Overnight Rain! – Yay!

Nice shot above of ‘Alexander’s Great’ false forget-me-not (Brunnera macrophylla).  We finally had some rain over the evening.  It was fast and furious with some thunder but did bring us 4/10″ of much needed moisture!  The cooler temperatures today brought in some great volunteer help.  We still have quite a few visitors to the gardens as the color is still quite exceptional.  We’ll start removing some of our seasonals next week in advance of our Holiday Light Show (HLS) set-up needs.  We also need to process our larger tropicals for winter storage.

Our grounds crew kept busy today.  Larry H. focused primarily on HLS set-up and is moving in to some new territory after doing a smash up job installing LED lights in the Japanese garden.  Cindy was in this morning to help tidy a couple locations and is an expert at deadheading (removing spent blooms) to encourage more flowering.  We are trying to extend flower interest until hard frost!  Janice was in to work with our Chestnut House volunteers (see below).  Larry H. did some watering but also accomplished most of our “end of the season” weedwhipping rounds.  Bobby K. finished up some work on recently upgraded electrical panels and I spent most of the day getting my tardy 2018 plant orders together (yes! this early!).

angel’s trumpet (Brugmansia sp.) blooming with strong fragrance today – tropical

‘Purple Ball’ basil (Ocimum basilicum) – annual

Easy Elegance® Kashmir rose (Rosa ‘BAImir’) – woody shrub

‘Rubenza’ cosmos (Cosmos bipinnatus) – annual

Cannova® Bronze Orange canna (Canna x generalis) – tropical

‘Coffee Cups’ elephant ear (Colocasia esculenta) – tropical

Our Chestnut House volunteers (seen above) did a fantastic job today picking and collecting vegetables. This talented team were some of MANY volunteers that we had on this fine sunny day.  It was perfect working weather with sunshine and temperatures in the lower 70 degrees F.  Cathy, Eva and Marleen worked on continued tidying efforts in multiple garden areas including some spaces that will host weddings this Saturday.  Today was a Story & Stroll program so we saw lots of children and parents/grandparents enjoying this autumn day at the gardens.  Firefighter Cathy was here to rake the paths and the quartet of Kristin, Stan, Greg P. and Cheryl P. converged on the Japanese garden for tidying.  Dick P. picked up memorial bricks and started installing them today while Dr. Gredler did some touch up mowing.  Maury ran errands for us and was here for a meeeting.  Gena, Myrt, Mary and Nancy collected leaves and debris from the woodland walk garden this afternoon.  We also saw Bill O., Hal R., Becky, Norm, Matt and many others today.

‘Starlight Blue’ sapphire flower (Browallia americana) – annual

‘Arendsii’ monkshood (Aconitum carmichaelii) – perennial

‘Everillo’ golden sedge (Carex oshimensis) – perennial

‘Ghost’ hybrid painted fern (Athyrium hybrida) – perennial

Indian shot canna (Canna indica) – tropical

‘Red China’ eggplant (Solanum melongena) – annual

‘Tabasco’ hot peppers (Capsicum frutescens) – annual

leathery capsules of yellow buckeye (Aesculus octandra) – woody tree

neat Shasta daisy (Leucanthemum x superbum) in our trials (un-named) – perennial

this neat, three-tiered planter made by our Grumpies has another batch of veggies taking root!