Last Heat Wave!?

The chance of rain today didn’t materialize by the time of typing this blog although we sure hoped we would see some precipitation.  Since we rarely count on it, we continued with an aggressive watering campaign today with a combination of irrigation, sprinklers and good, old-fashioned hand watering!  It looks like the high tomorrow will only be 70 degrees F which is a bit more comfortable than this recent heat wave.  Nice shot above of ‘Lorelei’ Japanese anemone (Anemone x hybrida) which normally would have more pink in it but is still quite showy (perennial).  We saw quite a few visitors today including a young school group.  Our color is still hanging in there but we are sliding well past peak color with our annuals and are starting to remove some here and there as needed.

Our grounds staff of Larry H., Big John, Terry and Cindy all had watering duties in many locations.  Cindy continued gardening after finishing the cutting display while the gentlemen shifted to Holiday Light Show (HLS) set-up.  Our volunteers today included Kathy and Eva (garden clean-up), Steve E. (watering and leaf collection) and Elaine S. (planting and leaf collection).  We also saw Maury and a couple others today.  It was relatively quiet although we sure can use as much help as possible with clean-up efforts.  The cottonwoods (Populus deltoides) are really shedding leaves now!

‘Sophistica Lime Green’ petunia (Petunia) – annual

nice foliage combination in the gazebo garden

pods are opening up on common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) – perennial

‘Spring Green’ cockscomb (Celosia cristata) – annual

‘XXL Vera Cruz’ dahlia (Dahlia sp.) – annual

white Black-eyed Susan vine (Thunbergia alata ‘Alba’) – annual (with no dark center)

variegated shell ginger (Alpinia zerumbet ‘Variegata’) – tropical

the “watering can convoy” to help address all of our container watering needs!

‘Fireworks’ fountain grass (Pennisetum x advena) – not hardy (annual)

fall color starting on Tiger Eyes® golden sumac (Rhus typhina ‘Bailtiger’) – woody shrub

false aster (Boltonia asteroides) – perennial

‘Dr. Robert Yahr’ hosta (Hosta sp.) – newly dedicated to our founder ($75 each while supplies last!)