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| Photo courtesy of Ben Brake |
This past Saturday, I had the pleasure of hosting a tour group of gardeners from Omaha for a brief period. They scheduled a tour of the KSU Gardens through the Chamber of Commerce and had asked to visit a couple of "large gardens" while they were in Manhattan. So a little over a hundred gardeners suddenly descended on my garden this past Saturday evening.
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| Photo courtesy of Ben Brake |
They seemed to enjoy the visit. Sadly, the roses were all almost gone, with 'American Pillar', at left, bringing up the rear as usual. Some Asiatic lilies were beginning to bloom and some late, frozen over roses were blooming out of turn. I heard "beautiful" a number of times and I answered questions as fast as I could.
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| Photo courtesy of Ben Brake |
When a group of unsuspecting gardeners encounters a rose zealot in his natural environment, they risk an epidemic of glazed eyes and aural exhaustion. That's me, holding forth on the right of this photo.
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I was most often questioned about this plant, a giant fleeceflower or knotweed (
Persicaria polymorpha), slightly drowned by the last rain storm, but still a spectacle in the garden. You can read more about
Persicaria in a blog later this week.
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| Photo courtesy of Ben Brake |
Bella, our not-so-new-now-puppy, was excited by the visit and all the new people she got to meet. That right ear seems to flop up whenever she gets bouncy. But doesn't she stand with pretty lines?
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| Photo courtesy of Ben Brake |
The tour group was here, and then just as quickly gone on their buses, but they left behind a nice gift certificate that I used to purchase two new daylilies and a hollyhock.
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| Photo courtesy of Ben Brake |
The garden is quiet again. All the photographs here, except for the
Persicaria, were taken by a family friend, Ben Brake, whom Mrs. ProfessorRoush imposed on at the last minute. Ben can be seen with a camera at every K-State sports function toting a Nikon camera that makes me salivate and he's pretty good at it, don't you agree? Photos of people enjoying the garden are always so nice to view again after the frenzy is over.
I'm so glad that you garden tour went so well. I know what you're saying about talking and talking and talking like that ... it goes with the territory when there are visitors in the garden. There are always questions to answer and stories to tell. Your garden is beautiful ... I love American Pillar with its Easter Island statue!
ReplyDeleteYour final photo looks almost more like England than the Kansas Flint Hills! Your garden is looking so lush and beautiful; sometime I'd love to tag along on a tour.....
ReplyDeleteAnytime you get this way, Gaia, just let me know. Can't promise the garden's condition at the spur of the moment, but something is always blooming!
DeleteYour gardens are very lovely! Do Ding and Dong get any credit in how lush everything looks?
ReplyDelete