September 2008 Garden Clippings

Board of Directors

President Cathy Burdett

Vice-President Ann Silverthorne

Treasurer Patty Sorensen

Secretary Elsie Carpenter

Committee Chairs

Committee Leader

Awards/Recognition Evelyn Mundinger

Backyard Habitat Marilyn Coats

Clipboard Chair Judy Eggers

Club Birthdays Jacci Reed

Fields Trips Judy Eggers

Garden Tour Co-Leaders Judy Eggers

Sharon Gunter

Garden Faire Co-Leaders Joanne DeWitt

Julie Hughes

Habitat for Humanity Stephanie Janik

Historian

Horticulture Jan Elliott

Hospitality Anita Ragsdale

Hospitality Assistant

Library Caretaker Patty Sorensen

Membership Kathleen Bennett

Membership Assistant

Newsletter Jean Lierman

Nominations Amy Eads

Parliamentarian Sharon Gunter

Philanthropic Cindi Miller

Photography

Post Office Landscape Judy Wilkerson

Publicity/PR

Scholarships Cindi Miller

Sunshine Joan Friese

Telephone

Website Patty Sorensen

Yard of the Month Stephanie Janik

Yearbook Patty Sorensen

Yearbook Assistant Cathy Burdett

McMinnville Garden Club

SEPTEMBER 2008 CALENDAR

August 30 & September 1
Swan Island Dahlia Festival
Saturday, Sunday, & Monday (both weekends)
Indoor Display Hours 10 am to 6 pm,
Field Hours 8am to 8pm

September 13-- Oregon City
140 acre woodland open to the public for self-guided exploration, scheduled tours, and programs by arrangement. For more information, call 503-632-2150. Event Hours: Scheduled tours the 2nd Saturday of each month. Forest is open daylight hours, seven days a week. Hopkins Demonstration Forest, 16750 S Brockway Road, Oregon City.

September 13-21 – Le Tour des Plants
For more information go to www.LeTourDesPlants.com

Monday, September 15^th 9:30 AM

First Club Meeting for 2008-09
Time to pay your dues ($12), subscribe to District Newsletter ($2) and be photographed for the Yearbook. Please come.
Social time: 9:30 a.m. - Business Meeting: 10:00 a.m. – 11:15 a.m.
Hillside Retirement Community “Activity Room” at the Manor 900 N. Hill Road McMinnville, OR 97128 503-472-9534

September 18, 9:30 a.m. – FIELD TRIP –
OREGON GARDEN -Judy Eggers

We’ll leave Bethel Baptist Church parking lot at 9:30 and plan to arrive at the Oregon Garden by 10:30 where we’ll board a tram and tour the gardens. We’ll lunch in the gardens by either purchasing lunch at the deli counter or bring your own. Picnic areas are available.

President’s Message

Dear Garden Friends:

Another exciting educational year of programs and projects commences at our first meeting in September. Are you planning to be there?

As the oldest garden in the state of Oregon (established in 1926) we will continue our rich historical heritage of community projects and activities. We are a youthful 82 years old with vitality and enthusiasm for horticultural and gardening subjects and topics.

Please plan to share with us in experiencing:

· challenging and educational programs

· interesting and enjoyable field trips

· renewing and developing friendships with club members

· participating in the varied club’s interest groups

· working together on community projects

· having fun at our annual club’s ONLY fundraiser, our popular Garden Tour and Faire

· garden club meetings and events

· investing in the future by providing scholarships for students

· meeting club members of our Pioneer District at events

· preserving and protecting our perennial historical legacy in our city, county and state

This is OUR club. OUR members are exceptionally talented. Let’s have a wonderful year as members of the McMinnville Garden Club.
Thank you for your kindness to me, Cathy Burdett, Club President

A NOTE FROM YOUR NEW EDITOR:

Hi everyone,

I am so excited that I have been asked to do YOUR newsletter for the up-coming year. Patty is taking a well deserved rest from this task but will be taking over as Treasurer. YOUR newsletter can only be as informative as the information that I receive! I would love to hear from you regarding items you would like to see in YOUR newsletter! Events you hear about; Garden Tours; Art Fair’s; new nursery’s you have visited; someone you want to thank (a public thank you is a nice touch); anything that you feel the members would like to see in YOUR newsletter. Just submit a one or two liner and we’ll take it from there. Please keep me informed so I can share with the rest of the group. I’m looking forward to a fun, productive year.

Jean (tojean@verizon.net)

Garden Tour 2008 Jean Lierman/Georgia Queen

CONGRATULATIONS LADIES and GENTLEMEN (aren’t we excited to have some guys in our group)!!  You did it!!!  Our Garden Tour and Faire was a huge success.  Ticket sales were slightly down from 2007 but we managed to make over $7,000 in profit.  We were able to keep the expenses to a minimum.  Next year's tour is in Judy and Sharon's capable hands.  Beautiful gardens have been selected, but you'll hear more about that at the meeting.

We had a wonderful time the day of the Tour going to each garden, visiting with the docents, shopping at the Faire, and meeting our guests.  So far, we haven't heard one negative thing about the day.  The garden owners were so excited and pleased to hear all the lovely comments about their gardens. 
By the way, could we have asked for better weather??  The year will fly by and once again it will be Tour Day!!  Please support your new chairman in any way you can, it will make their jobs sooooo much easier.  We're looking forward to working with them as the year progresses.  

McMinnville Library Plant Clean-Up

Jean, Patty, Beryl, Anne and Joan spent over 2 hours at the Public Library on August 11th cleaning, repotting, and fertilizing the plants which we maintain. 

The plants were in desperate need of help due to bound roots, old soil and dust.  We are sure they will all "perk" up and finish up the summer in grand style before they go into their Fall hibernation period.  Thanks go to the club and the library for providing the funds to purchase new pots, soil, and moss!

The Happy Rock Painters

Beryl, Jacci, Patty, Anne and Marilyn were some of the Garden Club members who enjoyed a creative morning at Beryl Anderson's home in mid-July painting rocks to use in their landscapes.  Some created their own designs, some used stencils and others focused on words/symbols. 
It was a fun activity that all can recreate on their own or with others.

Joanne, Kim and Mildred

THE Quote Garden:

“Be the change that you want to see in the world.”

Mahatma Gandhi

Did You Know???

In January 1935, there were 14 members in the McMinnville Garden Club and the dues were $7.00?

PAY ATTENTION – THERE WILL BE A QUIZ!!

Backyard Habitats Marilyn Coats

BUSHTITS

Have you ever looked out your window and seen a cloud of little grey birds covering your suet feeder? They seem to take a small amount, move on to the next bush or tree when another group moves to the suet feeder and on to the next bush. They are such cute little birds that are constantly on the move.

Bushtits are among the smallest birds of North America and are 3-1/2” long with tiny bills and rather long tails (for their size). They resemble chickadees with dark grey upper bodies and pale grey undersides. Both sexes look alike except for the eyes--the female has yellow eyes and the male has dark eyes. They are very beneficial to our backyards eating large quantities of aphids, leafhoppers, spiders and many other small insects.

These birds are very social and are found in flocks of up to 50, staying year around in the Portland/Vancouver area. They travel in the company of chickadees and kinglets, moving through woods, parks and backyards as they search for insects.

They typically raise 2 broods of young in the springtime in large, gourd-shaped, sack-like nests (made with spider webs and plant material, insulated with feathers or downey plant material) that take the birds a month and a half to construct! Both parents spend 12-13 nights in the nest while incubating between 5-7 white eggs.

When in the yard, you can hear them coming as their twittering fills the air with sound as they flutter from branch to branch. I have even seen them at my birdfeeder briefly, and then in a short amount of time—they’re all gone. They really are fun to watch.

Plant Profile Philadelphus lewisii – (Mock Orange)
Characteristics: Mock orange is a beautiful and fragrant shrub named (species name) after Captain Meriwether Lewis who discovered it in 1804. The genus name honors the ancient Egyptian king "Philadelphus".Mock Orange is a loosely branched shrub up to 10 feet in height. The overall shape of the shrub is generally rounded. The stems are smooth-surfaced with reddish brown bark on the newer twigs, or a cross-tracked bark on second year growth. The branches and leaves are opposite.
The leaves are simple pinnate* with entire leaf margins (possibly serrate* on older branches). The leaf shape is ovate-lanceolate*, and the leaves have 3 prominent veins arising from the leaf base. Leaves are light green above and pale green below, and range from 2.5-7.5 cm in length.

The numerous flowers are fragrant (like citrus), with 3-11 flowers in a terminal raceme*. The 4 showy white petals surround numerous yellow stamens. The flowers are about 3 cm in diameter.
Uses or Importance:

· Beautiful shrub for the garden.

· Scent of flowers is sweet and very fragrant.

· Wood is strong & hard for tools, bows, & arrows, pipes, and combs.

· Leaves and flowers make a soapy foam when wet for cleaning.

· It is the state flower of Idaho.

· It is browsed by deer and elk, and the seeds are eaten by quail and chukar.

Habitat:
Mock orange is found along streams, in dry ravines, and on rocky talus and along canyon rims from the lowlands into the mountains
Range:
Mock orange is found from British Columbia south to northern California and east to central Idaho and western Montana.
*DEFINITIONS (FOR THOSE OF US WHO AREN’T MASTER GARDENERS)

· Pinnate – leaf blades on one leaf stem arranged like the veins of a feather.

· Serrate - notched on the outer edge of a leaf

· Ovate - egg shaped -lanceolate narrow and tapering like the head of a lance

· Raceme - an unbranched flower cluster, consisting of a single central stem or rachis, along which individual flowers grow on small stalks at intervals, blooming from the base toward the apex, as in the Lily of the Valley