Thursday, Mar. 16, 2017 – Rick McGregor, Transplant Lavender & Coreopsis & Columbine, Plant Name Tag Key Ring

For the past week we’ve had a visitor come each morning to our 7:00am FM Prayer meetings. His name is Rick McGregor and he’s the grounds keeper for the “Community of Christ” historic sites here in Nauvoo. He asked Jordan Bodily if he could attend with us because he’s the only grounds keeper for the Community of Christ historic sites and he wanted to start his work day with a prayer and a spiritual message too. We are glad to have him with us each morning.

Our church and the Community of Christ Church have a very good working relationship. The Community of Christ Church, formerly the “Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints”, owns about a fifth of the area of Nauvoo we call “Historic Nauvoo.” Visitors of all faiths that come to Nauvoo often come to our visitor’s center as well as the Community of Christ Visitor’s Center.

The Community of Christ offers tours through some very significant sites, buildings and residences dating back to the days when Joseph Smith was the Prophet. They include Joseph and Emma Smith’s Mansion House and original Homestead House, The Nauvoo House, the Red Brick Store and the Smith Family Cemetery. On occasion our grounds keeping crew help out Bro. Rick McGregor since he is so understaffed. Bro. McGregor is also the pastor of the local congregation of the Community of Christ Church.

We did another full day of transplanting seedlings as well as pony packs to 4” pots. One of the varieties we transplanted was “Lavender” (Lavendula) plants. This was a particular delight because the foliage smells so good. Sis. Johnson said she loved handling the little seedlings because her hands smelled of “lavender.” She said it was like “Aromatherapy” all morning, all relaxed!

We also transplanted Columbine (Aquilegia) and Coreopsis plants to 4” pots. We got a lot done and that created a challenge for Richard. He was very busy relocating, cleaning and clearing benches for all of the new 4” pots. Clearing the benches presented a challenge for Richard. Many of the older plants have been used for cuttings and can’t be transplanted into the gardens this spring. Richard has to make tough decisions on which plants to keep and which plants to throw away.

 

When we get shipments of plants from Richard’s suppliers, each variety comes with its own plastic name tag. It has a color picture of the flower and its botanical name as well as its common name.  We ended our work day preparing key rings that will have all of the plant name tags on the ring. Sis. Johnson and I will carry a set in our grounds keeping vehicle but more important, the visitor’s center will get a set so the missionaries there can answer questions about the names of the flowers in the gardens.