Flower bulb expert, author to speak at Cornell

Horticulturist and best-selling author Anna Pavord will speak on “A Luxuriance of Bulbs” at 11 a.m., Saturday March 20 at the Statler Hall Auditorium on the Cornell University campus. The talk is free and open to the public.

Pavord has been the gardening correspondent for The Independent (UK) since 1986 and has written eight books, including the international bestseller The Tulip and 2009’s Bulb.

“Of all the different plants in the world, bulbs intrigue me the most,” says Pavord. “As a gardener, I appreciate the way they mark the seasons. Bulbs are not just a spring thing. In this talk I introduce some of my favorites and suggest how they might be used in a garden.”

Pavord is also the author of New Kitchen Garden, Border Book, and Plant Partners. She was one of the founding editors of Gardens Illustrated and wrote and presented Flowering Passions for BBC Channel 4 television. She has lived in Dorset for almost forty years. After restoring the garden of an old rectory, she recently moved to a new garden, which she is filling with bulbs.

After the talk, Pavord will sign copies of her new book, Bulb, which will be available for sale.

NARGS seed exchange featured in WSJ

A nice article on seed exchanges in the Wall Street Journal, A Growing Obsession: Rare Seeds, explains the allure of swapping seeds in winter.

Spring in the Netherlands: A Festival of Flowers Feb. 27

From Pat Curran:

Travel to the Netherlands with Chris Cerveny of Cornell's Horticulture Department, at a Garden Travel Slide Show offered by Cornell Cooperative Extension of Tompkins County, Saturday, Feb. 27 at 2 pm.

Holland is gorgeous in April! This presentation will take you on a pictorial journey to the world-famous Keukenhof Gardens, and provide an overview of field production of flower bulbs. Chris traveled to the festival of flowers in the Netherlands in April 2008. This presentation will take place Saturday afternoon February 27, 2-3:30 pm, at the Cooperative Extension Education Center, 615 Willow Avenue, Ithaca. Refreshments and time to socialize will follow the talk. Suggested donation of $3 helps support the Horticulture Program. Please call 272-2292 for more information.

Feb. newsletter

The Feb. 2010 newsletter is online in .pdf format here:

http://www.acnargs.org/newsletter/201002.pdf

Enjoy

Seed exchange deadline extended to Feb. 15

From Joyce Fingerut, director, NARGS Seed Exchange:

The deadline for receiving Seed Exchange orders has been extended to Monday, February 15th, giving NARGS members an extra weekend to pore over the Seed List and send in their requests.

View the 2009-2010 Seed List and ordering instructions at:

http://www.nargs.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&id=75&Itemid=123

There are still many desirable seeds available. Please be sure to indicate whether you would also like to receive the list of Surplus Seeds, which can be ordered in March, and send a self-addressed, self-adhesive mailing label.

Chapter Chairs: Please remind your members that the Seedex is on-line this year. Those chapter members who do not yet belong to NARGS (national) may join now and be eligible to order seeds.

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