Sunday, January 31, 2010

Your input needed for spring trip plans

From Susanne Lipari:

BZ Marranca and I took on planning a spring/summer trip. We had a couple of thoughts regarding this trip:

  • More visiting than driving.
  • An itinerary that allows members with jobs to participate as much as they like.
  • Inspiring gardens and fun plant shopping.

Below is a suggested tour. Please give us feed-back to let us know if we should get down to more detailed planning, or if we should look at an altogether different itinerary. If you tell us to abandon this one, please suggest alternatives. (sel3@cornell.edu or mmm10@cornell.edu)

The center point is a visit to the rock garden at the New York Botanical Garden with hopefully a tour given by Jody Payne, the curator who gave a presentation to the chapter in October 2008. Surrounding this are several other locations and combinations of locations that would allow different people to take part in all or just some of the visits.

Day 1: Stonecrop - If people feel strongly about attending the NARGS sale, the trip would would have to start on Saturday, April 24. However, on our last visit there, some of us thought that the end of April was too early for a visit there and the garden would be more beautiful a couple of weeks later. Since Stonecrop (www.stonecrop.org) is open to the public on the 1st and 3rd. Saturday of the month, that would mean May 1 or June 5, since the third weekend in May is the high school plant sale and we can't plan a trip then. In any case, the visit to Stonecrop could be followed by a visit to Storm King (www.stormking.org) and a night spent at a motel somewhere north of New York City.

Day 2: New York Botanical Garden (www.nybg.org) - Guided tour. After that, people interested could either spend more time there or visit Wave Hill (www.wavehill.org), which is fairly close, also in the North Bronx. Return to Ithaca afterward, or drive to Long Island to spend the night in an Inn near the next day's destination:

Day 3: Planting Fields Arboretum (www.plantingfields.org) and after that head back to Ithaca.

What we like about this trip that people could either go along for the whole trip, or join for any one of the events that fit into their schedule. If this trip appeals to the membership, we will find some nurseries on Long Island to visit.

Seed starting info

From Susanne Lipari:

The Ontario Rock Garden and Hardy Plant Society has a very informative germination guide to over 6,000 species. The ones I had not found anywhere else were represented:

http://www.onrockgarden.com/guide/seedguide.htm

Art to drive away your winter blues

Here are two Ithaca art exhibitions worth checking out:

Living Light: A Celebration of the Finger Lakes Flora
- Tompkins County Public Library through March 26. Juried art show organized by the Finger Lakes Native Plant Society features 50 artists celebrating the beauty and diversity of our region's wild plants and fungi in a wide array of media and styles.

Chronicling Brief Lives: Botanical Portraits in Water Color
– Mann Library, Cornell University through February 24. Showcases the award-winning botanical illustrations of milly archarya, a long-time Ithaca resident.

NARGS Eastern Winter Study Weekend

March 19-21
Eastern Winter Study Weekend, Devens, Massachusetts.
More info.

Want to share transportation? Contact: John Gilrein, basecamp@alum.syracuse.edu, 315-492-0844.

Designing with Native Plants Symposium

March 5-6:
Ithaca's 2nd Annual Designing with Native Plants Symposium
More info: www.cayugawaterfronttrail.com/

2010 program plans

Updated 8//2010.

Here's our tentative program line up for the rest of 2010.

Plans for local and long-distance garden tours and other programs are in the works.

  • September 18: Dan Snow, www.inthecompanyofstone.com, “Dry stone construction: a 'fitting' medium for the rock garden.”
  • October 16: Elisabeth Zander, Berkshire Chapter-NARGS, “Vertical Gardening.”
  • November 20: Program to be announced.

ACNARGS people