August arrived with sunshine and a warm day in the mid 80 degrees F.  It ended up being quite sticky this afternoon but it was nice to see a large turnout of visitors enjoying summer peak at the gardens.  Many of our beds, like the one seen above, have filled in nicely and are looking good.  August has always been a good month for us in terms of presentation although we’re starting to do more watering to augment some areas that are finally drying out after weeks of fairly heavy and consistent precipitation.  Our grounds staff of Cindy, Larry H., Janice and Trevor all had a busy day of weeding, mowing, mulching, watering and other duties.  I was able to apply herbicide along many of our paths as the weeds haven’t slowed down much this summer.  We had another great day.

‘Zahara Double Raspberry Ripple’ zinnia (Zinnia marylandica) – annual

peek-a-boo plant (Spilanthes oleracea) – annual

buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis) – woody shrub

‘Summer Beauty’ ornamental onion (Allium sp.) – perennial

‘Neptune’s Net’ coleus (Solenostemon scutellarioides) – annual

Above are Eva (left) and Kathy ducking down and hiding in the formal garden (I think they were weeding…).  We had some great volunteer help today.  Bill O. was in for mowing.  Vicky O. was in to weed and tidy up her various assigned garden spaces.  Peg came in to work on labels and plant records.  Don and Pearl stopped by to tend their garden space at the far end of the shade garden.  Dale S. (“Mr. Moss”) came in to check on the moss gardens and is always a big help.  We also saw Art, Marlene, Mark S. and many others today.

Vicky O.

Pearl and Don

blackberry lily (Belamcanda chinensis) – perennial

‘Alumia Vanilla Cream’ marigold (Tagetes patula) – annual

Vermillionaire® firecracker plant (Cuphea hybrida) – annual

prairie blazing star (Liatris pycnostachya) – perennial

bloom of ‘Sibley’ winter squash (Cucurbita maxima) in the Heirloom Garden – annual

dill (Anethum graveolens) – annual

dahlia (Dahlia variabilis) mix in the Heirloom Garden – annual

‘Cosmic Orange’ sulphur cosmos (Cosmos sulphureus) – annual

‘Strawberry Fields’ globe amaranth (Gomphrena haageana) – annual

compass plant (Silphium laciniatum) – perennial

Nice shot above of Easy Elegance® My Girl rose (Rosa hybrida ‘BAIgirl’) in the French formal garden.  It was a beautiful, late July day with ample sunshine and a temperature around 83 degrees F.  While it hasn’t dried out in the shadier locations out in the gardens, some of the more exposed spots were getting dry and needed some watering today.  It looks like some rain later in the week which would continue a great run of nicely spaced showers since May!  Our grounds staff of Larry O., Larry H., Cindy and Trevor all had watering duties of some sort today along with other garden tasks to accomplish.  I had some meetings and am getting ready for our August 9th Horticulture Therapy Conference (see our website and register!) and our Fall Plant Sale isn’t that far away either (September 8, 9 and 10 with RBG Member pre-sale on the 7th).

Surprisingly I didn’t take any photos of our wonderful volunteers today but we sure had a good batch of them.  With projects ranging from weeding to edging and sweeping to mowing, it was a very productive Monday as usual.  Kathy and Eva weeded in multiple locations while Dr. Gredler and Rollie took care of the mowing.  Alan, Bob K., Lloyd, Derrick and Ron R. all had gardening duties while Dick H. ran to the dump multiple times.  Stan, Kristin, Greg and Cheryl all spent some quality time in the Japanese garden which is looking great.  Ron Y., Vern, Steve and Jim worked on a wide range of carpentry projects while Ron P. was close by repairing lights for the Holiday Light Show (HLS).  Hard to believe that some initial set up for the HLS will begin in about a month!  UGH.  Maury ran errands for us and we saw Mark S., Maryam, Becky, Barb C. and many others today.

sea lavender (Limonium latifolium) – perennial

‘Wendy’s Wish’ salvia (Salvia hybrida) – annual

‘Tritunia Blue Star’ petunia (Petunia) – annual

‘Gateway’ Joe-pye weed (Eupatorium maculatum) – perennial

‘Love and Wishes’ salvia (Salvia hybrida) – annual

I keep photographing the North Point garden which looks awesome! (above)

‘Mazurkia’ zinnia (Zinnia elegans) – annual

‘Cupcakes Mix’ cosmos (Cosmos bipinnatus) – annual

scarlet gilia (Ipomopsis aggregata) – annual

the Gothic theme in the entrance garden (above) is filling in well

Persian shield (Strobilanthes dyerianus) – annual

variegated cattails (Typha latifolia ‘Variegata’) – perennial

‘Prairie Sun’ gloriosa daisy (Rudbeckia hirta) – annual

‘Blue Mink’ flossflower (Ageratum houstonianum) – annual

Abyssinian bananas (Ensete ventricosum ‘Maurelii’) are loving all the recent rain!

Royal Hawaiian® ‘Black Coral’ elephant ear (Colocasia esculenta) – tropical

fragrant heliotrope (Heliotropium arborescens ‘Atlantis’) – annual

‘Prairie Moon’ rattlesnake master (Eryngium yuccifolium) – perennial (with garden phlox)

the Giant Aquarium (above and below) is looking really neat right now!

The photos in this blog share an adventure that some of us took this past Friday when we enjoyed the Customer Day at the Gardens of the Ball Horticultural Company in West Chicago, Illinois.  Bobby K., Cindy, Trevor, Janice (with husband Mike) and I enjoyed touring the display gardens with 1200 other folks from around the country.  I saw many old friends and was able to capture plenty of images with my new camera (nothing fancy…just another CANON PowerShot…love these!).  Directly above are just some of the coneflower (Echinacea sp.) trials.  We all did our own thing with exploring the trials, going on tours, attending lectures, visiting vendors, etc.  The folks at Ball throw a great shin dig with an excellent lunch as well.  We left Larry H. and Nolan back at the gardens to keep everything moving along with our excellent volunteers.  It was a beautiful day and these are just a small fraction of the exciting things we saw on Friday.  I’ve been to this event seven or eight times in the past and continue to enjoy seeing lots of cool plants!

Sombrero® Baja Burgundy coneflower (Echinacea hybrida ‘Balsombabur’) – perennial

Trevor with some cool new climbing sweet potato vines (Ipomoea batatas ‘Solar Tower Black & Lime’) – annuals

‘Zinderella Purple’ zinnia (Zinnia) – annual

‘Dracula’ cockscomb (Celosia cristata) – annual

sweet potato vine (Ipomoea batatas) trials

‘Canary Wings’ begonia (Begonia sp.) – annual

Summer Romance™ Vining Yellow mandevilla (Mandevilla sp.) – annual

Sweet Summer panicled hydrangea (Hydrangea paniculata ‘Bokrathirteen’) – woody shrub

Lacey Blue  Russian sage (Perovskia atriplicifolia ‘Lisslitt’) – perennial

This is another late blog from last Wednesday that I wanted to share as it features some of our best gardening volunteers at the gardens.  All of these photos were shared by Janice (thank you!) and show the gardening success of our Chestnut House volunteers with their planters near the Horticulture Center.  Jordan (above), Janelle (below) and Victoria (two photos down) have done excellent work as have the other volunteers involved with this group.  Dawn is also a huge help and she and Janice keep everyone on task although these volunteers are veteran gardeners and have maintained these planters in the past.  Excellent volunteers.

the “Talented Threesome” of Jordan, Janelle and Victoria (left to right) showing off their produce!

Due to a very busy schedule and other challenges, I’ve neglected to post two blogs that I has been working on in the last week or two.  I think this one was from two Thursdays ago but I thought it important to share the photos for sure!  Above is Queen Anne’s lace (Daucus carota) which looks great when at peak.  The top photo features our Gothic color theme in the entrance garden which continues to fill in nicely. I wont recall all the great staff and volunteer help we had on that Thursday but rest assured it was significant!

‘Armor Orange’ cockscomb (Celosia cristata) – annual

Dr. Gredler, our “Superintendent of Sod”, keeps up with plenty of mowing!

‘Armor Yellow’ cockscomb (Celosia cristata) – annual

‘The Rocket’ ligularia (Ligularia stenocephala) – perennial

sunken garden above

silver spurflower (Plectranthus argentatus) – annual

‘Black & Blue’ anise sage (Salvia guaranitica) – annual

fragrant heliotrope (Heliotropium arborescens) above and below – annual (fragrant!)

the sunken garden

entrance garden (above)

‘Chocolate Royale’ painted tongue (Salpiglossis sinuata) – annual

Nancy (The Flower Factory) had a great talk/presentation on late season perennials with 45 in attendance