February 2021 Newsletter

“Every gardener knows that under the cloak of winter lies a miracle.” Luther Burbank

Dear Members,

Many of you may remember a wonderful presentation on container gardening given by Deborah Trickett to the club several years ago.

My thanks to Deborah and her newsletter, “The Captured Garden” for reminding me of this wonderful quote by Luther Burbank (1849-1926) an American botanist, horticulturist and innovator of agricultural science.

Burbank was born in Lancaster, Massachusetts, but moved to Santa Rosa as a young man after selling the rights to his Burbank potato which is widely cultivated today and if you have ever had a McDonald’s french fry, you have tasted a Russet Burbank!

A favorite flower of many us is the Shasta Daisy which was developed by Burbank among many other successful strains of flowers, fruits and vegetables.

To learn more about Burbank and his gardens, please see the Armchair Travel section below.

It really has been a blessing in this ongoing pandemic to have the wonderful snowfall, not only for its inherent beauty, but also for the important role it plays insulating our plants for the winter.

Did you know that snow not only delivers moisture to plants, but also beneficial nitrogen which attaches to snowflakes as they fall?

We will learn more about the beauty and benefits of gardens in winter with next week’s presentation by Judith Irven (see below).

Below is the “miracle” that the unveiling of winter’s cloak delivers to my garden in spring.

I hope this finds you all well, safe and busily looking at garden catalogs!

Sandra Conrad

Please join us Wednesday, February 17th at 1 p.m. for a Zoom club meeting.

Our program this month will include a winter flower arrangement by longtime club member, Wilhelmina van der Wansem, as well as the introduction of our newest club member, Lucinda Draine (see more about Lucinda under Committee News).

This will be followed by our speaker, Judith Irven, a Vermont landscape designer and garden writer.

“Portrait of a Winter Garden” is her topic. Living in Vermont has inspired Judith to create gardens that provide interest through shapes, silhouettes and textures that give the winter garden special appeal.

If you have not already done so, here is the link to the Sign Up:

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/20f0d4aacaa29a31-gcczoom1

Please note: deadline to sign up is Monday, February 15th. A Zoom invitation will be sent Tuesday, February 16th.

2021 Virtual Plant Sale is Coming!

May 6th, 7th and 8th

It is a snowy, cold February but the Plant Sale Committee is thinking about springtime and our Plant Sale. We will be conducting a members only, virtual sale again this year. So be thinking about what wonderful plants you have buried beneath all that snow that are just waiting to be divided. As in the past, these plants will be cataloged, priced and offered to club members. So, until we can get back to “normal” and have our much-loved, in-person Plant Sale, three cheers for our virtual sale.

There will be one addition to this year’s fundraising endeavor and it is a Pop Up Shop. This is in the planning stage, but our hope is to offer flower arrangements, seeds and gloves, notecards etc. These will be offered to club members, but we are also hoping to have a table in Concord Center the day before Mother’s Day. This will require town approval that will hinge on where we are concerning the virus. The committee is excited about this addition to the virtual plant sale.

More details to come. Any questions, please contact Jen Lannan, Plant Sale Chair at mailto:jenlannan@comcast.net

Seeds, Glorious Seeds! What are you growing?

Apropos of the notice about the plant sale, it is the time of year to think about starting seeds. Many friends tell me that due to the pandemic, many seed companies are already out of desired seed varieties.

Thanks to a fellow master gardener, here is a link to 75 seed companies from Aurelia’s Garden, a non-profit comprised of all volunteers who grow fresh and nutritious foods for distribution to  local communities.

http://aureliasgarden.org/wordpress1/recommended-seed-companies/

Committee News

Community Outreach

Once again, the Garden Club of Concord will be participating in the Museum of Fine Art’s Art in Bloom. Pam Nelson is lead arranger with Ellen Whitney assisting. Their artwork is Woman in a Fur Hat (1915) by Gretchen Woodman Rogers. Ellen and Pam are especially excited about the rich and opulent texture and layering in the piece. What fun to do in flowers! We’ve already been enjoying visits to the Flower Exchange.

This year’s Art in Bloom will be virtual, with virtual tours available at http://mfa.org the weekend of Friday, April 30 – Monday, May 3. Our arrangement will be photographed in March to be included with the artwork and commentary in the tours.
(Note: This year’s Art in Bloom is being led at the museum by our own Nicole Kelly!)

To view this beautiful painting and learn about the artist:

https://collections.mfa.org/objects/34148

Horticulture

As mentioned above, Wilhelmina van der Wansem will be doing a flower arrangement for the February meeting.

If you are interested in doing a Messy Moment for a future meeting, please contact the Horticulture Chair, Pam Nelson mailto:ephn@verizon.net

John Althouse will be offering tours of his early spring garden beginning in later March and April. 

The tours will be limited to four members at a time, masked, and socially-distanced.

Details to come next month.

Membership

Please welcome our newest club member, Lucinda Draine who will be mentored by Membership Chair, Lauren Huyett.

Lucinda moved back to Concord, where she grew up, after living in Baltimore and Worcester. In Worcester, Lucinda was a dyslexic specialist for the Worcester public schools. She also coordinated the Elm Park school garden in Worcester for 2 years. In every location she has created gardens at her home and has always had community garden spots in each location.

In Concord she has a very challenging property that she is working on and hopes to meet fellow gardeners that love a challenge and can offer friendship and love of gardening. She also loves the public service that our club offers and plans to participate in our endeavors.

We will be giving a virtual welcome to Lucinda at our February 17th Zoom meeting.

Nominating

Kate Wharton, Chair of the Nominating Committee, along with members Lauren Huyett, Maryann Street, Heather Swartwood and Cris Van Dyke, have begun their work on filling the following posts for the club: President, Vice-President, and Corresponding Secretary.

Andrea Meyers has decided not to succeed to the President’s office.

If you wish to be considered for any of these posts, or if you wish to nominate another member, please do not hesitate to contact Kate Wharton mailto:katewharton58@gmail.com

Descriptions of the duties of each position are listed on the website under Member Resources.

Programs

Jane Rupley and Elise Woodward, Programs Co-Chairs, along with their intrepid team: Kelley Bothe, Dennis Fiori and Susan Hurley, have done a remarkable job of providing programming to the club under challenging circumstances.

Kudos to Elise, Jane and Susan who will be stepping down and will be succeeded by Kelley Bothe and Dennis Fiori as the new co-chairs, along with club members Jenny Borden, Joan Campbell, Helene Clayton and Jane Deering.

We know this committee of veterans and new members will continue to provide us with stimulating programming.

Armchair Travel

Find a comfortable chair, put your feet up and take a trip near or far to the following locations:

Luther Burbank gardens

I visited these gardens several years ago. Much is kept the way it was when Burbank worked there. Fortunately, it survived the recent wildfires.

http://www.lutherburbank.org

Monty Don visits Babylonstoren, South Africa

Many of you already know Monty Don, well-known British gardener and traveler.

Thanks to member Miranda Boylan who sent this link. Her son had the good fortune of visiting this garden.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vfzJzo8FIc

 

Visit Great Dixter with Fergus Garrett

This famous British garden was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens in 1911 during the Arts and Crafts period.

Join Fergus Garrett, CEO and Head Gardener to learn how this garden has evolved into the 21st century.

Event is at 10 a.m. on February 23 courtesy of the Trustees.

Register here:https://thetrustees.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_T4C93KFTQr27lZOeZzd-UA

Fun closer to home, and, you can visit!

Tower Hill Botanic Garden continues to keep the site open, albeit  with timed, reserved tickets.

 A new installation called Yarnstorm is on display through March 31st.

Look here to learn what this colorful outdoor exhibition is all about:

https://www.towerhillbg.org/yarnstorm/

From the garden corner…

Perennial Plant of the year announced:

The Perennial Plant Association has announced the perennial of the year: ‘Calamintha nepeta nepeta’ or Calamint.

For those of you already familiar with this member of the mint family, you will know it is a tough, long-lived perennial. 

It shrugged off the heat and drought in my garden this year, and typical of mints, spread its fragrant message throughout my garden bed.

It is especially lovely planted at the front of a border and near a path so that as you walk by  and brush the leaves, its fragrance is released.

To learn more:

https://perennialplant.org/page/2021PPOY

With that, I leave you with these words of a favorite local sage:

“Always maintain a kind of Summer, even in the middle of Winter.”

~ Henry David Thoreau