Garden Club of Darien Gardenclubofdarien.org Monthly Newsletter January 2012 F r o m t h e P r e s i d e n t ’s G a r d e n - C i n d y The Winter Garden I love to relax throughout January and February after a busy fall and Christmas season, but there are a few chores to still keep us busy. Remember to feed the birds and keep water in the bird bath. If possible, keep a heater made for bird baths available when the water is freezing. If you are really eager, use your Christmas tree as a bird feeder or use the branches to cover tender outdoor plants. Shake snow off the branches of evergreens and shrubs. You can use a broom in an upward motion. Light snow won’t hurt them but if it becomes wet and then frozen, the weight may snap off branches. Think about forcing forsythia, jasmine, and quince. Volume 3, Issue 5 Ryan Save fireplace ashes for your iris and other alkaline soil plants. Keep dust off your house plants. Use water that is room temperature when misting or watering. On cold nights, close the curtains between your plants and the window. Make sure they have enough humidity, (put them on a tray with moistened pebbles or place a cup of water nearby. Watch for insects! This is a good time to get your garden tools sharpened and oiled. Consider using sawdust or sand instead of salt on your walkways. This is also a great time to look at structural elements in your garden and plan for new ideas when spring arrives. A good book is “The Elements of Garden Design” by Joe Eck. Think about patterns created by paths, walks, the shapes of woody plants, shrubs and hedges. Also think of architectural details such as arches, steps, bridges, and statues. I hope you will enjoy these pictures and plan some new structural details for your garden that you can enjoy year round! GCD Calendar Monday January 9th Board Meeting at the home of Cindy Ryan, 3 Harbor Road Tuesday January 10th Joint Membership Meeting with the DCA at the DCA House, 9:30 coffee, 10:00 meeting Wednesday January 18th Begonia propagating workshop hosted by and at the home of Emily D’Andrea, 9 Hamilton Lane, 10:00 am Monday February 6th Board Meeting at the Home of Eileen Smith, 54 Stony Brook Rd. Tuesday February 14th Membership Meeting at the DCA House, 9:30 coffee, 10:00 meeting Hospitality— Meeting Response Audrey Cadwallader and Robin Stineman The meeting this month is the Joint meeting with the DCA at the DCA house and will be held Tuesday January 10th, 9:30 coffee, 10:00 meeting. Please RSVP to Robin at [email protected], 203 655-8790. February Newsletter Deadline Monday January 23rd Email to [email protected] Garden Club of Darien January Membership Meeting 2 January 2012 Provisionals Ann Mckee and Sheryl Lincoln Susie Brewer On Tuesday, January 10 we'll meet with the DCA gardeners and hear Sal Gilbertie, the country's largest supplier of herbs, speak on "Herbs from the Ground Up. Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow." He has a new book coming out that week on that subject and we hope to able to have it for purchase hot off the presses! Mark your calendars now. Provisionals Update Our nine hardworking women are doing a number of things this year. They have entered the Green Fingers show and are busily growing all sorts of things, including 1200 bulbs, for the flower show in March. Their organization and involvement is impressive and we look forward to seeing the final creation. The Provisional project this year is to put together a “Flower Arranging Tool Bag,” which will be for sale at the January Flower Arranging meeting. Inside the bag are items like nippers, wire cutters, wire, floral tape, picks and other useful things every arranger Emily D’Andrea, Beth Crump, Lisa Brickman needs. Look for them at their own table at the January 10 meeting. If there is interest and the bags sell out, orders will be taken for more. The price for each bag hasn’t been deterThe traditional Outdoor Winter Pots Workshop was hosted at Emily D'Andrea's home on Tuesday Dec 6. The mined yet. Whatever profit is made will be donated to a finished product will bring a warm welcome to our front charity chosen by the Provisionals. doorsteps for many months to come. Thank you Emily!!! Finally, a trug is being developed, which will also be available for sale. This is a large plastic bin with a rope threaded through it – useful for pulling large plants, piles of debris or Although we will not have a January 2012 competition we anything else. More to come on those. look forward to our competition in February, a 'Visual Please make an effort to meet each person. They are all Interpretation'. This will be a judged in-club competition on Feb 14. Please think about participating and check the wonderful. January newsletter for the details and artwork to be interpreted. We will also send an eblast with the artwork so stay tuned and think about teaming up with someone. GCA Christmas Tree Many thanks to Susie Brewer for arranging the spectacular centerpiece for the lovely Christmas Tea held at Gigi Garnett's. Just a friendly reminder of our very talented & gracious members--Thanks Susie! And, THANKS TO ALL of the helping hands in 2011 who made Flower Arranging workshops a very rewarding experience for everyone. Thanks to Susie Brewer’s wonderful stitching skills, this beautiful ornament was the Garden Club of Darien’s contribution to the GCA Christmas Tree, at headquarters in New York. Above is the ornament as well as the tree. Thanks, Susie! Garden Club of Darien 3 January 2012 Horticulture Pleasure Through Plants Debbie Bussey and Debby McLean Kearney Susan Doelp and Pam Elliott Par Competition in January On December 7th at the Senior Center, Pleasure Through Plants Committee members Pam Clark, Susan Doelp and Charkey Armstrong welcomed a bumper crop of 16 participants! Festive "holiday greens" arrangements of white flowers, mini ornaments and bows were made to classic holiday tunes and lively discussions. Special thanks to Joanne Shakley for getting the greens and to Pam Clark for buying many of the supplies, decorations and containers. Our surprise celebrity guest visitor GCD President, Cindy Ryan also enjoyed helping and chatting with the ladies! Instructions were given for basic arranging and clipping of the greens. One participant confided that this would be her home's only holiday decoration this year due to financial constraints. She was so happy and thanked us repeatedly at the end of our session. A couple of the ladies planned to give their arrangements to friends who are homeBegonia propagating workshop bound. This time as the ladies arrived, we issued name tags On Wednesday, January 18th at 10:00am Emily D'Andrea will (first names only) and it was a great ice breaker. By now, many host a begonia propagating workshop at her home. There will of the ladies are repeat customers and are really looking forward to our next visit on January 4th with our team: be a small charge to cover costs. Please bring your own pot (s) (Emily suggests clay). Maximum 20 people; RSVP to Deb- Susan Shriner, Sheryl Lincoln and Sally Banks. [email protected]. Christmas gaiety was at an all time high on December 6 at Elderhouse's temporary location in Norwalk. As festive music played, 11 ladies, plus one gentleman, laughed and chatted while Looking ahead to our February in-club competition creating arrangements of greens, red and white flowers, and mini ornaments. The arrangements were placed in ceramic conStreptocarpella saxorum tainers shaped like Santa Boots and garnished with candy canes. These are the plant plugs we passed out to all in September: Garden Club of Darien members Pam Elliot, Carol Caulfield Finally ready for show! Entries must be in a 6” round green pot and groomed for show as per the above. Limit one entry and Margaret Smith circulated to facilitate and offer guidance. per person. Entries must be in place by 9:00am for judging. The resulting creations were admired by all, amidst excited Since the Greenfingers show in March has an unlimited Strep- shared details of where delighted artocarpella class, our in-club competition is a great way to re- rangers planned to display them. Merry ceive early feedback from GCA judges on your potential Christmas! Greenfingers entry. We hope you will enter our joint par competition with the DCA Garden Club at our meeting in January. "Par" is a class in which entries are judged against perfection rather than against each other. A par class may include anything that grows – container-grown plants, bulbs, vegetables, terrarium, parent and child, bonsai, etc. An entry must be of special interest and must have been owned by the exhibitor for at least 6 months (source: GCA Yellow Book). The entry should be in a clean pot with compatible saucer, dead leaves should be removed and the entry must be free from insects. Limit one entry per person. Entries must be in place at the DCA no later than 9:00am for judging. Just as a reminder, Hort entry cards are available on the GCD website. This festive tea table arrangement by Susie Brewer rang in the holidays at our Christmas Tea. Garden Club of Darien 4 Photography Conservation Danielle Granath and Tracy Drippé Susan Balloch, Gigi Garnett and Margaret Smith Congratulations to Amy Cholnoky for winning 3rd place in The Garden Club of America's online photography contest in FOCUS in the "Landscape with a man-made feature—Color" category. What an honor for Amy and our club. She makes us all proud. It was a ‘Peoples Choice’ contest. Members nationwide voted for their favorites and you'll see why Amy's photo was chosen. Participants were asked to include a description and Amy's is included below. January 2012 Conservation is using our club newsletter to highlight some of the many important conservation based organizations and opportunities in our community. Garden Club of Darien's own Linda Goodyear provides a valuable service by heading up possibly the most important conservation group of all - The Green Team. Everyone should know about The Green Team, because it serves as an umbrella group for approximately 21 conservation based organizations and interested parties (Garden Club of Nikon D50 with telephoto lens “This photo was shot in Torres del Paine National Park in Darien is one). The Green Team creates a vehicle for information exchange, allowing the groups to meet, keep each other southern Chile. It was late afternoon, with wonderful informed, and work together on environmental issues which golden light. Despite the magnificence of the Torres, it would have been just another photograph without the gen- impact each other and our community. The mission is to help tleman in his red shirt, standing at the turn of the path. The bring a healthy and safe lifestyle to Darien. path leads us to him, and then on to the mountains beyond. I liked the contrasts - of the rustic wooden boardwalk with The Green Team meets every other month and representatives the soft grasses, of the impact of the red shirt with all the from each of the different organizations give updates each time, so all conservation groups are aware of what the other local other naturalistic hues. The shape of the glacier carved groups are doing and what issues in town may be relevant. Memmountains and the aquamarine color of the lake lend an bers learn much from each other and are able to support each otherworldly air to the landscape, and that fellow in his khaki shorts and bright red shirt bring us right back down other and share information. to earth.” Our first contest of the year is in February and the theme is "Coastal Connecticut." Entries should be delivered to me the day before or brought to the meeting by 9AM sharp, with a completed entry card. These may be found on the GCD website. Entries should be matted on white or off white and mattes should not be bigger than 11x14. Plant material should be included, and please identify it if you can. Let me know if you have an entry and I'll save you a spot! [email protected] On December 6th, five members of the Photography Committee traveled to the Katonah Museum of Art to view the current "New York, New York!" exhibit. Several prominent photographers and important Impressionists were presented, and the group definitely felt inspired to create fabulous future photographs based on the viewing! We also had a chance to see the creative Tree Figure sculptures, ranging in height from 17 to 27 feet; they are not to be missed! Many thanks to Clare Hare and Susan Massamillo for organizing our first outing of the year!
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