THE DIGGERS
Dorchester Garden Club
October, 2014
Mark Your Calendars
OCTOBER, 2014
16-18 Recycle Dorchester Dorchester County
Historical Society, Robbins Heritage Center
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Ar-BOO-retum Cylburn Arboretum 5:30-8pm
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FGCMD Pumpkin Workshop Cylburn
Arboretum
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Baltimore African Violet and Gesneriad Club
Annual Fall Sale The Shops at Kenilworth
Towson 9am-5pm
26-28 Central Atlantic Region Convention
Dover Downs, Dover, DE
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NOVEMBER, 2014
FGCMD Horticulture Day Cylburn Arboretum
Daylight Savings Time Ends
FGCMD State Board Meeting, Veteran’s Day
DGC Monthly Meeting “Sculpting the GardenThe Art of Pruning” Cindy King, Kingstown
Farm Cambridge Yacht Club 11:30 am
FGCMD Leadership Workshop Vollmer Center
Thanksgiving Day
DECEMBER, 2014
DGC Holiday Wreath Workshop Zion United
Methodist Church 9am-3pm
Kent Island GC Bus Trip Longwood Gardens
Contact Linda Elias 410 827-6981
DGC Holiday Luncheon “A Glistening
Reminder of Nature’s Beauty” East New
Market Fire Hall 11am
(entries accepted and vendors open 9:45 am)
First Day of Hanukkah
Last Day of Hanukkah, First Day of Winter
Christmas Day
“Pumpkin Still Life”
“Turban Squash”
Note: information for programs sponsored by other
Clubs is at:
http://www.fgcofmd.org/Calendar_of_Events.html
Original Oils by Artist
Delilah Smith
Onsted Michigan
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THE DIGGERS
Dorchester Garden Club
October, 2014
DGC Design Workshop#3: Pot-et-Fleur
The Pot-et-Fleur workshop was presented by Susie Middleton on September 11 at the home of Alison Buczek.
In attendance were Cookie Brohawn, Shirley Chatham, Lynne Davis, Linda Easter, Ellen Higgins, Patti Hopkins,
Kay Karminski, Mary Jo Papin – and hosts Alison Buczek and Miriam Zijp-Koedijk. A great time was had by all!
Cookie Brohawn
Kay Karminski
Linda Easter
Mary Jo Papin
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Patti Hopkins
Shirley Chatham
Ellen Higgins
Lynne Davis
THE DIGGERS
Dorchester Garden Club
October, 2014
DGC September 12 Meeting “A Host of Golden Daffodils Fluttering and Dancing
in the Breeze”
The September 12th Meeting at the Cambridge Yacht Club featured our club’s mother and daughter team
Deana Kozak and Beverly Shelly. Deana and Beverly shared images and stories from the 2014 National
Daffodil Convention, along with their insights and tips for growing and exhibiting prize-winning daffodils. The
program was in loving memory of our friend and mentor Joanna Tilghman, to whom Deana attributes her
passion for “all things daffodil.” The meeting also featured 60 horticulture and 8 design entries of club
members.
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THE DIGGERS
Dorchester Garden Club
October, 2014
Division I Horticulture Awards
Class 1 Rosa (Roses)
1a. Miniature single: 1st Jane Parks
1b. Miniature spray: 1st Pat Beck
1d. Floribunda, Polyantha, Carpet, Climber - one spray: 2nd Sandy Johnson
1e. Shrub, Old Garden Rose: 1st Fran Collins, 2nd Sandy Johnson
Class 2 Conifers-one branch
2a. With Cones or Berries: 1st Joan S. Johnson, 2nd Beverly Shelly
2b. Without Cones or Berries: 1st Miriam Zijp- Koedijk, 2nd Mary Jo Papin, 3rd Joan P. Johnson
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THE DIGGERS
Dorchester Garden Club
October, 2014
Class 3 Broadleaf Evergreen Tree or Shrub-one branch
3a. Flowering: 1st Joan P. Johnson, 2nd Mary Jo Papin, 3rd Cookie Brohawn, HM Joan S. Johnson, Kathy Miller
3b. Foliage: 1st Joan S. Johnson, 2nd Cookie Brohawn, 3rd Beverly Shelly
Class 4 Deciduous Tree or Shrub-one branch
4a. Flowering: 1st Susie Middleton, 2nd Nancy Hastings
4a.(1) Flowering (Hydrangea): 1st. Fran Collins, 2nd Sandy Johnson, 3rd Eulah Lee Legg, HM Joan P. Johnson
4b. Foliage: 1st Beverly Shelly
4c. Fruited: 1st Susie Middleton
Class 5 Ilex (Holly)-one branch
5a. Foliage: 1st Beverly Shelly, 2nd Joan P. Johnson
5b. Fruited: 1st Joan P. Johnson, 2nd Susie Middleton
Class 6 Container Grown Plants
6a. Flowering: 1st Joan P. Johnson, 2nd Beverly Shelly, 3rd Cookie Brohawn
6b. Foliage: 1st Joan P. Johnson, 2nd Beverly Shelly
Class 7 Open Class
7a. Annual: 1st Joan P. Johnson, 2nd Sandy Johnson, 3rd Gloria Warner, HM Cookie Brohawn, Helen Davies,
Nancy Hastings
7a. (1) Zinnia: 1st Beverly Shelly, 2nd Fran Collins, 3rd Susie Middleton
7b. Perennial: 1st Beverly Shelly, 2nd Donna Harms, 3rd Lynne Davis, HM Fran Collins, Susie Middleton, Kathy
Miller, Mary Jo Papin, Jennifer Rideout, Helen Saum
7c. Biennial: 1st Joan P. Johnson
7d. Bulb, corm, rhizome, tuber: 2nd Cookie Brohawn, 3rd Beverly Shelly
7e. Vines: 1st Cookie Brohawn, 2nd Joan P. Johnson, 3rd. Susie Middleton
Class 8 Herbs-Group of three (3) cut specimens to one container
8a. Same Cultivar: 1st Cookie Brohawn, 2nd Susie Middleton
8b. Different Cultivars: 1st Kathy Miller, 2nd Pat Beck, 3rd Cookie Brohawn, HM Barbara Hubbard, Susie
Middleton, Jennifer Rideout
Class 9 Dahlias
9a. Single: 1st Pat Beck, 2nd Mary Jo Papin
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THE DIGGERS
Dorchester Garden Club
October, 2014
Division II Design Awards – Class 1 “The Gardener’s Color Wheel”
A Tapestry Design
Julia Berman, 1st Place
Division II Design Awards - Class 2 “Give Them Roots and Wings”
A Pot-et-Fleur Design
Susie Middleton, 1st Place
Kay Karminski, 2nd Place
Lynne Davis, 3rd Place
Honorable Mention: Cookie Brohawn, Shirley Chatham, Linda Easter, Ellen Higgins
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THE DIGGERS
Dorchester Garden Club
October, 2014
Brushes to Blooms Fundraiser
The DGC held its “Brushes to Blooms Fundraiser” on Saturday, September 27th at the home of club member,
Dee Terry. The event was attended by 55 members and guests and raised $2,285. Thanks to all who donated
food, wine and silent auction items – and special thanks to Julia Berman, Mary Jo Papin, Kathe Scanlon and
Dee Terry for all their hard work in coordinating and hosting the wonderful event.
Here are the artwork and designs that were awarded first, second and third place!
1st Place
Faye Phillips, Art and Design
2nd Place (tie)
Shirley Chatham, Art
Julia Berman, Design
2nd Place (tie)
Ellen Rindfuss, Art and Design
3rd place
Wanda Ciekot – art and design
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THE DIGGERS
Dorchester Garden Club
October, 2014
How to Grow Mums (if you must)
… by Lynn Hunt “The Dirt Diaries”
I’ve never been much of a chrysanthemum fan.
For starters, they smell funny. Many of the colors tend to be
gaudy. And the blooms don’t age gracefully.
This time of year I get annoyed when I see hundreds of them lined
up in front of roadside stands and garden centers. I know what the
mum and pumpkin sightings mean: I am being pushed into fall
when I’m not ready to let go of summer.
I realize that turning up my nose at these harbingers of autumn means I am out of step with much of the
gardening world. After all, garden mums have been wildly popular for centuries.
So despite being a chrysanthemum curmudgeon, I wanted to offer some tips that will enable you to grow
these wretched plants to the best of your ability!
From China, with love
Mums were first cultivated in China, possibly as early as the 15th Century B.C. Several species of
chrysanthemums native to both China and Japan were used in an extensive hybridizing program that, over
time, resulted in the “domesticated” garden mum.
Mums found their way to Europe in the seventeenth century where the appealing gold flowers received an
enthusiastic welcome. Today, hybridizing continues full speed ahead in the hopes of creating new flower
forms and plants that can better tolerate cold. At this time more than 5,000 cultivars have been named.
Mum care 101
Yoder, one of America’s leading mum breeders, offers the following tips which apply regardless of color,
flower form or flowering time:
Always plant mums in a spot where they will receive at least half a day of sun. Plant in fertile, well-drained
soil. Loosen the soil to a depth of 6 to 8 inches and mix in peat moss or compost to condition the soil and
improve drainage. Measure from the center of the plant and space mums about 15 to 20 inches apart.
Water thoroughly, adding 1 to 2 gallons of water to the soil around each plant. When rainfall is scant,
continue to water as needed to prevent wilting. Keep the soil moist as colder weather approaches.
Never fertilize the flowering garden mums you plant in the fall. All the season's growing is finished by that
time. Plants will not need fertilizer until next spring.
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THE DIGGERS
Dorchester Garden Club
October, 2014
Mother Nature doesn't prune back plants as winter approaches and you shouldn’t either. Let the brown
foliage stand through the winter. Mulch plants after the ground begins to freeze - not before - with leaves,
straw, peat moss or other organic materials.
Prune away old stems and gradually remove mulch in the spring. Pinch mums back from June through July 15
to encourage bushy growth and a greater show of fall flowers.
So there you have it. Everything you need to know to keep your mums thriving from year to year. The dry
summer in many areas of the country may mean colors will be more vivid this year. With a little luck and a lot
of water, you should have loads of blooms that will last well into October.
As for me, I’ll still be enjoying my roses.
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THE DIGGERS
Dorchester Garden Club
October, 2014
Grow Your Own Garlic: 6 Easy Steps for a Bumper Crop of Garlic
… By Ruth Lively for Fine Gardening Magazine
Once you taste home-grown garlic, you won’t be satisfied with the
supermarket varieties!
Garlic isn’t hard to grow. In fact, growing garlic plants is almost
ridiculously easy. It has a few important requirements that are easily
met: decent soil, adequate moisture, and, of course, planting and
harvesting at the right time.
When is the right time for planting garlic? Plant garlic four to six weeks
before the ground freezes in your area. You can fudge the planting
time a little. I have planted as early as September (by mistake) and as
late as Thanksgiving (to experiment) and have had decent crops. Roots
will start to grow soon after you plant. Your aim is to get good root
development before the plants go dormant. Green shoots may appear
in the fall, which is fine.
1. Prepare the Soil
To grow nice, big heads of garlic, you need loose, fertile soil. Loosen the soil with a digging
fork, spread a 2- to 3-inch-deep layer of organic matter over the area, and dig it in. For
organic matter, I use a well-aged mixture of compost, leaf mold, and aged rabbit manure.
To avoid disease problems, don’t plant garlic in the same spot two years running. Prepare
several shallow furrows in the soil that are 6 inches apart.
2. Choose Your Varieties
Hardneck garlic
Softneck garlic
There are two main types of garlic: hardneck and softneck.
Hardnecks have cloves growing around a hard central stalk.
This stalk forms a curling scape (or flower stem) on top,
which many growers cut off to redirect energy to the bulb.
Softneck garlics form more cloves, with big ones around the
outside of the head and numerous small ones at the center.
Softnecks also tend to keep longer once harvested than
hardnecks. Break apart a large head of garlic, and plant only
the biggest cloves. The bigger the clove, the greater the
likelihood it will yield a nice, big head of garlic. Save the
smaller cloves to use in the kitchen
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THE DIGGERS
Dorchester Garden Club
October, 2014
3. Plant a clove, get a head
To plant, place the cloves 4 inches apart in a furrow. Hold
each clove pointed end up, and push it into the soil about
2 inches deep. After all the cloves are in the ground,
smooth the soil surface using your fingers or a rake to fill
in the holes, and water well. If you’re planting more than
one variety, be sure to label each one clearly. I also make
a map of my planting, in case the labels go astray. I wait
to mulch for a month or more after planting to give the
soil a chance to cool down. When it’s leaf-raking season, I
put several inches of chopped leaves over the bed.
4. Fertilize and water
Top growth starts in earnest in spring, when the weather warms and the days lengthen. I fertilize twice with a
solution of liquid kelp and fish emulsion: once, when the garlic has started growing strongly—about mid-April
in my area—and, again, a month later. Garlic isn’t greedy for water, but it doesn’t like to dry out, either. When
the soil feels dry an inch below the surface, it’s time to water. In mid- to late June, I stop watering. By that
time, the garlic has sized up and the heads are starting to form cloves.
5. Time the Harvest Carefully
Harvest in late spring or early summer when the plants have five or six green
leaves, with no more than one or two beginning to turn brown. Each green leaf
represents a wrapper layer surrounding the head. During harvest, you’re liable to
damage the outer layer. Later, while cleaning the heads, you’re apt to lose
another one or two layers. Your goal is to end up with two or three tight, papery
layers enclosing each bulb. To harvest, drive a garden fork beneath the plants (be
careful not to damage the bulbs), gently pry them loose, and then pull them out.
Shake off any excess soil, and lay the plants in a pile. As soon as you’ve finished
harvesting, move the plants to an airy location that is protected from sun and
rain. If you’re growing more than one variety, keep each variety separate and
well labeled so that you know what’s what.
6. Cure, Clean and Store the Heads
To cure garlic in preparation for storage, hang the bare bulbs with their foliage in
bundles or spread them out on a table or rack. You can begin eating them right
away, but bulbs intended for storage must be cured.
After a few weeks of curing, it’s bulb-cleaning time. Trim the stalks to 12 inch
above the bulb, and trim the roots close to the bulb. Rub off the outer layer of
skin around the bulb, and use a nailbrush or toothbrush to gently remove any soil
clinging to the base. Try not to remove more wrapper layers than you have to.
Store the bulbs in a well-ventilated, dark spot. If you want, set aside the biggest
bulbs for planting next fall.
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THE DIGGERS
Dorchester Garden Club
October, 2014
Great Holiday Gift Idea that embodies this year’s DGC program theme “The Art
of Horticulture”!
American Botanical Paintings: Native Plants of the MidAtlantic Edited by Bonnie S Driggers
and reviewed by Master Gardener, Lena Gill
The book has been put together by a group, called Botanical Artists for
Education and the Environment (BAEE), located in the Mid Atlantic area
and embodies this year’s DGC program theme “The Art of Horticulture”
The book’s cover painting of a mountain laurel is typical of the art in the
book. The details of each hand painted plate make each plant incredibly
life-like, which is perhaps the whole point with botanical painting, as this
art form date to before photography existed. It was a way for explorers to
describe newly found plants to an excited European and later American
gardening public.
In addition, the layout of the book is quite elegant. 60 native plants, shrubs and trees are included in the book.
Each has two pages devoted to it. One page is a beautiful botanical painting made by one of the 40
participating artists. The opposing page is a write-up indicating plant details and environmental requirements,
where the plant may be found, what plant family it belongs to, and how the plant was used in the past or
today. The written sections were reviewed by a number of specialists from universities and public gardens,
including a botanist with the US Botanical Garden. Professor Douglas Tallamy of the University of Delaware,
who lectured in Easton recently on how to sustain wildlife with native plants, wrote part of the Introduction.
The bonus aspect of this plant book is that it does not only cover the flora but also the fauna. For a gardener,
the book adds this other layer of important information. Some of the written sections include which birds will
frequent the plant or eat the berries of the shrub, and most pages include a small painting of a specific
pollinator, such as a specific butterfly or moth or other insect that is the main pollinator or feeds on the plant.
As gardeners we may have noticed and read about the decline of many of our native butterflies and moths.
This is often attributed to habitat loss and pesticide exposure. Seeing these insects connected to the plants
that help them thrive and that they in turn pollinate makes a very special case for planting native plants.
It was published in June of 2014. It costs $39.95 on Amazon.com and a google search will identify other
sources too
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THE DIGGERS
Dorchester Garden Club
October, 2014
Pumpkin History… from historychannel.com
Pumpkins are believed to have originated in North
and Central America. Seeds from related plants have
been found in Mexico dating back to 7000 to 5500
B.C.
References to pumpkins date back many centuries.
The name pumpkin originated from the Greek word
for "large melon" which is
"pepon." "Pepon" was
changed by the French into
"pompon." The English
changed "pompon" to
"Pumpion." American
colonists changed "pumpion" into "pumpkin."
Native American Indians used pumpkin as a staple in their diets centuries before the
pilgrims landed. They also dried strips of pumpkin and wove them into mats. Indians would also roast long
strips of pumpkin on the open fire and eat them. When white settlers arrived, they saw the pumpkins grown
by the Indians and pumpkin soon became a staple in their diets. As today, early settlers used them in a wide
variety of recipes from desserts to stews and soups. The origin of pumpkin pie is thought to have occurred
when the colonists sliced off the pumpkin top, removed the seeds, and then filled it with milk, spices and
honey. The pumpkin was then baked in the hot ashes of a dying fire.
Jack O’ Lanterns
People have been making jack o’ lanterns at Halloween for centuries.
The practice originated from an Irish myth about a man nicknamed
"Stingy Jack." According to the story, Stingy Jack invited the Devil to
have a drink with him. True to his name, Stingy Jack didn't want to
pay for his drink, so he convinced the Devil to turn himself into a
coin that Jack could use to buy their drinks. Once the Devil did so,
Jack decided to keep the money and put it into his pocket next to a
silver cross, which prevented the Devil from changing back into his
original form. Jack eventually freed the Devil, under the condition that he would not bother Jack for one year
and that, should Jack die, he would not claim his soul. The next year, Jack again tricked the Devil into climbing
into a tree to pick a piece of fruit. While he was up in the tree, Jack carved a sign of the cross into the tree's
bark so that the Devil could not come down until the Devil promised Jack not to bother him for ten more
years.
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THE DIGGERS
Dorchester Garden Club
October, 2014
Soon after, Jack died. As the legend goes, God would not allow such an unsavory figure into heaven. The Devil,
upset by the trick Jack had played on him and keeping his word not to claim his soul, would not allow Jack into
hell. He sent Jack off into the dark night with only a burning coal to light his way. Jack put the coal into a
carved out turnip and has been roaming the Earth with it ever since. The Irish began to refer to this ghostly
figure as "Jack of the Lantern," and then, simply "Jack O'Lantern."
In Ireland and Scotland, people began to make their own versions of
Jack’s lanterns by carving scary faces into turnips or potatoes and
placing them into windows or near doors to frighten away Stingy
Jack and other wandering evil spirits. In England, large beets are
used.
Immigrants from these countries brought the jack o’ lantern
tradition with them when they came to the United States. They soon
found that pumpkins, a fruit native to America, make perfect jack o’
lanterns.
Fun Facts about Pumpkins
• Pumpkins are a member of the Cucurbita family which includes squash and cucumbers.
 Native Americans called pumpkins "isqoutm squash."
• Native Americans used pumpkin seeds for food and medicine.
• Native Americans flattened strips of pumpkins, dried them and made mats.
 Pumpkins are high in potassium and Vitamin A.
• Pumpkin flowers are edible.
• The largest pumpkin pie ever made was over five feet in diameter and weighed over 350 pounds.
It used 80 pounds of cooked pumpkin, 36 pounds of sugar, 12 dozen eggs and took six hours to bake.
• In early colonial times, pumpkins were used as an ingredient for the crust of pies, not the filling.
• Pumpkins were once recommended for removing freckles and curing snake bites.
• The largest pumpkin ever grown weighed 1,140 pounds.
• The Connecticut field variety is the traditional American pumpkin.
• Pumpkins are 90 percent water.
• Eighty percent of the pumpkin supply in the United States is available in October.
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