Rotary Botanical Gardens

Above are both Nancy (top photo) and Mary (directly above) who spent a huge amount of volunteer time this morning helping to tag and organize our plant sale. They were helped by Debbie, Stacy, Jenny, Vern and Dick H. We have another tagging group coming in tomorrow that will finish the pricing and we should be ready to go for our sale. It was a crazy day of deliveries with three large truck bringing shrubs, roses and thousands of perennials. We were fortunate that the trucks were staggered with their arrival and we had plenty of help to unload everything in an efficient manner. Marianne was again the glue that kept everything together and she runs a tight and efficient ship for every plant sale.

Not too long ago I showed the fruiting structure above (an aggregate of follicles) from our umbrella magnolia (Magnolia tripetala). It was pink a couple weeks ago but caught my eye from 50 yards today now that this fruiting structure and turned a bright red! Neat-o. Actually, the entire grounds staff was here today and most broke away from their respective projects to help unload the plant delivery trucks when they arrived. Larry kept the irrigation going, set-up sprinklers and helped with various projects. Little Jerry was here pruning and collecting debris while Big John was in to dig out plants, water and work on some shearing. He’s also doing double duty helping maintain the visitors center. Terry helped water mums this morning and moved on to watering, weeding and shearing. Marv moved around sprinklers all day but spent significant time creating a new bed in the terrace garden that will be finished off with edging this Friday. Marianne helped almost exclusively with the plant sale and our progress was truly amazing. Janice helped with myriad projects including watering, weeding, sweeping, unloading and working with a new group of volunteers. I bounced between projects and worked on those that were the most timely (plant sale related). We also had Robert, the plant records technician, from Olbrich Botanical Gardens come in all morning and work with Jenny and Gary on fine tuning our laser engraver templates and production plan. He was very helpful and we appreciate his valuable time greatly. The work on “the point” is going well and Nature’s Touch is doing a nice job placing rock walls to stabilize our shoreline and define our newest garden space (see below). This time of year is a nice reflection on the commitment of our volunteers as they pour in to help set-up and manage the plant sale. Our volunteers realize how vital this fundraiser is for the gardens and manage to dedicate many hours to this event and many others. With over 160 volunteer slots to fill for this event, we are pleased to have such ardent supporters. With Nancy, Mary, Debbie and Jenny tagging plants today, we’re well prepared to be set up for this sale tomorrow. Vern and Dick H. helped unload and water the thousands of plants that have been experiencing serious winds over the past couple of days. Jan was in to clean-up the Scottish garden and Bill was here to help shear our huge Chinese juniper (Juniperus chinensis ‘Fairview’) hedges around the reception garden. Dr. Gredler was here all day mowing and digging out crabgrass and replacing it with good turf from Marv’s project. We also saw Deb, Ken, Marilyn, Maury, Mike, Dave and a great new group of young volunteers that will be working with Janice weekly. Nice shot to the left of the ‘Strawberry Fields’ globe amaranth (Gomphrena haageana) that is mass planted throughout our maroon and red theme and is in our Gomphrena collection as well. You can see how it gets its name and it is certainly my favorite variety of the bunch. To the right is our currently “most asked about perennial”. This is one of the bush clematis’ (Clematis heracleifolia var. davidiana) although I don’t remember the variety. This plant does not vine but creates a sprawling mass about 3′ tall and 8′ wide. It is covered with bloom clusters right now and gets lots of praise. The Latin seems variable for this clematis but do keep an eye out for the “bush types” if you have the space and patience for later blooms. Below is a recent shot of our terrace garden border, still hanging in there and representin’ the maroon/red color theme.

The grasses above (Pennisetum ‘Fireworks’) are just a slight indication of the winds that whipped thru the gardens today. It was brutal but we had a busy day around the gardens and over at the Horticulture Center where we’re preparing for the start of our annual fall plant sale. This Friday, September 10th, is the start of the sale and is a presale for our Friends Members only. This allows them to get first crack at our nice assortment of plants that are currently arriving daily. The sale then runs daily (9am-5pm) thru the following Saturday, September 18th. Tomorrow will be insane with three truckl oads of perennials and shrubs rolling in (hopefully not at the same time!). Nice shot below of another Ball Seed petunia called ‘Rhythm & Blues’ which is looking spectacular today while many of its brethren are looking quite sad. I like the crisp picotee edge and violet blue coloration. I think I’ve shown this variety previously but it is quite striking. I think I’ll get lots of this variety next year…

We hit the ground running this morning with watering our 2,000 mums that are poised and ready for purchase ($8 each for giant-sized!). With limited staff on the holiday yesterday and whipping winds early, it became a struggle keeping up with watering. Kay and Bev did a nice job watering most of the morning. Terry and Big John went with Dick P. and Ron W. to The Flower Factory to pick up borrowed wagons and plants for the sale. Larry kept irrigation running while Little Jerry mowed and did garden clean-up. Janice and Marv later worked on their moss project and moved on to other projects later. Marianne inventoried, organized and priced our plant sale bulbs (with timely help from Bev W. and Janice). Just about everyone did some watering and it was a crazy, hectic day. I had some meetings and just tried to keep up with juggling garden tasks, plant sale preparations and getting ready for some looming presentations. It’s interesting that way back in April, I was blogging about everything being three weeks early. Well, the colchicums (see to the left) are blooming early too. They sure are a delight to observe and the thousands we have around the gardens, although planted years ago, continue to astound and impress visitors. Called Autumn crocus, these plants are actually in the lily (Liliacea) family while true crocus are actually in the iris (Iridacea) family. Note there is no foliage with the colchicum as the glossy, 18″ tall foliage came up in spring then went dormant in June. These are expensive bulbs (corms), typically purchased and planted in August, but the rewards are great. To the right is a shot of one of the white gauras (Gaura lindheimeri) blooming like crazy in our parking lot islands. I’ve always been impressed with gauras, also called wandflowers, as they literally bloom for three months of the summer and always look good. Some people are wary of them as they may not be long-lived perennials or may only make it a season with a really hard winter. However, their flower power is second to none and the sunny, exposed site in our parking lot with winter salts, no watering and other abuse is as tough as it gets for a perennial. Native to LA and TX, these perennials also have merit in the container and always look good mixed with ornamental grasses. There used to be just a few varieties out there a decade ago but there are now many, many varieties with a nice range of pink flower coloration and dwarf statures too. Below is a shot today of our ‘Dialogue’ sculpture and surrounding annuals. Note the fence securing the perimeter. The guys did a nice job installing it.
Dave, Jim, Bob A. and Vern worked on building three new memorial benches that will go out in the gardens next spring. Gary came in to get our laser engraver and computer all hooked up as we have Robert from Olbrich coming down tomorrow to work with us on fine tuning our label making templates and processes. Jenny will join us for the training. Rollie, Bob C. and Dick H. helped organize the plant sale while Del worked on trying to collect debris out in the gardens. After watering, Kay went out weeding and collecting debris as did some other Grumpies. Dick P., Maury and Dr. Gredler were here helping out as well. We saw so many people today, including some early shoppers that tried to infiltrate the sale to no avail…. Below is a shot of the ornamental edible wall (looking sharp) and some neat shots of our wishing well garden which has filled out nicely after the irises were removed and divided two months ago…

We talked alot about moss today. With our visit to Dale’s garden a couple weeks ago, we decided to replicate many of his ideas. Janice and Marv were given the charge of renovating our moss island and when I came in today, Marv had brought in moss (below), moss troughs and rocks (both above) and we soon noticed that Janice had already collected over 20 square feet of moss earlier in the week and it was in carboard flats, ready to go. With some assistance from Terry, Marv and Janice started the transformation and will continue over the coming weeks. Marianne, Little Jerry and I joined in the conversations about where we’ve seen moss and how it can be collected and utilized. I look forward to the final result and am impressed with Marv and Janice’s “pluck” regarding this project. Little Jerry mowed today and did some garden clean-up. Marianne and I talked quite a bit about our upcoming fall plant sale (Sept. 11-18) and started gathering signs and creating lists. Marv and Terry did a nice job getting the yard organized this morning and while Terry moved on to mowing and watering, Marv sunk his teeth in to the moss project. Janice tidied up wedding sites, mowed and worked on the moss as well. Dr. Gredler was here mowing and Kay came in and provided a wide swath of weeding attention throughout the arboretum bed and other locations. She is a big reason why the gardens look so well kept. Mary H. was in and we saw Mary W. with four RECAPPERS today too. We also saw Bev D., Roger, Julie and Larry G. In between all our activities, we unloaded 500 asters and 500 mums for the upcoming sale. We now have to keep these (and other incoming plants) watered over the next two weeks or so. The weather looks to be cool this weekend which should help with watering chores. Below are some shots of authentic moss patches up on Rock Island (Door County, WI) where my 10 year old daughter and I were camping over the past four days. She got tired of me taking moss shots but I couldn’t help myself (I also have ferns and wildflowers…). The two bottom photos include the historic boat house on Rock Island (seen from the beach in front of our campsite) and one of our spectacular sunsets, also from the campsite.

Not much time to type but it was an awesome day at the iris sale and the 5th Annual Garden Festival today. Lots of great volunteers and both events were very well received. See some of the highlights below (although the iris picture is from May!). I’m on vacation (Door Co.) until next Fri. Have fun out in your gardens!

All if the images in this blog with the exception of the bottommost shot were taken yesterday at Dale’s garden in Waukesha. His moss beds are truly exceptional and his interest in mosses for containers has also become one of his addictions. He has over 200 pots with mosses although many also have miniature ferns, hostas and other perennials as well as interesting rocks and other personalized elements. Dale is a retired economics instructor and it is obvious that his passion is his 1 acre garden. I met him 6 years ago when he came over to see our fern & moss garden. We chatted and he obviously knew his mosses and became more of a teacher than a student! Dale is also a top notch photographer and we were able to see some framed shots of his travels around the world. Very impressive.
Today was another delightful day of 80 degrees F and sunshine. Larry started the day by unloading 20 pallets (900 bags) of our bagged mushroom compost that we’ll be offering at our upcoming fall plant sale (September 11 thru the 18th). He then moved on to running irrigation, mowing, watering, etc. Janice was here this morning and helped get our volunteers organized then moved on to planting, watering and other gardening tasks. We had a nice turnout of volunteers as well. Suzy, Winnifred, Mary and Glenna came in and did a weeding sweep of the sunken garden, reception garden and shade garden. They always do such a nice job and work well together. Margo came in and did her own weeding sweep of the terrace garden, wishing well garden and the color rooms. Margo has been a volunteer for many years and was in the Master Gardener program way back when I started at RBG. She’s quite a gardener and a great volunteer. Dick P. and Big John worked further on the venting system for the laser engraver while Dave, Jim, Bob A. and Vern worked on various carpentry projects. Charlie, Ron B. and Del helped get tents set-up for the upcoming iris sale and layed our our temporary plant sale parking lot across from our frontage road. Dr. Gredler continued to mow and Dr. Yahr helped process labels. Marianne came in to start working on iris sale preparations and we also saw Deb, Laura, Maury, Barb, Marv, Mary Kay and many others. The gourds at the bottom are just some of those that will be featured at the Garden Festival this Saturday. Note the neat “Prickles” gourd that looks painful but is quite rubbery right now. Pretty cool. I sprayed herbicide today and worked on a dozen different tasks that are all becoming quite time sensitive.