Friday, April 30, 2010

Day trip to Seneca Hill Perennials!

From Carol Eichler:

Chapter members are invited to tour Ellen Hornig's wonderful gardens on Friday, June 18th. Rather than trying to coordinate a caravan from a central starting point, anyone wanting to go should plan to arrive at her place about 10 a.m. Ellen's website has good directions: www.senecahillperennials.com. For those going to White Pine Camp that weekend this will be an "on-the-way" stop. As a courtesy to Ellen, I'd like to let her know how many of us to expect. Please email me if you're planning to go. ceichler@twcny.rr.com

Plants, help needed for May 15 plant sale in Stewart Park

From David Mitchell and BZ Marranca, plant sales coordinators

Now's the time to have your plant donations potted up so that they'll have time to recover and look great for the May plant sale. The sale will be held on Saturday, May 15, 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at a new location, Stewart Park. We will set up on Friday afternoon from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Our booth will be located inside the large pavilion nearest the lake.

My driveway is available for dropoffs anytime before the day of the sale if you can't make it to Stewart Park. The driveway is on the Washington Street side of the corner of Washington and Esty Streets (402 Esty Street).

Now more than ever it is important that you have your plants labeled. An idea of the value of your plants would also help with pricing.

We need volunteers for setup Friday, day of sale setup, cashiers, plant advisers during the sale, and cleanup. Remember, members receive a discount on purchases at the sale. Please arrive early to help with late donations or jump in any time to help. Every pot should have a label and a price stick before the sale starts.

My phone number is (607) 342-3660 should you have any questions about the sale. Tompkins County Cooperative Extension can be reached at (607) 272-2292.

Friday, April 2, 2010

Garden Conservancy Open Days

This year's Garden Conservancy Open Days for Tompkins County will feature:
  • May 8: Hitch Lyman's Garden
  • June 12: Der Rosenmeister, Lion Garden, Myers Garden
  • July 31: Lipari Garden, Bassuk/Trowbridge Gardens, Nancy Ridenour
For more information, visit: gardenconservancy.org/opendays/

Delaware Valley Chapter at the Philly Flower Show

From Carol Eichler.

The Delaware Chapter always had an exhibit at the Philadelphia Flower Show and it was well worth seeking out. This year they truly (in my opinion) outdid themselves so I wasn't surprised when they received "Best in Show for Plant Societies."

I took a lot of photos that I'll plan to show at one of our meetings. However in the meantime their website has posted some with comments here: www.dvcnargs.org/flowershow.html. It also has their plant list with over 80 species and cultivars. I spoke briefly with the member who was tending the exhibit. He said a retired architect designed the exhibit and they were really scrambling to get it built and planted up to the last minute. I can only imagine the work.

Work weekend at White Pine Camp June 18-20

From Carol Eichler.

I'm organizing another working weekend at White Pine Camp in the Adirondacks for the weekend of June 18-20, with an emphasis on adding plants to the garden.

Anyone who is interested in going this year should contact me by April 17 - our April meeting. Space is limited. Priority will be given to people who have not yet been there. We will stay for 2 nights - Friday and Saturday. It is a working weekend so we will plan to spend about a half day on Saturday working - doing fun stuff like weeding, planting, watering, mulching, etc. Between White Pine Camp and the George's we have a budget of $150 to spend on plants. Hopefully we can supplement this with plants from our own gardens and the seedling exhange or other donations. I'll gather together our notes on what seemed to do well. Last summer we found many plants survived that shouldn't have been hardy because of the heavy snow cover.

On the way up on Friday we will take a side trip to Seneca Hill Perennials for a tour of Ellen Hornig's wonderful gardens. (But the nursery will not be open so we can't buy plants.)

If you're interested in the trip or have questions, contact me: ceichler@twcny.rr.com or 607-387-5823.

Thanks to 'seed pickers'

From BZ Marranca, treasurer

A special thanks go out to all the members who helped with the Round 2 Seed Exchange this year. We filled 249 orders in 11 days. Thirty one people invested approximately 222 hours in the process. As I write this, I'm still waiting for any orders that were mailed from overseas for the final count. But so far we've picked 16,483 packets and received orders for $4,098. Some of the top workers were Susanne with 26 hours, Marcia with 17, Rosemarie 11, Karen Hansen 8, David Mitchell and Bill Plummer with 6 each and the rest with 5 or less. After will fill the final orders, we'll then spread the rest of the seeds over 33 chapters and pack up the supplies to ship back to various places.

April Seedling Exchange and May Plant Sale New Location: Stewart Park

From David Mitchell, plant sale coordinator.

In addition to our fabulous speaker, we’ll have our annual seedling exchange at our April meeting. Bring in your seedlings to share. I’ll have some pots and potting soil on hand. Potted divisions will also be accepted and priced for sale or held for the May plant sale. I’m hoping the seedlings will find good homes and that some will show up on our tables at the May and August plant sales. The seedling exchange is a great way to learn about what plants are easy to grow from seed and to learn from other’s experiences in growing them on.

The May plant sale will be held on May 15, 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Due to Ithaca High School construction, the plant sale will be held at Stewart Park. We will not be able to set up on Friday afternoon, so please come early on Saturday to help. Change of plans. We will be able to set up on Friday afternoon. Our booth will be located inside the large pavilion.

My driveway is available for dropoffs any time before the day of the sale if you can’t make it to Stewart Park on Saturday morning. The driveway is on the Washington Street side of the corner of Washington and Esty Streets (402 Esty Street). My phone number is (607) 342-3660 should you have any questions about the sale. Tompkins County Cooperative Extension can be reached at (607) 272-2292.

Dwarf Conifers – April Plant of the Month

John Gilrein, Plant of the Month coordinator

Our April POM will be dwarf conifers from Evermay Nursery. These will be small plants, at great prices, suitable for a rock garden, perennial border, or trough.

The beauty of dwarf conifers is that they always look good. Though there’s no flush of gorgeous color, they have no season of blackened, withered foliage or otherwise looking worn out. Dwarf conifers may grow slowly; these will stay small. The plants will generally be less than 12 inches high when mature, except ‘Little Jamie’, which will grow to around 2 feet.

The supplier recommends well drained soil, though some are native to wet soils in nature, and recommends no more that a light dose of fertilizer. They should do well in full sun or part shade in soils that are not excessively acidic or alkaline. For planting in troughs that will not receive winter protection, a plant 2 zones hardier than your USDA hardiness zone is the general recommendation.

Our selection will include some of the following [approximate shape]:

  • Abies balsamea ‘Nana’ (balsam fir), from Northern North America, is hardy to zone 3. [cushion]
  • Chamaecyparis obtusa ‘Nana’ (Hinkoki cypress), from Japan, is hardy to zone 5. [globe]
  • Chamaecyparis pisifera ‘Tsukumo’ (Sawara cypress), from Japan, is hardy to zone 5. [globe]
  • Chamaecyparis thyoides ‘Little Jamie’ (Atlantic white cedar), from the Eastern coastal US, is hardy to zone 4. [cone]
  • Picea abies ‘Little Gem’ (Norway spruce), from Europe, is hardy to zone 3. [globe]
  • Picea mariana ‘Nana’ (black spruce), from Northern North America, is hardy to zone 3. [mound]
  • Thuja occidentalis ‘Hetz midget’ (American arborvitae), from Northeastern North America, is hardy to zone 3. [globe]
For additional information, check the Everymay Nursery web page for dwarf conifers, or the book Rock Garden Plants by Baldassare Mineo.