Stipends available for Western Winter Study Weekend

From Carol Eicher:

Interested in going to the NARGS combined annual meeting and Western Winter Study Weekend in Portland, Oregon? National offers a $300 stipend to any first time chapter member who has never been to a National meeting. Only 10 stipends are available and now is the time to put in your request.

Awardees need to be a National NARGS member (you can join at the time of the request) and an active member in the Adirondack Chapter. Our Chapter also requires that you report back to us either through writing about your experience in our newsletter or sharing slides from the trip.

Beyond that, all that is needed is for the Chair (Billie Jean Isbell) to approve our nominee for the stipend and pass that person's name and mailing address to National President Dick Bartlett.

Here's more information about Western WSW, hosted by the Columbia-Willamette Chapter:

Get a jump on spring! Why wait for the greening of central New York. Check out NARGS 2009 Annual Meeting combined with Western Winter Study Week-end being held this year in Portland, Oregon March 13th-15th.


“Revitalizing the Rock Garden” is the overall theme. Whether you want to build a new garden or re-make an old rock into something exciting again, a full slate of lively, informative, and varied talks and exhibits will inspire you not to mention the pleasant venue, spring gardens and wildflowers in bloom to visit, and a great plant sale.

This meeting has also been designated the 2009 Annual General Meeting and is being offered at the Winter Study Week-end price.

Feature speakers include Ian Young from Scotland, Carlo Balistrieri, curator of the Gardens at Turtle Creek and formerly with the New York Botanical Garden, Rex Murfitt and David Sellars from British Columbia, Fred Weisensee and Leonard Foltz, proprietors of Oregon’s Dancing Oaks Nursery, David Mason of Hedgerows Nursery, Rebecca Lance of Sonora, California, and John Lonsdale, who spoke recently at our own Chapter.

For more information visit www.nargs.org/meet/west09home.html

2009 membership form

Time to re-up.

2009 membership form is here.

November newsletter

Read the November 2008 newsletter in printer-friendly .pdf format.

Next newsletter is in Feburary. Have a good holiday season.

Ellen Hornig, Seneca Hill Perennials, to speak on South African Plants Nov. 5

As part of the Cornell Plantations fall lecture series, Ellen Hornig, horticulturist and owner of Seneca Hill Perennials will speak on "Out of Their Element: South African Plants in a Northern New York Garden," November 5, 7:30 p.m., at the Alice Statler Auditorium, Statler Hall, Cornell University.

From Cornell Plantations' description:

Gardeners are notorious for experimenting with improbable plants. The wonder of it is not that so many plants die in this process, but that so many live. How do plants not only survive, but even thrive, in garden conditions totally unlike the plants' wild habitats? Taking this question as her underlying theme, Hornig will present some of the less likely inhabitants of her garden, the South African species from the Eastern Cape region. She will compare their garden conditions with their wild habitats, offer some possible explanations for her success in growing these fantastic plants in upstate New York, and encourage all gardeners to be more adventurous.

2008 Treasurer's Report

From BZ Marranca, treasurer:

We met or exceeded all of our budgeted projections as far as plant sales went. (See David Mitchell's plant sale report.) We did really well at the Garden Fair this year. We brought in nearly double the amount for which we had budgeted. Dues, however, fell a little short of projection. But we haven't spent as much as projected (yet). I'll have a spreadsheet available later.