Garden Clippings
McMinnville Garden Club
Vol. 4 No. 9 May 2005
Garden Clippings
McMinnville Garden Club
Vol. 4 No. 9 May 2005
McMinnville Garden Club
McMinnville OR
97128
http://mcminnvillegardenclub.org
Information: 503 434 4344
Meeting Information
Meeting Day: Third Monday
September through June
11 a.m. – 1 p.m.
Optional Brown Bag Lunch
Covenant Church, Fireside Room, 2155 West 2nd, McMinnville, OR
Meetings are open to the public.
President Kim Jongedyk
Vice President Marian Blank
Secretary Judy Eggers
Treasurer Marilyn Coats
I pledge to protect and conserve the natural resources of
the planet Earth, and promise to promote education, so we may be caretakers to
our air, water, forests, land, and wildlife.
Ongoing Projects
Summer Garden Tour
The Oregon Garden Support
Scholarships for Horticulture
National Garden Week
Garden of the Month
Blue Star Memorial
Marker
City Beautification
“Garden Clippings” is a monthly publication of the McMinnville Garden Club. Contact Kim
Jongedyk, (503-434-9130), or
503-434-4344 for info.
May 16
Meeting
Time for some
fun!
This month on May 16 we are going to have
a potluck salad luncheon and create our own cement leaf casts for our gardens. We will be meeting at Rosemary Vertregt’s.
(503-472-7265) Parking is limited; members are encouraged to meet at the Bethel
Baptist Church parking lot. We will
leave there promptly at 10:30. Due to
the craft project, the meeting will likely last until 2:00 or beyond.
Dress casual in clothes and shoes that can
get dirty. If it’s sunny or rainy, you
may need your hats too.
Please bring your own cold drinks, a “ready-to-go salad (green, pasta, fruit, etc.) with serving utensils. The club will provide bread, cookies, coffee, tea and place settings.
Bring
your own leaf. If you have extras, bring
for others!
Leaf
Selection
- look for leaves with a strong prominent vein structure, a
smooth underside (no fuzzies) and a sturdy leaf. Hydrangea, Rutabaga and
Hosta leaves are good for starters.
If you
have the following, please bring. If
not, it will be provided:
-clean
old hand trowel or other tool to mix your concrete
-disposable
cat litter container or bucket or for concrete.
Our
craft will cost $5 for each cement leaf cast to cover the costs of the
supplies. No reservations are
necessary.
Carolyn Davis, Karen Robertson and Patty Sorensen are hostesses.
President’s Corner
Hello again,
Wow! May is here and summer is near… now, I don’t like the hot days of summer but I do appreciate the warmth of the growing season that it provides. Spring is a beautiful time of the year! Be sure to plant now so we can enjoy the fruits of our labors all through those lazy days of summer.
Last month we learned a few new tricks of the trade in planting a Victorian Hanging Basket, I hope that everyone got inspired and will plant one of their own. If you have planted yours, please share your tricks with us at our May meeting.
I look forward to seeing everyone when we all gather to make leaf castings and share in all the wonderful potluck salads on May 16th at Rosemary Vertregt’s home.
See you there?
This should be a fun day.
Kim Jongedyk
PS Please remember to use our Garden Club’s
website at
http://mcminnvillegardenclub.org Be sure to spread the word about our
website so others can check us out and find out what we are all about and what
we are doing each month. For those without online access, give them our Club’s
phone number: 503-434-4344.
Our April meeting was quite informative
about planting Moss Flower Baskets. Danielle said to use garden burlap as shown
in the picture for lining your baskets, fill about 1/3 full of sterile potting
soil containing slow release fertilizer and soil moist. Wrap the green section of the plant in
plastic and roll up. Carefully remove
the plant from its pot then place it inside the basket and pull the green
section of the plant thru the hole you cut in the burlap. The bottom layer should contain plants such
as evergreen ground covers, large trailing super petunias, super verbenas, etc. The middle section of plants might include Nemesia,
Variegated Ivy or Million Bells, and the top needs plants like Petunias, Ivy
Geranium or, Diascia. Cover the top with
moss and be sure to use liquid fertilizer after about two months to keep it
blooming and healthy!
Garden
Tour – 2005
Sunday, June 26
The clock is starting to count down toward the June 26th Garden Tour/Faire and this is where the fun begins. Each Garden Club member will be given 4 tickets to sell at the May meeting. You can have more than 4 tickets, of course!! When you need more tickets, please try and get them from Sandy Bolmer rather than another club member. That makes record keeping easier.
You saw our poster at the April meeting. Club member Vicki Brink, an artist, did the original painting for the poster. She is having the original painting framed and is donating it to the club as a raffle prize for the Garden Faire!! I’ll be one of the first to buy my share of raffle tickets!! We will have posters for sale at the Garden Faire…$10.00 unframed, $50.00 framed. Garden Club members who would like to order posters can contact either Sharon Gunter or Judy Eggers prior to the Garden Faire.
At last count we had 34 vendors signed up and paid for the Garden Faire with the possibility of three or four additional vendors. Good job, Gaye!!
Thanks to everyone for your help. You…. the Garden Club members…. are the ones who put on the Tour and the Faire. So give yourselves a pat on the back and let’s start selling tickets!
Sharon and Judy
Garden Faire
Update
The vendor list keeps growing, like our spring gardens! We now have 34 unique plant and yard art vendors coming to share in the delightful Garden Faire, June 26th in downtown McMinnville!
Margaret Roberts and I recently met with Patti Webb, Downtown Association, to discuss tips for making our Faire run smoothly and successfully. Each club member will soon be given miniature posters advertising the Garden Faire and Garden Tour. I encourage you to use these beautiful posters (designed by Vicki Brink) as invitations to your friends and relatives. They will come if you tell them “It’s going to be GREAT!”
This is our club’s major fund-raiser for the year, so let’s all work to make it the most successful event ever! If you have any questions for me, please call me at 503-831-3087. In the meantime, make a list of your friends, relatives and service-providers to be sure to invite!
Gaye Stewart
Member Jean Bruce’s husband, Donald,
passed away in April. Our thoughts are
with her.
Joan Friese
Club Sprouts Two New Members!
Our two newest members are Lynn Falcon and Kim Allman, a mother-daughter team from
Dundee. They are relatively new to this
area and are anxious to learn about beautiful and unique plants for their own
gardens. Please welcome them at our next
meeting.
We
have 61 members and have taken in 12 members this year.
Do you remember when you were a child,
making paper cones and filling them with spring flowers? Then carefully carrying and quietly walking
up to a beloved neighbor’s door, hanging the “May basket” on the door, ringing
the bell, then quickly running away. I
always stopped and waited to see the smile and delight on Mrs. Parker’s face
when she discovered her gift. Ah, memories.
Gaye Stewart
District Luncheon
Several members from our club enjoyed the
District’s Luncheon on April 21. Our
own, Sharon Gunter, was given a recognition certificate by Kim for her
contributions to the club for being President from 2002-2004, co-chair of the
Garden Tour 2003-2005, and her countless hours dedicated to our club.
August 8, 1928
Garden Club met at the home of Mrs. M.F.
Corrigan. 12 members plus speaker were
present. “Mrs. Tibbetts reported writing
to Secretary of the National Garden Association of America, regarding
Constitution and bylaws, but had received no reply.
Flower show was discussed and date set for
September 15, subject to change. Miss
Hawley invited us to hold the show on her lawn.
Mrs. Sitton would have charge of advertising, assisted by each member.
“Mrs. Apperson announced the garden Party
to be given at Senator McNary’s for benefit of the Fine Arts building. Club authorized purchase of ribbons to be
used by the judges. Two members would
secure vases from the Civic Club. It was
decided not to ask commercial growers to enter exhibits.”
“Mrs. Florence Pearce spoke on Japanese
arrangement of flowers. It is an art
upon which they spend years perfecting.
They stress the linear and triangular arrangement, more than the
combining of various colors.”
“Mrs. Apperson gave a short talk on
“Billboards” and suggested a tax as a remedy toward eliminating the
number. Also suggested a committee be
appointed to get this tax idea before the various clubs and other
organizations.” (Endorsed by the club.)
“Mrs. Apperson gave a very entertaining
talk on various flowers of Yellowstone Park.”
The Club agreed to ask Sam Lancaster to
show his views of Columbia Highway, and make it an open night for new members.
The next meeting which is a plant exchange
day, to be at Mrs. Mylnes. Club
adjourned. Treasury balance $14.97
Dorothy Mathiesen
Horticulture
in the Night!
Many plants spread and multiply, which is great in most cases. But some spread much more than expected and include:
Phalaris – Ribbon Grass
Tough, tenacious perennial grass forms a 2-3’ high clump that spreads aggressively and indefinitely by underground runners. It is very difficult to eradicate once established. Leaves are deep green with longitudinal white stripes and airy flower clusters. Grow in large containers or borders to contain growth. Less invasive selections are ‘Woods Dwarf’ and ‘Feesey’.
Ajuga – Bugleweed
All-purpose groundcover with dark green leaves and upright stems bearing numerous tiny flowers in pink, violet blue or white. Adapting to just about every type of soil, from rich to poor and dry to moist, they’re most prolific in rich, moist, well-drained soil. They spread by creeping roots and self-seed abundantly. They come in 3 speeds. The fast speed is ajuga reptans. At medium speed is Geneva bugleweed (A. genevensis) which is more neighborly. Upright bugleweed (A. pyramidalis) is the slower-spreading species.
Muscari – Grape Hyacinth
Clumps of grass-like foliage appear in the fall. In spring tiny florets of white, blue or violet-green blooms resemble small grape clusters. The bulbs multiply rapidly plus the seed is freely produced which germinates well.
If you have a small space or don’t like to
fight off an invasion of plants, it is always nice to know which ones to
avoid. Sometimes the labels don’t really
state how easily some of them spread.
Marilyn
Coats
Backyard Habitat
How to Keep
Birds from Flying Into Windows
The OSU Extension Office suggests:
Attach black
silhouettes of flying hawks or strips of opaque tape or flagging to windows to
make the glass visible to birds.
*Install screens
or lightweight netting in front of windows to act as a cushion if birds fly
into it.
Put up an owl
statue or other raptor statue close to the problem-causing window.
*Keep your
blinds or curtains closed or partially closed.
*Move
houseplants away from windows, as these attract birds.
*Move bird
feeders either away from windows (20 feet or more) or closer to windows (three
feet or closer) to help prevent injuries.
The article can be found at:
http://extension.oregonstate.edu/news/story.php?S_No=93&storyType=garden
Bird-Watching
Myths
Parent birds will abandon a nestling if
humans have touched it.
This is an amazingly popular myth despite the
massive amount of evidence to the contrary.
Think about the thousands of studies that involve monitoring nests,
weighing and measuring you. There are
very good reasons for staying away from bird nests. Birds may find your intrusiveness offensive
for many reasons, but one of them is not the way you smell.
Cindi Miller
Website to
Check Out
http://www.egreenway.com/months/monmay.htm
Our next meeting is
June 20, 2005
Committee Chairs
Backyard Habitat
Cindi Miller
Garden Tour
Sharon Gunter
Judy Eggers
Historian
Dorothy Mathiesen
Horticulture Marilyn Coats
Hospitality Margaret Roberts
Membership Gaye Stewart
Newsletter Patty Sorensen
Parliamentarian
Sally Thompson
Publicity/PR
Bonnie Zachary-Yurk
Scholarship Cindi Miller
Sunshine Joan Friese Telephone Sandy Bolmer
Yard of Month
Bonnie & Shelby Zachary-Yurk
Yearbook Barbara Lofgren
Newsletter
Deadlines
The deadline for submission
of articles for our monthly newsletter is the last day of the previous
month. Please send them to Patty Sorensen. Thanks!
Membership
Do you
know of any prospective Garden Club members? Be sure to let Gaye Stewart know names and
addresses. We would love to send them
our newsletter for three months.