Fun In The Sun

Well, the chance of rain never materialized which has been our luck as of late.  We started and ended the day watering and are doing the best to keep up. The gardens still look great (see the entrance garden above and formal gardens below) although a nice soaking rain would go a long way in greening things up a bit.  Regardless, most of our volunteers were in for the morning portion of the day to avoid the heat.  We had a nice turnout and the gardens look great for a busy, hot weekend that includes our Love In Bloom – A Garden Bridal Expo this Sunday.  See our website at rotarygardens.wpengine.com for more information on this event.
I was remiss in my photos of volunteers today although we had some of our best on hand.  Kathy and Eva tidied up in multiple areas and continue to do fine work out in the gardens every weekday.  Kay was in to spruce up an area near the sunken garden which really looked great after she was done.  Karen and Cheryl tidied in the Japanese garden and Dr. Gredler and Bill O. were in for their mowing rounds.  Vern and Dick H. had some projects in the Horticulture Center and we also saw Chuck S., Dr. Yahr and many others today.
The grounds staff took the heat all day.  Trevor push mowed and did lots of watering.  It was his last day today as he heads to UW-Whitewater soon.  Big John set up lots of sprinklers, ran irrigation, helped water containers and had some other odd jobs here and there. Janice also had plenty of watering duties, did the cutting display and tidied a couple locations as well.  Bob K. finished his graveling project near the Horticulture Center and moved on to lots of watering in the afternoon.  I also helped with watering and caught up on a huge pile of desk work in the air conditioned comfort of the office which would come as no surprise to those that know me well.  Another great day!  Lots of color out in the gardens as evidenced in this blog.
 Abyssinian banana (Ensete ventricosum ‘Maurelii’) – tropical
 ‘Purple Majesty’ ornamental millet (Pennisetum glaucum) – annual
 ‘Lemon Lace’ vine (Fallopia aubertii) – woody vine
 ‘Becky’ Shasta daisy (Leucanthemum x superbum) – perennial
 ‘Razzleberry’ stonecrop (Sedum hybrida) – perennial
‘Saratoga’ ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba) – woody tree
 ‘Vertigo’ elephant grass (Pennisetum purpureum) – annual for us
 ‘Peppermint’ coral bells (Heuchera) – perennial
‘Moonshine’ lungwort (Pulmonaria) – perennial
 standing cypress (Ipomopsis rubra) – annual (great for hummingbirds!)
 ‘Pink Frost’ variegated Japanese Joe-pye weed (Eupatorium fortunei) – perennial
 ‘Pink Temptation’ turtlehead (Chelone lyonii) – perennial
 ‘Blazin’ Lime’ bloodleaf (Iresine hybrida) – annual
color in the shade garden above with ‘Molten Lava’ ornamental shamrock (Oxalis vulcanicola) in the foreground and ‘Gartenmeister’ fuchsia (Fuchsia triphylla) in back amongst other neighbors