We Beat the Rain, Today...

It was cloudy today and it always felt like it was going to rain at any minute. Well, the rain did hold off until 4 pm or so but thankfully at the end of the sale itself. Unfortunately the weather forecast for tomorrow indicates a 90% chance of rain. I just hope it is sporadic and allows some customers to make it to the sale. Lots of work done today. The flood guys did some brush clean-up, pressure washing and gravel replacement. Marv and Terry worked on some edging issues and lots of other tasks. See below. Marianne completed day 8 of our plant sale with more energy left than I had all day. Janice juggled a wide range of gardening projects today. She labeled, sorted and planted some neat ferns in our fern & moss garden today. Another short blog tonite too as I'm spent.

Poised Precipitation?

Nice caladium with 'Molten Lava' oxalis above. Today was overcast with the persistent threat of rain. I had mixed feelings about possible rain because although the garden could use it, rain would dramatically affect the success of the plant sale today. Well, the rain held off and we all kept busy thru the day. I just feel asleep while typing this so I'm on "borrowed time!" I spoke up in Baraboo, WI tonite for the Sauk County Master Garderners and enjoyed their enthusuiam. Nice variety ('Sioux Blue') below of the native Indian grass (Sorghastrum nutans) that is known for it's powerdery blue leaves and mature height close to 7'. Fading fast....more tomorrow.

Another Fantabulous Day

I ran across this image recently as I filed my photos from this year. Taken at Olbrich Botanical Gardens, this combination (in a container) includes the dark maroon leaves of calico plant (Alternanthera dentata 'Purple Knight') and a neat vine called Spanish flag (Mina lobata). I love this vine which a morning glory relative. The newest blooms open red and age to orange, yellow, then white. The bloom clusters look like little puffs of flame and grown as a typical vine, it will grow very quickly during the growing season. It's commonly available in seed catalogs although the calico plant is easier found as a plant in spring. I took a shot today of the white wood aster (Aster divaricata 'Raiche Form') which is in full bloom in a partly shaded portion of our woodland walk garden. This plant in native to Eastern North America, particularly in the Appalachians. We planted a large colony and are rewarded every year with a haze of blooms. This plant will even flower decently in shade. Here's a good example of a plant that botanists have decide to reclassify. The new name replaces Aster with Eurybia. So when people say that they like that white aster, I'll reply, "Oh, do you mean the Eurybia?" I'll sound so cool.
We had another productive day with Marianne running the plant sale and Marv and Terry accomplishing edging work, planting and other duties. They are a good team and collectively seem to get more work done in a day than I would ever think possible for two people. Hal and Doris planted mums in their area and continue to do a great job in a high profile area of the gardens. Jerry was all over pruning, collecting debris and helping me with two large crews of volunteers that came for the United Way "Day of Caring". I had 20 people today that did a great job raking and cleaning up our mounting mountains of leaves! The flood guys kept busy and shifted from path work to more tree removal. Tomorrow they tackle a 60' tall Siberian elm with a 30" diameter trunk. They've always been up for a challenge though.... Below is the variegated giant reed grass (Arundo donax 'Versicolor'). This seasonal, non-hardy grass will grow up to 5-7' tall in one season and has such an interesting, bright look. One of my favorites for sure.

Perfect Weather (No Sarcasm)

It really was a nice day with afternoon temperatures in the 70s. The mornings have been a bit cool but not overly so. The plant sale was a bit more active today and I'm sure we did better than our "soggy Monday." We're making all efforts to promote the sale this week and are looking forward to clearing more plants out. Larry helped Rick and Tony get set up to pressure-wash our brick paths in the sunken garden. We had some flooding this spring in that garden and the bricks, many of which have lettering on them, were getting harder to read due to dust and debris. The fellas did a nice job and Greg came later to help them re-gravel a path. Jerry kept busy with pruning and hauling piles of debris. Marianne ran the plant sale but was able to sneak away and continue labeling and mapping our expanding iris collection. Janice worked on labels, rose assessments, moss clean-up (with a volunteer) and other duties around the gardens. Kay sunk her teeth in to the woodland walk with weeding and leaf clean-up. We have to perpetually remove leaves in phases (mainly cottonwoods) because of the sheer volume that would accumulate if we waited until the end of the season. Many of these leaves go in to Marv's growing compost pile at the Horticulture Center.
The image to the left is one of my favorite coleus' (Solenstemon scutellarioides) called 'Freckles'. The swirl of orange and yellow is showy and this coleus is used often throughout our orange and blue theme this year. Note the bluish grass poking thru the gaps. This is the non-hardy love grass (Eragrostis elliottii 'Wind Dancer') that achieves heights around 5' tall and appears quite wispy. See a full sized specimen in the other picture to the right. We used lots of this grass this year but I think it became floppy in some instances because of the volume of precipitation. Annual seasonal grasses can be great role players in the garden and are wonderful components for texture and color in the container as well as the garden bed. One of my other favorite annual grasses can be seen below. This is feathertop grass (Pennisetum villosum) that goes from a little green clump in spring to this gorgeous plant with billowing inflorescences (flower and seed head) in a creamy white. This grass becomes an important component in August when it begins to bloom

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'.