's actually in the lower right of the topmost image. We've planted lots of this around the gardens where it thrives in part shade. I continue to be entranced and impressed with the durability and impact of begonias in general. To the lower left is a neat, semi-woody plant that I hope will be hardy in our climate. The common name for this plant is golden Aaron's beard (Hypericum calycinum 'Brigadoon') and it's known for bright yellow foliage in partly shaded conditions. This plant is listed to be hardy to zone 5 and should get 15-18" high and 24" wide. We planted about 50 of these in our new woodland walk garden along paths with the intent of them offering that "punctuation of brightness" throughout an area with dappled sunlight. The flowers of this plant are also yellow (this is also a species of St. John's wort) but are lost amongst the foliage. What a neat plant. It does have orange overtones and I could see using it as an annual or container component if it doesn't prove hardy.

The image at the bottom is of the visitors center at the Klehm Arboretum and Botanic Garden in Rockford, IL. My younger daughter and I went there on Saturday to walk around and we always enjoy our annual visit. They are a developing garden that already has a wonderful woody plant collection and they do amazing things on a tight budget. They are suffering some of the same financial challenges in which we are currently involved (they do charge a fee for non-members). I recommend a visit to everyone and feel that this garden will only get better each year and has a bright future. Rockford also has the famous Anderson Gardens which is one of the best Japanese gardens in North America.

Stifling Seems Appropriate

The heat was stifling and oppressive today. Nice close-up of plume celosia (Celosia plumosa 'Fresh Look Yellow') with a neat petunia (Petunia 'Opera Supreme Pink Morn') that are in our All-America Selections berm. I felt bad for Rick who was running the chainsaw all day and hauling brush. The grounds crew wilted too. I actually had the full contingent today (Larry, Marv, Marianne, Janice, Jerry and Terry). I have to admit that I had more air conditioning today then my co-workers as I worked with many people to get my work computer back in shape after some weird changes to our phone lines. Tech support can be quite frustrating and after 4 hours on the phones, we might have the problems solved. Kay, Heidi, Tim, Marilyn and some other volunteers helped out on the grounds but also helped tag plants in the plant sale. The Grumpies were again very helpful with plant sale prep and helping arrange the sale.

This is the time of year we start to see the thousands of 'Autumn Joy' sedums starting to turn pink for their late summer/early fall show. Don't get me wrong, I love 'Autumn Joy' sedum but do feel that it has become overplanted. Sedum (stonecrop) is a very durable plant in the garden and can take brutal sun and poor soil. The sedum pictured below is 'Red Cauli' sedum (Sedum telephium 'Red Cauli') and is one of the "hottest" sedums out there. Known for its bright red, tight 2-3" clusters, this sedum also has bluish-green foliage and can tolerate tough conditions but prefers full sun for sure. This variety was winner of the prestigious Royal Horticultural Society's (UK) Garden Merit award in 2006. It has blooming like this for almost a month at Rotary Gardens and I certainly see using more of this particular sedum.

Another Hot One

Above is a shot thru the "bamboo window" of our Ma Chii'. This structure is in our fern & moss garden and I'm sure the spelling isn't correct. This structure is an authentic reproduction of a Japanese resting structure, not a tea house. Scott, a local landscaper and talented carpenter built this as well as most of the fern & moss garden about six years ago. Many visitors enjoy sitting here and are positioned near the small waterfall and meandering stream in that garden. Note the circular window below that is opposite the one above. One side of the structure is open and it is a nice place to contemplate (and duck out of the rain)!Today was another hot one (90+ F). Larry worked today and should have had volunteer help with watering the plant sale mums and other needy plants. I'm sure he had a full day of running irrigation and keeping things from drying out. Tomorrow continues the deluge of plants for the plant sale and is also a "shifted" Grumpy day due to Labor Day. I'll get to promote our sale on local radio and have lots to do in preparation for the sale. No doubt it will be a busy week! Below is a nice image of globe amaranth (Gomphrena globosa 'Woodcreek Orange') in our entrance garden. Sometimes it can be a bit floopy in rich soils but is doing well as an upright. This is also a great cut and/or dried flower.