Friday, September 5, 2008

It Has Begun...

Our 10th Annual Fall Plant Sale started today with our pre-sale for volunteers and members of our Friends program. The day started off with dark clouds and mist. It was disconcerting to see minimal crowds early on but as the weather improved, customers/supporters came in droves. We did fairly well in terms of sales and had lots of positive comments regarding the quality of the sale. Marianne and I agreed that the plants look the best that they ever have. I'm proud of the group effort involved with getting this sale set up, organized and "off the ground." The volunteers were certainly instrumental but of course Marianne is the captain of this ship. Marv, Janice and Terry helped with finishing touches this morning and we spent some time doing fine tuning prior to the end of the day in anticipation of our biggest sale day (historically speaking).
Tomorrow is also the third annual Garden Festival hosted by the Rock Prairie Master Gardeners. It will be located at the east end of the gardens. There will be all sorts of activities, food, games, educational booths, vendors, etc. There was much setup going on today in regards to this event as well. Our hot pepper collection will be featured and volunteers were picking samples from many of the most interesting varieties. I snuck away from the plant sale to take pictures of some of these peppers before they were picked for the event. It would be an understatement to say that I was impressed by the variability of the peppers in terms of shape, color and even foliage. I can't attest to taste as I'm wimpy even with mild salsa. Below are some of the interesting varieties I ran across (remember, this is only a "smattering" of the 232 varieties!). Those below, in order include 'Shu' (with variegated leaves!), 'Chinese Five Color' and 'Aji Amarillo'.

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