November Newsletter
Anne Umphrey’s Anemones
Spring will be extra Beautiful
This month, the Garden Club was given a thousand daffodil bulbs to plant as part of a living memorial. Our club shared the bulbs with several of our regular grant recipients, including Orchard House, where Sandy and John Althouse lead a team of Mater Gardeners in planting them around the grounds.
Master Gardeners, including Sandy Conrad and John Althouse, installing bulbs at Orchard House
Trip to Wellesley College Botanical Gardens
report by MaryRose Sykes
Maryrose Sykes, Sarah Paino, Kate Wharton, Georgine Feldt, Melinda Shumway, Nan Gustafson, Tracy Lyne, Jane Rupley, Pam Nelson, Holly Salemy
On Nov. 1st, a small group had the pleasure to visit the Wellesley College Botanical Gardens (WCBG), a “hidden gem” that serves the community as an educational garden, representing 22+ acres of diverse outdoor gardens, greenhouses and a visitor center. The gardens include over 1,500 different taxa from more than 150 different plant families.
Initially, we explored the Global Flora greenhouse, bringing attention to the beauty and diversity of plants, and our global connections with plants across cultures. This greenhouse was constructed in 2019, and recently opened to the public in 2022. Our wonderful docent, a sophomore at Wellesley College, guided us through the dry and wet biome, emphasizing the importance of particular plant forms, relationships between insects and plants, water maintenance, and the sustainable greenhouse construct. Some highlights include the khurub from the African desert (potentially living 2,000 years), tortoise shell plant from Mexico, mangrove tank with fish called sailfin mollies, banana tree nearing the end of its three-year lifespan, paludarium tank with equal emphasis on plants and fish, pelican flower with its unusual odor, dragon fruit cactus (pollinated by bats) and “food court” with allspice, papaya, ginger, and pineapple trees.
Following the greenhouse tour, we embarked on a self-guided tour of the outdoor gardens, admiring the impressive white oak tree embedded in the edible ecosystem garden, while passing the observatory. We continued along the pathway to the paramecium pond, red maple swamp, and bog garden, admiring some of the late fall colors. The WCBG is a treasure for the college students and public to enjoy, and “take a little THYME for yourself”, as encouraged in the edible garden near the two wooden bench seats. We ended our time by enjoying lunch together at The Cottage in Wellesley.
Holiday Workshop SUG
Please round up your friends and join us at our traditional GCC Holiday Workshop, Tuesday, December 12th from 10-12pm at Tri-Con in the Parish Hall. You will have the opportunity to mix and mingle with your fellow club members and create a beautiful seasonal arrangement to take home with you. Don’t forget your clippers, apron, and holiday spirit! The cost of $36 covers all of your materials. You can pay by check to the Garden Club of Concord or Venmo (@GardenClubofConcord). Light refreshments will be served. The sign up is waiting for you here.
Space is limited. Sign up deadline is Tuesday, December 5th.
Please reach out to Katie Wilson (k8twilson@comcast.net) or Anne Umphrey (anneumphrey@gmail.com) with any questions.
Cris Van Dyke Honored
We are so lucky to have Cris as one of our members. Her camera talents frequently grace our notecards and blog posts, and recently, two of her photographs were among the winners of the Garden Clubs of Massachusetts photography contest. This year’s theme was “Rejoice in the Sun”. All of the winners were curated into a lovely video: Click on the photo below to watch it on Youtube. Cris’ two photos are featured at :28 seconds and the 1:50 mark.
Holiday Luncheon
Oh look! On the calendar! It’s going to be December soon! So it’s time to plan our annual December gathering. This year’s event will be hosted by Jen Lannan at her gracious home at 102 Sudbury Road. You can find the sign up to RSVP here. (and remember that sign ups are almost always ALSO linked on the Sign Up page on the website, linked from the Member resources page) We are all looking forward to this year’s festive sartorial flourishes.
Welcome new member Suzanne Broxon
A little about me:
Mike and I grew up in New Orleans and have lived in Concord for 6 years after having lived in San Antonio, TX, Wilmette IL and London.
Mother to 3- Sydney 22, Ben, 19 and Anderson, 14.
I’ve enjoyed volunteering at the Umbrella and Emerson Hospital.
I love learning about gardens and planters.
Also looking forward to the field trips!
November Meeting Wednesday the 15th
As ever, we will meet at 1 pm at TriCon for our meeting and educational program. This month we welcome Bonnie Power who has an MA in Zoology from Boston University and taught college level science courses for over twelve years before leaving teaching for industry. After she retired she began taking courses to augment her love of gardening by working on certification at Garden in the Woods in Framingham and by becoming a certified Master Gardener in the fall of 2016. In 2015 she began volunteering on a Facebook page for insect identification and began learning about insects. Out of these experiences she developed this talk aimed at gardeners to acquaint them with beneficial and pest species of insects and other arthropods.
Lovely Links
Wild leaf raking by land artist Nikola Faller
Looking for an alternative to Turf Grasses for your lawn? The NYTimes featured this article about suggestions from Cornell Botanic Gardens
With our Good Bugs/Bad Bugs program setting a theme this week, I thought you would enjoy Avant Gardens’ Blog post from quite a few years ago now about natural controls for the upcoming Winter Moth Season. In fact, you might enjoy all of their November blog posts which they have gathered together in this convenient location linked here.
And what is a British shelter magazine doing telling us Yanks how to decorate our Thanksgiving table? Seems like our holiday has caught on across the pond, and I (a little bit of an anglophile) am so here for it: 12 Thanksgiving table decor ideas from UK’s Homes and Gardens.