April Newsletter

By Julia Farwell-Clay | April 13, 2024

Last Snow courtesy of Laurie O’Neill

From the Horticulture Committee

We are looking for a volunteer to create a floral arrangement for the May Open Meeting to be held at 7pm on May 15 at Tricon. Please email Andrea Meyers at andreameyers3@gmail.com if you would like to volunteer to provide the arrangement.

April Program: Our Own Marta Taylor

The Programs Committee invites you to join them in welcoming member Marta Taylor who has been doing demonstrations for other garden clubs in the area so now she is ready to share with us! Marta will be doing a large arrangement that one would use as a large centerpiece or entry hall piece. She will also do one smaller hand held arrangement that you can put in a vase, and throughout her demonstration she will talk about flowers. As she put it, “An hour goes by quickly and we usually have fun.”

For those of you new to the club, Marta Taylor is a lifelong flower enthusiast. She grew up and raised her family in Los Angeles where she had a flourishing flower garden. As a member of the Bel Air Garden Club she created arrangements for various events. She moved to Concord fourteen years ago and soon thereafter started arranging for the Concord Museum. From there she volunteered at the Museum of Fine Arts arranging flowers for four years. She did many things for the museum including doing flower arranging videos and participating in flower arranging demonstrations for the public. Five years ago she started Bloom Floral Studio where she works currently. Her work is also on Instagram @bloomconcord

An Invitation from the Acton Garden Club

Hello, my local gardener friends. I would like to take this opportunity to invite you and your club members to a wonderful talk by Trevor Smith on Regenerative Landscapes: Garden for Climate Resilience on Wednesday, April 24, 2024 at 7pm. You may attend in person at the Acton Town Hall, Room 204 or Virtually via Zoom. Info & Registration at EnergizeActon.org, click “Events”.

This presentation is a collaboration of the Acton Garden Club, Acton Conservation Trust, and Energize Acton. This partnership has provided other successful events to educate and excite the gardening world. I hope you will share this information with your Garden Club members and we hope to see you in person or on Zoom on April 24th.

Eileen Ryan, President, Acton Garden Club

Welcome New Member Betsy Dorr

Dear all! I have lived in Concord with my husband Marshall since 1998, and also grew up in Concord and graduated from CCHS. Our four children, Maggie (23), Mason (22), Keanen (18), and Cecily (12), have been active participants in the school system, and have been part of many various town, school, and college sports teams. I have two dogs, Tommy and Charli who are both labs, that keep me busy, and make life fun! Professionally, I am a Real Estate Advisor and work for Barrett Sotheby’s Realty in Concord and greatly enjoy helping people find their next chapter. Outside of being a Mom and having a busy work life, I also enjoy house plants, working in my garden, and playing all racquet sports and golf. My Mom, Gail Keane, has also been a long time member of the Garden Club. As a new member, I am looking forward to learning about all aspects of gardening, broadening my knowledge of outdoor plants through the wonderful activities, and participating in the outstanding community outreach. I am very much looking forward to joining the Concord Garden Club! Thank you for having me!

Let’s talk plant sale: May 11, 2024

Plant Sale Week is my favorite week of the year. It’s super busy but so much fun, especially Saturday when early morning volunteers are so engaged it that they often forget to leave once their shift time has passed! Not only is it a great day for a chat, but also a lot of Concord stops by too. Break out your aprons folks, we’re going to have a party!

Remember that all members are required to assist in one way or another to make this our biggest event of the year so double check the Sign up Genius to make sure that you’re on there somewhere, and if you have to cancel for some reason, please please please find someone to step in for you. Also, the Plant Sale Committee kindly requests members to aim for donations of 12 or more plants or other retail-able objects for the sale. Even if you don’t have things in your garden worth dividing, or even a garden at all, let’s strategize about what else you can do for the Garden Club’s biggest day.

First of all, if you have a friend who has a garden, do THEY have things in their garden they would be willing to let you divide? Maybe they NEED help breaking up an overgrown perennial garden. Offer to bring some of your garden club friends over! Let Sarah Beguelin know if this is your great luck.

If not, YOU can sign up as a digger for a dividing session.

Garden Club members with established gardens who need help dividing, please reach out to provide this opportunity to our less-garden-blessed members! We will schedule at your convenience!

Still without plants to donate?

From Joan Campbell: This year we plan to expand the sale of our gently used trowels, rakes, spades and other garden tools to be turned into even more funds for our Grants program. Please go through your garage and basement and find any extra tools that can be added to our “store”

Text me at 978 337 7472 – I will gladly come pick them up or drop them off at Amanda’s when you leave your plants.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Can you make Mother’s Day bouquets? The Plant Sale Committee is looking for a few people to make 4 or 5 small arrangements each as an impulse buy-able item. Check the Sign-Up Genius to reserve space if you would like to do this.

Failing all else: retail annuals that are in full bloom and super exciting for our customers! Last year Leslie Cheney’s full bloom Poppies (see photo below) were a huge hit first thing in the morning. We don’t want a crazy amount of this solution because that’s money spent that makes no profit, but if this is the only solution you can imagine, we’ll take it.

Another level of thinking is to consider how you can add value to mere retail plants? Can you make a kitchen garden planter of herbs, or a wreath of ivy and annuals? Be creative if this is in your skill set. As always, reach out if you have questions.

There are a few kinds of plants we will NOT be looking for:

Common green Hostas
Orange Day Lilies
Purple and Yellow Iris (both Siberian and Bearded).
Pachysandra, Vinca, and English Ivy
Invasives on this list: https://www.massaudubon.org/nature-wildlife/invasive-plants-in-massachusetts

If you have less-than-usual versions of such plants and can label them, we will be happy to sell them. The BEST thing would be to include a photo of the bloom, even one printed from the internet if you can. For example: Variegated Siberian Iris will sell well, if you have some to divide.

Make them sale-able! We’ll be pricing in five and ten dollar increments, which makes tallying and check out easy, so make sure your potted beauties are big enough to justify at least a five dollar price tag. If you’re short on pots, Lauren Huyett has extras to offer. Email her about pickup.

And if you have extra pots or just a regular old question, let us know!

Have questions about dividing plants? Here’s a fun four minute how-to video from our recent archives, courtesy of member Amal Moamar. Click on the image to view.

In Memorium, Cathie Sur

As many of you know, longtime member Cathie Sur passed away recently. While she was memorialized in The Bridge, a few members have shared with me their cheerful memories of Cathie holding court at the checkout table during Plant Sale, and their gratitude for her work as Treasurer for three terms. Friends are invited to a memorial service in August, date to be announced. Dee Funeral Home will provide updates.

Links for Fun

Garden Fit, a program that not only talks about keeping a sounds body but also shows off some wonderful gardens in the process, is now in its second season on WGBH. Check out their website and chase down all the episodes.

Best Bulb displays in our area, according to Jana Millbocker of Enchanted Gardens who visited us in January of 2022.

What would it be like to have a dream garden and a whole staff to keep it going with you? This video is from Chanticleer Garden in Pennsylvania posted on March 15, so it’s a lot like how our gardens could look now had we all the hedges and beds and time in the world. TChanticleer posts these videos regularly, so there are three newer ones to drool over since March 15th, but I thought I’d share this one to get you started:

Posted in activities, flowers, gardening, Newsletters, skill sharing