*****Spring 2014*****
is ...
Gathering with good friends at the
spring luncheon cocktail hour, looking across the table at lunch and greeting
someone you haven't seen all winter, anticipating the hard work and fun of the
plant sale and mentally planning your own garden designed to outwit the deer
(so what if all you can plant are cleome and bloodwort!).
Spring is going to the supermarket and
buying big bunches of lovely pastel tulips. No matter how chilly the weather - your home
looks like spring.
I am writing this from Marco Island
where orchids in the market substitute for tulips. I have been in touch with many of you over the
winter and look forward to seeing all of you in April. Enjoy the spring!
Jayne
New Location for Annual Plant Sale
The Cornwall Garden Club is on the move. Well, not that far; but we’re heading across
the street to the park grounds of Town Hall for our Saturday, May 10, annual
plant sale. Because of the ongoing
condition issues at the Sands Ring Homestead, we’ve decided to have the sale at
Town Hall, right where the Food Co-op holds their market.
We’ll need to do things a bit differently in our new
location, and plans are well underway to make that happen. And you can help. Do you have a tent we could borrow for the
day to shelter our things and us? How
about a little wagon to help customers with all those purchases? Please let Ilene or Andrea know if you
do.
You’ll need to be there by 7 a.m. and plan to stay until 2
p.m. Please remember to bring your Members’
Plants and Baked Goods. Donations for
the Silent Auction and Grandma’s Attic would be greatly appreciated.
Remember volunteers are needed for the Friday, May 9, plant
delivery. We will meet at Town Hall at11:45
a.m. Spouses and friends are most
welcome to come and lend a hand. We are
also looking for assistance on Friday night to watch over all that was
delivered. Let Ilene or Andrea know if
you can give us an hour or two between 5 p.m. and 11 p.m.
Save Saturday evening for celebrating at our post plant sale
pizza party. We will collect $5 per
person to cover the cost of the pizzas. It’s
a BYOB event; and, if you can, bring an appetizer, salad or dessert.
We are looking forward to a successful day at our new
location; a day filled with community spirit and fellowship.
Spring Luncheon
More than 50 Cornwall Garden
Club members, associates and friends gathered for our annual Spring Luncheon on
Saturday, March 22, at the Powelton Club in Newburgh. While the air was still tinged with winter’s
cold, warm friendship abounded.
Marie-Elise Pearson led the
day’s agenda. We began with a fashion
show with 10 members modeling various outfits from CAbi. Our thanks to Julia Lawrence, Independent CAbi
fashion consultant, for providing the clothes for the show.
A brief business meeting that included passing our 2014-2015 operating budget was followed by a delicious lunch. Members designed table centerpieces using the theme of “Past, Present, Future” in the format of a still life.
We were honored to have Jane Madis, Director for
District X, Federated Garden Clubs of New York State, Inc., as our guest. Jane conducted the induction ceremony and
charged our new officers with the task of leading the club for the upcoming
year. Our officers are as follows:
President: Jayne Petersen
First
Vice Presidents (Membership): Betty
Congelli and Michele Farr
Second
Vice Presidents (Beautification): Rita
Third
Vice Presidents (Program): Sally Ryan
and Fran Clifford and Amy Lawless
Recording
Secretary: Susan Olsen
Corresponding
Secretary: Sandy Kirwan
Treasurer: Arlene DeSocio
The afternoon concluded with the distribution of the eagerly anticipated 2014 -2015 yearbook. Thanks to Sally Mattausch for producing such a lovely and informative publication.
Spring
Inspiration
Marie-Elise
Pearson wrote and gave the invocation at our Spring Luncheon. Her words remind us of the wonder of Nature
and friendship.
We are
thankful for the friendships that fill this room
We are
grateful for all beauty that Nature gives
To the
cities, towns and villages in which we live.
May be
always find the peace that toiling in the soil brings
As we
struggle through our winters and welcome our springs.
May we always
come together to celebrate the worth
Of our
gardens, and ourselves, and this wonderful Earth.
Garden Therapy
One of our Cornwall Garden
Club projects is Garden Therapy. The
Garden Therapy Committee seeks to bring the joy of plants and flowers to those
unable to pursue gardening on their own.
Our Garden Therapy outreach has concentrated on working with senior
citizens.
Last fall, the Garden Therapy
Committee went to the New Windsor Country Inn and assisted residents in making
autumn floral displays. The seniors made
beautiful centerpieces using pumpkins and fall foliage, dried plant material and
seasonal flowers like chrysanthemums. In
addition, each resident received a small sugar pumpkin tied with raffia and
with a card from the Cornwall Garden Club.
The committee planned the
activities, and all Cornwall Garden Club members were invited to assist with
the carrying out of the project, said Michele Farr, the chair of the Garden
Therapy Committee.
Michele noted that the seniors
always enjoy the events, and the Cornwall Garden Club members have a great time
as well. Garden Therapy is good for the spirit
whether you are on the receiving or the giving side of the event.
Arbor Day
In New York State, Arbor Day is celebrated on the last Friday in April. This year’s Cornwall Garden Club Arbor Day observance will take place on April 25 at 4 p.m. at Donahue Memorial Park at the river front. All are invited to attend.
Our state tree is the Sugar Maple (Acer saccharum). The Sugar Maple is a landscape standout with leaves
that form a complete color wheel throughout the year, turning several shades of
green, then from yellow to orange, and finally to red in the fall. The diversity of this tree makes it
impressive all year round but especially in the fall. Sugar Maples
tolerate shade and like a well-drained, moderately moist, fertile soil. Sugar Maples can be found in
zones 3 – 8 in all but the warmest places in the United States.
Sugar Maples grow to 60 to 75 feet with a 40-50 foot
spread, so it is wise not to plant this tree in confined areas. Give your Sugar Maple plenty of room to grow,
and you’ll be rewarded with a beautiful tree that will thrive for many
years.
From the Arbor Day Foundation website at www.arborday.org.
Philadelphia Flower Show
In
March several members of the Cornwall Garden Club said hello to Spring by
braving the weather and taking to the road for a visit to the 2014 Philadelphia
Flower Show. The Pennsylvania
Horticultural Society’s Philadelphia Flower Show is an annual event held in
early March at the Pennsylvania Convention Center. It is the world’s oldest and largest indoor flower show, attracting more than
260,000 people annually. The show
features large-scale gardens, elaborate landscapes and over-the-top floral
creations.
Visitors
were treated to fabulous design, live entertainment, culinary demonstrations,
gardening how-to workshops and lectures by experts. Proceeds from the show support the
Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, particularly the City Harvest program,
which feeds more than 1,200 families each week during the growing season.
Next
year’s show will take place from Feb. 28 – March 8. Several local organizations sponsor charter
bus trips each year to the show. Think
about joining in for a preview of Spring.
Information from www.theflowershow.com.
All America
Selection Winners
It
will soon be time to select your annuals and perhaps add a few new perennials
for your garden. But what to chose? Looking to the All America Selection Winners is
a good starting point as these are plants with proven results.
Each
year the All America Selections National and Regional Winners are tested for
garden performance by the AAS judges. After
the judges submit their scores, those varieties that perform best over all of
North America become AAS National Winners. Entries that performed particularly well in
certain regions are named AAS Regional Winners. Once these new varieties are announced as
Winners, they are available for immediate sale and distribution. Home gardeners will find seeds available from
their favorite catalog or online seed source or as young plants at their
favorite garden retailer. Some of the
older AAS Winners may no longer be available.
An
AAS Trial Ground is one of the most important elements in the process of
declaring AAS Winners. A Trial Ground is a location where professional
horticulturists works in their fields and where the AAS entries are planted
next to comparisons or, scientifically speaking, controls. That Trial Ground
may be located at a university, a public garden, a commercial greenhouse
operation, a breeding station, etc. Once
the AAS entries are transplanted into a Trial Ground, the AAS Judges observe
and evaluate the garden performance. Those
judges, at the end of the trial season, then send their scores and evaluations
to the AAS Office and an independent accounting firm for tabulation. Only the best performers become AAS Winners. Here are a few of the AAS Winners for
2014.
Angelonia Serenita™ Pink F1 2014 AAS Flower Award
Winner
Easy to grow and maintain and ideal for beginner gardeners. Elegant yet tough plants bring long-lasting color with very little maintenance. These look beautiful in mixed combos on the patio or create a soothing sea of soft color in the landscape. Heat-tolerant plants. Deer and rabbit resistant. Grows 12-14" tall by 12-14" wide.
Gaura Sparkle White 2014 AAS Bedding Plant Award Winner
Sparkle White gaura will bring a touch of airy
elegance to the garden with its long slender stems sporting a large number of
dainty white flowers tinged with a pink blush. This beauty is perfect when mass planted in
sun-drenched landscape beds, in groupings with other perennials or in larger
containers. Home gardeners will
appreciate that this season-long bloomer also has excellent heat tolerance and
a more uniform flowering habit than other seed gauras. Sparkle White can be used as a first-year
flowering perennial or as an annual. Sparkle
White is also a recipient of Europe's FleuroSelect Gold Medal award for garden
performance.
Osteospermum
Akila® Daisy White F1 2014 AAS Bedding Plant Award Winner
White osteospermums are not unique but a clear
white osteo with a yellow center is a novelty, plus, it’s easily grown from
seed. Akila® Daisy White is a tidy,
uniform plant with open flowers that produces non-stop blooms all summer long. Even southern judges praised Akila’s ability
to keep blooming in the heat and they also showed more drought tolerance than
other osteos. Akila is also the
recipient of Europe's FleuroSelect Gold Medal award for garden performance.
The information and photos for
this article are from the AAS website – www.all-americaselections.org. Take a look at this site for ideas for your
spring planting.
Upcoming Events
Mark your calendar for the following upcoming events.
April 9 – District X Spring Luncheon and Annual Meeting at
the Bear Mountain Inn. This event is
sponsored by the Clarkstown Garden Club.
April 24 – April meeting. “Plant Sale and Flower Show Information” 6:30 p.m. at the Cornwall Presbyterian
Church.
April 25 – Arbor Day Ceremony. 4 p.m. at Donahue Park at the riverfront,
Cornwall-on-Hudson.
May 9- Annual Plant Sale Setup. 11:45 a.m. Volunteers should come to the
Cornwall Town Hall to help unload the plant delivery trucks. Gardening gloves recommended.
May 10 – Annual Plant Sale.
All members are expected to participate from 7 a.m. – 2 p.m. Celebrate that evening at the post plant sale
party.
June 1 – 7 – National Garden Week
June 26 – June meeting. “Vanderbilt’s Mansion and Terraced
Gardens” Meet at 9:45 a.m. at the CVS
parking lot for car pooling. Bring a bag
lunch.
