Thames River Garden Club Minutes
March 17, 2016
Attendance
Active: 31 Privileged: 0 Excused: 18
President Everett Munro called the meeting to order at 12:20 PM.
Minutes: Nancy Clark made a motion to waive the reading of the February 2016 minutes. The motion was seconded by Brenda Kramer; motion passed.
Officers’ Reports:
President’s Report: President Everett Munro announced the following upcoming activities:
1) Ruth Hammell will hold an Easter Workshop on March 24 at Christ Lutheran Church. Members will be creating arrangements and giving critiques.
2) The 87th annual meeting of the FGCT will be held April 20 at Aquaturf; cost is $31/person. The program will be “A Chickadee’s Guide to Gardening”
3) Thursday, May 5 , 1 – 4 PM at Christ Lutheran Church Barbara Mingo will lead a workshop to create Mother’s Day arrangements to be sold at the plant sale.
4) Thursday, June 9, 10 AM – Noon, Location TBA. Alice Luster will hold a workshop “How to design a Simple Winning Floral Arrangement”. Alice is a flower show judge and a member of the Country Gardeners of Glastonbury.
Vice President / membership report: Brenda Kramer announced the resignation of member Peg Manner
Treasurer’s report: Ruth Hammell presented the treasurer’s report for February 15. The proposed Philanthropy List, as presented to the membership at the February 2016 meeting, was voted upon. Ruth motioned to accept the Philanthropy Plan as proposed; Judy Gibbs seconded the motion. The motion passed with no opposition.
Committee Reports:
Flower Show committee: Chairperson Pam Atkins announced a planned date of April 16 or 17, 2017 for the club’s upcoming Flower Show. The Finance chair is Vonice Carr; the Hospitality chair is Brenda Kramer. Pam asked members to please sign up for a committee or share your expertise (sign up sheets will be available at each club meeting – check the easel). If you are interested in a position, Pam will email a description to you. Dixie Miller told the membership that we must set a date and location, and then write a schedule to be presented to the club.
Habitat for Humanity: Chairperson Manly Church gave a brief description of this new club activity. Habitat builds 5 – 10 houses in New London County each year. This would be an opportunity to create gardens from the very beginning. Manly will send an email to find out which club members wish to be involved in this project. The garden plan will be unique to each house. We will need to create the beds and supply the plants (from our sale, our gardens, or purchased). It will be up to the club to determine how many houses we will be involved in each year.
Garden Therapy: Sandy Kelly and committee members helped residents create St. Patrick’s Day arrangements in green cups for their March activity. Residents enjoyed the arrangements very much. Sandy is always in need of members to help with Garden Therapy projects; please check the club handbook for time and date, or call Sandy Kelly or Juanita Toledo if you are interested.
Meeting was adjourned at 12:50 PM.
The Program for March was a discussion of the upcoming May Plant Sale.
Phyllis Cushing asked members to sign up for a committee. The Plant Sale is our only fundraiser and requires participation from all members to make it a success!
Please take printed post cards to your bank, church, or library to help advertise our event, also post the event on social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc.)
Set up will be Friday, May 6 at 6 PM with transportation to start at 5 PM.
Donations are needed for the drawing.
Every committee will be responsible for cleaning up their own area after the sale.
Juanita Toledo asked members to bring ribbons, baskets, silk flowers to our April meeting. Pat Uguccioni reminded members that everyone should bring a baked good for the bake sale (not brownies or blueberry muffins). Please package cookies, etc. in small amounts, package attractively with ribbons, etc.
All members also bring perennial plants. Members who do not have gardens are asked to bring food or water (for workers) or contribute to the raffle.
All members should wear name tags, aprons &/or T-shirts while working at the sale to help customers identify us.
Members have requested what plants sell well and what plants don’t sell well. See list below!!
The following plants could be limited.
Geraniums – cranesbill
Ehinacea – coneflower
Hosta (only the very common, some of the new varieties are great)
Iris ?? (today there are so many new and interesting varieties – name&color)
Nepeta – catnip
Sedum
Stachys byzantine – Lambs ear
Astilbe – false spirea
Black-eyed susan
Forsythia
Daylilies (unless named and have color information)
The following should be encouraged
Dianthus – cottage pinks
Digitalis purpurea – Foxgloves
Primula – Primroses
Dicentra spectabilis – Bleeding hearts
Pulmonia – lugwort
Penstemon – bearded tongue
Aquilegia – Columbine
Liatris – bottlebrush or gayfeather
Anemone – windflower
Helleborus – Christmas or Lenten rose
Heuchera – Coral bells
Echinops – globe thistle
Cimicifuga – snake root
Lamium – dead nettles
Perovskia altriplicifolia – Russian sage
Monarda – bee balm
Primula vulgaris – primrose
Epimedium – barrenroot (name and color)
Salvia nemorosa
Asclepias – butterflyweed
Tiarella – foamflower
These are only suggestions, I imagine you have many more wonderful plants.
Once you dig, if you could find a picture that most resembles your plant on the computer (google plant name, click on image, multiple samples will pop up, you could then forward the picture to me, I will make a marker to encourage sales. phyllis.cushing@gmail.com
Remember there are always new gardeners. They will be looking for healthy full pots. We have a reputation to uphold. Happy digging !!! Phyllis
Thames River Garden Club 