Sometimes White Oaks, Quercus alba, have good fall color

Driving downhill from the Asian Collections, this one just about marks the end of the Holly Magnolia Collection and the begging of Flowering Tree Collection. Friday we had a large group of High School Students volunteer and much work was done in the Flowering Trees, Fern Valley, and Gotelli.

Tanya (our sort of new Volunteer Coordinator) is doing an incredible job supplying us with valuable volunteers. It's uplifting and disturbing at the same time to realize how much of the work in the gardens is done by volunteers. Back in the day (in most/all? public gardens) it was standard practice to cherish and cultivate your volunteers and appreciate the amount of work they did while at the same time assuming nothing. In other words, there was enough paid staff to maintain the gardens and whatever you got from volunteers was gravy......Those days are gone. If it weren't for our volunteers the gardens would be unmanageable. We;re very grateful!