When the rain arrived late this morning, we shuffled 20 folks (staff and volunteers) inside the Horticulture Center for some very productive tasks.  Above are some of the Chestnut House volunteers sorting tulip (Tulipa) bulbs among other duties.  More of their productivity can be seen further below.  The top photo is of one of many orange mushrooms we’ve seen nearby at the golf course.  With so much rain this summer, we’ve seen lots of mushrooms throughout the gardens.  Never eat mushrooms that aren’t identified!  “All mushrooms are edible, some only once” is an appropriate adage.  We did accomplish quite a bit of gardening both pre and post rainfall and had a great crew today.

Big John checked water features, watered containers, put up lights, tested lights and helped facilitate our myriad indoor projects today. Janice had some gardening duties then worked inside with the Chestnut House volunteers.  She later decorated obelisks for the Holiday Light Show (HLS) and had some other odds and ends.  Bobby K. continues to refine our power grid out in the gardens with many other improvements coming soon!  I had some appointments, placed some perennials and shrubs for installation and continue to prepare for the HLS and 2017!

fruits of the arrowwood viburnum (Viburnum dentatum) – woody shrub

neat raised planter featuring ornamental hot peppers (‘Black Pearl’, ‘Black Olive’ and ‘Sedona Sun’ from top to bottom) – Capsicum annuum – annuals

‘Golden Dreams’ coleus (Solenostemon scutellarioides) – annual

foliage color still abounds near the gazebo garden – all annuals!

‘Miyazaki’ toad lily (Tricyrtis hirta) looking good – perennial

Volunteers like Kathy above had a busy day both inside and outside!  Kathy and Eva (below) started with gardening until the rain showed up and then processed new LED lights inside (unpacking and preparing).  Gena, Myrt, Patty and Nancy also worked on processing LED lights (see below). Vicki and Steve processed lights but were able to also get out in the gardens before and after the rainfall to tidy up and collect spent annuals.  Marv tidied up his moss garden areas which are loving all of the recent precipitation.  Cheryl D. collected leaves, planted and when it rained, she cleaned up our break room and did a spectacular job!  Bill O. was in for some projects and we also saw Maury, Vern and many others.

Eva

Cheryl D. (above)

Myrt, Patty, Gena and Nancy (left to right) processing LED lights

the Chestnut House volunteers did a great job today of sorting and bagging tulips and gathering hot peppers (Capsicum) – two photos above and three below

1900 ‘Picture’ tulips (Tulipa) were sorted by our Chestnut House volunteers today for planting in smaller groupings of 25

nice assortment of various Habanero hot peppers (Capsicum) collected today by our Chestnut House volunteers!

field scabious (Knautia arvensis) – perennial

annual border in the sunken garden

Endless Summer® hydrangea (Hydrangea macrophylla ‘Bailmer’) – woody shrub

‘Solar Eclipse’ foamy bells (xHeucherella) – perennial

‘Summer Jewel Red’ scarlet sage (Salvia coccinea) – annual

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

colorful mushrooms (unknown species)

I had to swing by K&W Greenery (Janesville) today and always enjoy their seasonal displays!  Gourd-geous! (get it?)

Yesterday I mentioned to our Grumpies that October is second only to May in terms of how busy we are out in the gardens.  I say this for a couple reasons.  Not only are we juggling fall clean-up needs but we also have to accommodate late season planting (lots of bulbs this year too!) and the removal of so many annuals after a hard frost arrives.  The frost is likely in the coming weeks and then it takes many weeks to clear our annual beds.  Toss in to the mix all of our Holiday Light Show (HLS) preparations and October becomes a very busy month.  Today continued our progression of dealing with everything I mentioned above and we had good people on hand to take care of it!

It was just Cindy, Big John and myself on grounds today although we had some great volunteer help as well.  Both Cindy and John had plenty of watering although it looks like rain later in the week.  Cindy continued with the cutting display and garden tidying while John planted trees and shrubs and also continued to put up lights for the HLS.  I was entrenched in preparing orders for 2017 already and am trying to keep up with our late season plantings and labeling of such.  Kathy, Eva and Brian all worked on garden tidying in multiple locations while Rollie and Bill O. did their mowing rounds.  Kristin and Stan did some work on replacing stones in the Japanese garden entrance and Joe M. was out weeding the beds at the Horticulture Center.  Maury ran some errands for us and we also saw Bobby K and Robert K.  We had a VIP from Beaver Creek Nursery (Steve Didier) stop by and we took a quick tour of the gardens to look at some trees and shrubs.

the lights are being put up earlier each year to accommodate timely set up for a bigger and better HLS this December!

‘Red Neck Girl’ forsythia sage (Salvia madrensis) is finally starting to bloom (yellow) just in time for frost!  UGH! – annual

Black Lace™ elderberry (Sambucus nigra ‘Eva’) – woody shrub

‘Sky Rocket’ fountain grass (Pennisetum x advena) is looking excellent right now – annual

the Giant Aquarium is still looking good and our plants have filled in nicely!

the frame that highlights this “circular view” from the Japanese garden is a repurposed cheese mold!

‘Heavenly Blue’ morning glory (Ipomoea tricolor) – annual (opens up darker)

‘Autumn Ember’ begonia (Begonia hybrida) – annual

the colorful gazebo garden border looks great from under the gazebo which will still host two more weddings this season!

the season is upon us as visitors will notice more and more lights each and every day!

I don’t think I’ve ever photographed the end of our boardwalk here with these two seats offering a nice view across the pond

‘Argentea’ variegated pagoda dogwood (Cornus alternifolia) – woody tree

cardoon (Cynara cardunculus) is still looking bold and should shrug off light frost – annual

the giant ruler (one of two) in our prairie will help with our fall education programs as students enjoy our prairie restoration

Despite the cool start to the day at 52 degrees F, it warmed up nicely to about 73 degrees F with blue skies.  We had some light rain over the weekend so not much needed watering aside from our containers.  The color out in the October garden is still quite exceptional and we’ll keep it going until hard frost arrives.  Nice shot above in the reception garden this morning.  We had an excellent turnout of volunteers and our grounds crew continues to accomplish a lot in one day!

Cindy worked on watering and tidying duties most of the day and has a knack for the perpetuation of color as long as possible in any garden area.  Larry O. also watered, processed Holiday Light Show (HLS) lights and had myriad other tasks throughout the day.  Big John and Terry hauled and staged HLS lights for testing/use and headed out to start putting up more lights throughout the gardens.  We target areas that are off the beaten path for now that are not in conflict with current visitation and our last four weddings of the season.  Bobby K. continued progress on the new power panel and has ideas for more improvements.  I marked more locations for trees and shrubs to be planted and am actually working on orders for 2017!

‘Parfum d’Ethiopia’ white wormwood (Artemisia hybrida) – tender perennial

variegated Japanese silver grass (Miscanthus sinensis ‘Variegatus’) – perennial

‘Sunny Delight’ Hakone grass (Hakonechloa macra) – perennial

uncommonly good fall color on a tree peony (Paeonia suffruticosa) – woody shrub

‘October Skies’ aromatic aster (Aster oblongifolius) – perennial

‘October Skies’ aromatic aster (Aster oblongifolius) – perennial

Tiger Eyes® staghorn sumac (Rhus typhina ‘Bailtiger’) with some fall color – woody shrub

Above are Terry (left) and Big John putting lights on our outer fence.  We still have a lot of work left for getting the HLS up and ready but our progress over recent weeks has been exceptional (as has the weather for the most part!).  Our volunteer had an excellent day out in the gardens and at the Horticulture Center.  Alan, Bob K., Del and Gene were all working on path tidying. Ron R. helped patch up potholes on our gravel paths while Dave E. finished re-leveling a portion of the patio around the gazebo.  Kathy, Eva and Shirley all worked on garden clean-up and the removal of spent annuals.  Dr. Gredler and Rollie did their mowing rounds while Dave, Jim, Vern and Ron Y. continued progress on our new benches.  Dick H. made some dump runs and later helped Dick P. with installing memorial bricks.  Steve J. had some roof repairs on the Horticulture Center and Maury was back in action and went on some errands for us too.  Peg came in to work on our plant database and we also saw Gary S. and many others today.

Alan M. (above)…..ninja-like movements and balance

Del (left) and Gene

Dr. Gredler

‘Gold Rush’ weigela (Weigela florida) – woody shrub

Easy Elegance® Sweet Fragrance shrub rose (Rosa hybrida ‘BAInce’) – woody shrub

colorful hips of ‘Quatre Saisons’ Autumn damask rose (Rosa x damascena) – woody shrub

‘Hot Lips’ turtlehead (Chelone lyonii) – perennial

our Abyssinian banana (Ensete ventricosum ‘Maurelii’) forest is still looking bold

grapeleaf anemone (Anemone tomentosa ‘Robustissima’) – perennial

‘Honorine Jobert’ Japanse anemone (Anemone x hybrida) – perennial (Perennial Plant of the Year – 2016!)

On this dreary day, I thought some more color would be appropriate and have shared some additional hummingbird photos from Ken Tapp and Santos McGill.  If you missed my blog post from a couple days ago featuring Marsha Mood’s hummingbird photos, be sure to check that out as well.  All of these shots were taking at the gardens.  The two photos above are from Ken with the last two from Santos.  Cool temperatures and cloudy skies were the order of the day with some intermittent drizzle.  That didn’t stop our grounds staff and dedicated volunteers from an active day out in the gardens.

Larry H., Cindy and Janice all had gardening duties, some watering, tidying and other tasks.  Larry also continued with his Holiday Light Show (HLS) preparations.  Cindy and Janice will be involved shortly with their own HLS tasks which are not insignificant.  As Mother Nature puts the garden to rest with colder temperatures, our pace of HLS set-up increases dramatically. The recent progress has been excellent though!  Bobby K. was in to continue work on our new electrical panel and is making some upgrades that will be very beneficial for the HLS. Terry N. popped by today and it’s always good to see him at the gardens.

Eva and Kay were out tidying in various areas today and always do a nice job of primping what still looks good for extended color and removing those annuals that are ready to be cleared.  Kristin did some tidying in the Japanese garden and Mary H. helped Eva this morning.  Bill O. did his mowing rounds and Marv B. primped both of his moss garden areas which are looking quite lush with all of the recent rains.  We also saw Joan F., Corky F., Mark S. and many others today.

Photo Courtesy of Ken Tapp

Photo Courtesy of Ken Tapp

Photo Courtesy of Ken Tapp

Photo Courtesy of Ken Tapp

Photo Courtesy of Ken Tapp

Photo Courtesy of Ken Tapp

Photo Courtesy of Ken Tapp

Photo Courtesy of Ken Tapp

Photo Courtesy of Santos McGill

Photo Courtesy of Santos McGill

We have a lot of photographic evidence this year that our Hummingbird Haven theme in the Nancy Yahr Memorial Children’s Garden was successful.  All of these beautiful photos were shared with me by Marsha Mood who is an excellent photographer and valuable RBG volunteer!  We appreciate all the photos she takes at the gardens of flowers, wildlife, visitors and special events.  I also have received some excellent hummingbird photos from Ken Tapp and Santos McGill which I’ll share in the future as well.  To capture hummingbirds in flight takes patience, skill and a decent camera; all of which Marsha has covered!  The volume of hummingbirds in that garden over the past month has been amazing and visitors have enjoyed seeing these wonderful creatures.  However, more importantly, our visitors appreciate the beauty of the space which has been maintained for the past five months by Cindy Boehning of the RBG grounds staff.  Her hard work is very evident and we’re excited to have this theme again next year.  Do expect a different look though that will be even more colorful and attractive (for visitors and hummingbirds alike!).  Enjoy Marsha’s photos (this is only a small fraction of what she shared!).

Today was overcast, cool and had some drizzle this morning.  That didn’t stop our staff of Janice, John, Larry O. and Larry H. from getting out in the gardens for a wide range of tasks.  Holiday Light Show (HLS) preparations continue to be a priority and today was no exception.  Our volunteers today included Eva (removing annuals), Dick H. (helping Big John with HLS tasks), Sutton (leaf/debris collection), Bill O. (odds and ends) and the Chestnut House Volunteers who worked on various tasks with Janice.  I was fairly sedentary today with plenty of desk work to sift through including preparing for some 2017 plant orders which are due very shortly.