Community Appreciation Day

Posted: August 1, 2016 by Mark Dwyer

Today was one of the busiest days at the gardens that I’ve seen in years. Promoted as Community Appreciation Day, admission was by donation today with proceeds benefiting the gardens, the Janesville Police Department and Janesville Fire Department. There were activities, food and appearances by fire and police department representatives (including a K-9 dog). There were lots of families and children enjoying the gardens and with peak summer color occurring, it was a great day to have people enjoy garden spaces such as the one seen above. The portion of the entrance garden seen above (with our entry sign) is a small segment of the vast entrance garden which features 25,000 All-America Selection (AAS) plants. This colorful, multi-color garden space is looking excellent and will be featured at the end of the month when AAS hosts their annual meeting up in Madison, WI. The group will travel to the gardens for a tour and an evening event. We’re so excited to showcase our AAS collection as well as the gardens in general.

The grounds staff had plenty of work on this hot and sunny day. Everyone had some watering duties as we continue to keep everything hydrated this summer. Some recent rainfall has certainly helped and it looks like we have a pretty good chance of some more rain over the next two days. Big John worked on more pressure washing, watering, sprinkler set up / shifting and myriad other tasks. Larry H. had weeding, watering, planting and some other duties. Trevor watered almost the entire day while Nolan also watered but had time for some herbicide application here and there. I was able to tour the gardens and went around with some herbicide as well. I’m organizing our remaining perennials and woody plants for installation hopefully yet this month.

‘Sylphid’ plume celosia (Celosia plumosa) – annual

‘White Wedding’ zinnia (Zinnia elegans) – annual

‘Purple Flash’ ornamental hot pepper (Capsicum annuum) – annual

‘Viette’s Little Suzy’ black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia fulgida var. speciosa) and ‘Summer Beauty’ ornamental onion (Allium sp.) – both perennials

‘Indian Summer’ gloriosa daisy (Rudbeckia hirta) – annual

Our volunteers were excellent as usual. Steve (above) has become a very handy “troublshooter”. Seen above, he is repairing the last of many tripod sprinklers that we’ve been having trouble with over the last week or so. Kathy, Eva, Sandi and Shirley H. all had tidying duties in the entrance garden which included some replanting. Ron Y., Vern and Dave all had carpentry projects while Dick H. ran to the dump and had some other duties around the Horticulture Center such as cutting up and preparing more sign stakes. Maury (see below) cleaned up the lady fountain and the gutters near our garden entry while being supervised by Mark S. (directly below him). Ron P. worked on air edging and both Dr. Gredler and Rollie did their mowing rounds. Jenny was in to tidy up her garden space (the hosta hollow). Larry helped water out in the yard. Patrea came in to work on labels and we also saw Gary, Joanne A. and many others.