A boat yard on Sunrise Highway has a spring countdown calendar. Today, February 18, it said 32 days until the first day of spring. If you’ve been observant, you know that there is daylight almost twelve hours now, the sky is bright by 6:00AM and it doesn’t get dark until 5:45 PM or so. On the 21st of March the vernal equinox arrives, when we will have 12 hours each of day and night. Careful
inspection of the garden will show that the buds are beginning to swell on the deciduous trees; snowdrops and other early spring bulbs are showing tiny green shoots if they’ve been planted in a protected area. The birds are getting noisier, and the squirrels are friskier.
Phil Butler, one of our club members will be speaking at this month’s meeting. He will be discussing changes to Waverly Avenue, Greater Patchogue Lake, and the western end of Patchogue Village.
Remember that club dues are due this month, our membership year runs from March 1 to February 28. Dues are $15 per person or $20 per couple.
Carol Tvelia
President
Patchogue Garden Club
---------
Mark the Date
Tuesday, February 26, 2008, 7 PM, regular at Swan Lake Civic club house. Please bring your Chinese Auction baskets and other contributions to this meeting. You may also drop them at Georgia Dulmovits’ house, 168 E. Lakewood, Patchogue. Reservations will also be taken; bring check or cash. Speaker: Phil Butler on invasive weeds in Patchogue Lake.
Thursday, March 13, 10:30 am, annual “Think Spring” speaker, luncheon and raffle. Mediterranean Manor, tickets $32.00 For more information, call Georgia Dulmovits (289-0867) or Arlene Lamberti (289-3667). If you have a dietary problem, please let Georgia know so I can talk with the Manor and get back to you. I wish to thank you all for your help in donating baskets, other prizes, and gift certificates. To date we have 80, and several certificates and baskets are still out. This year we had 24 members on our committee and they worked really hard, great group! To all our members, thank you for your continued support. I hope to see you at the luncheon and the meeting.
Georgia
---------
January Meeting in a Flash
The 2008 calendar was distributed. A copy is included in this newsletter for those who were not in attendance.
---------
Perennial Plant of the Month: Geranium 'Rozanne'
It’s a new year, and that means there is a new 2008 Perennial Plant of the Year. The Perennial Plant Association has awarded the honor to Geranium 'Rozanne', a hardy geranium originally found in Somerset, England in 1989. In the United States it can be grown within the USDA hardiness zones 5
through 8. Violet blue flowers with white centers 2 1/2" wide bloom from late spring to mid-fall. This perennial reaches a height of 2’ and about the same in width. In moist well drained soil in either full sun to partial shade, 'Rozanne' is an excellent ground cover and can also be used alone as a specimen plant. Use it in conjunction with hostas, perennial salvias and short ornamental grasses for an interesting effect. Besides in the ground, opt for using it this year in your upcoming window box arrangements or patio containers. For more information, see www.PerennialPlant.org
---------
New Annuals to Look For
All America selections: Drought-tolerant Osteospermum ‘Asti White’, 18”H & W, with 2.5” blue-centered white daisies all summer. Viola ‘Skippy XL Plum Gold’, 6-8”H, plum purple flowers with gold center. Look at those whiskers! And in the vegetable category, look for winner Hansel, a miniature eggplant, a smaller-sized plant with finger-sized clusters of fruit. Reaching a height of less than 3 feet, the strong plant produces clusters of three to six fruit. They mature early — about 55 days from transplanting, 10 days earlier than a comparison eggplant. If left on the plant, they grow in size but remain tender and nonbitter, offering gardeners more flexibility in harvest. Hansel is highly
recommended for container gardening.
-----------
Serious Dirt from Richard Waldman
Fletcher Steele, American Landscape Architect
There is a good chance that many of us did not hire a well-known landscape designer to create our gardens, but we might have had our own outdoor spaces influenced by landscape architects and designers through writings and public gardens done in the past. One such influential designer, (John) Fletcher Steele, might not be a household name now, but his concepts and approach to design are felt through current designers today even though much of his work was done in the mid 1900's. Rather than doing a straight copy of an historic European garden to fit an American estate as had been the norm, he mixed classical designs and listened to the client’s wishes on how they wanted to use their gardens, their outdoor rooms. With two books and over 100 magazine articles to his credit, his topics ranged from historical design analysis; color in the garden; and how to bring landscape architecture to its well-deserved position as a fine art. In the early part of the 1900's he worked on large estates, incorporating staircase layout and railing design and experimented with new materials such as concrete block and tube railings. After World War II styles and tastes changed along with the advent of the suburban garden lot. The original gardens by Steele were on a large scale with major construction and high maintenance, supported by large staffs. The changes brought about were a demand for smaller tracts of land with less maintenance as found in his book, “Design in the Little Garden”. Many of his landscape creations done on large estates have been replaced by subdivisions and parking lots. Two of the gardens have been preserved and are open to the public in Stockbridge MA. The better known is Naumkeag which has been photographed and written about in numerous magazines. It took 30 years to create. See www.Thetrustees.org and click on 'Property Directory' for a tour of Naumkeag. Read a biography of Steele at http://www.esf.edu/la/research/Steele/FSbio.htm
----------
Road Trip: 2008 Philadelphia Flower Show
Mark your calendar, clear your schedule, it's time to book a trip to Philadelphia for the 2008 Philadelphia Flower Show from March 2 through the 9th. This years theme is 'Jazz it Up' with New Orleans, the French Quarter and the Roaring '20's as its inspiration. Designers will be thinking of wrought iron balconies, courtyards, and fountains and how gardens relate to it all. The premier flower show of the United States has been ongoing since1829, and this year’s show in the Convention Center will include in its ten acres a myriad of landscape designs, floral fantasies, and garden lectures and demonstrations along with an indoor marketplace. For more information visit www.Pennsylvaniahorticulturesociety.org . The Patchogue-Medford Library runs a bus trip. Tickets are $51, including admission, and are on sale at the main desk.
-----------
Did You Know? In the 17th Century in Ireland, royalty often used lavender instead of grass to create a lush and fragrant lawn. Upon discovery of King Tutankhamen’s tomb in 1922, archaeologists were greeted by arrangements of leaves and flowers intact after more than 3,000 years! (Martha Stewart Living)
-----------
Information About the Winona Cottage
The Winona Cottage is a small house, formerly the caretaker’s cottage on the grounds of the old Winona Hotel, more recently known as Halcyon Manor. The hotel, now being renovated, was acquired by Patchogue Village to be the new home of the Village Recreation Center.
The reason we chose to donate the proceeds of the Christmas House Tour to the Winona Cottage is that the Village of Patchogue is giving the cottage to us, the Patchogue Garden Club, to use as we see fit. It has been discussed at several meetings and in the newsletter as well as in the brochure for the tour, but it has come to the attention of the Executive Board that there are still some questions about the allocation of funds to the cottage.
As discussed previously, having the cottage for our use will give us a permanent place to hold meetings, have seminars, do various garden-related crafts, in short, anything we want to use it for (within reason, of course). In addition, the grounds surrounding the cottage can be a horticultural learning center for the club and the community. We will also be doing landscaping on the grounds of the cottage. As the cottage nears completion, we will be discussing ways of using it with the membership. If you have any questions about the Winona, please bring them up
at a meeting.
----------
Another Road Trip
For many of us gardeners, digging in the soil is one of our true loves, but that doesn’t stop us from appreciating indoor plants and what we can grow on the windowsill or under UV lights. From February 23rd through April 6th the New York Botanical Gardens is hosting the annual Orchid Show right before the first green leaves appear on our shrubs and perennials. The Enid Haupt Conservatory will house thousands of orchids, many fragrant, and all beautiful. When you go through the exhibit there is an audio tour to point out the many different aspects of the orchids on view. The New York Botanical Garden will also host classes and workshops. The gift shop will be wellstocked and ready for you to make a purchase or two. www.nybg.org/tos
----------
New York Botanical Gardens Winter Lecture Series
You're never too old to learn, and the New York Botanical Garden is having their 2008 American Gardening Winter Lecture Series throughout February and March. Saturday March 1st offers a variety of classes geared to the understanding of the soil and how to modify it for different plant material. Or you might want to sit in and see what Spring Maintenance in the garden consists of. Later in the day it’s time to familiarize yourself with expanding your knowledge on early flowering bulbs and other plants or find out about dividing and transplanting what is in your garden now. The afternoon brings the option of learning what to prune and when or getting serious and beginning with seeds as the first step in plant production. March 29th has classes solely on Native Plants - perennials and
woody. Learning the difference and what makes some plants invasive is also offered. For more information, times and costs, you can go online at www.nybg.org or call 718-817-8747.
---------
Timely Tips
Now is the time to do early garden chores. Organize your workspace.
Clean and sharpen your tools.
Make pruning cuts on deciduous trees, cut down your ornamental grasses and
butterfly bushes.
Cut some branches of forsythia, witch hazel, and pussy willow for forcing.
Sow cool-season crops (broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, head lettuce, and so on)
indoors now. Grow cool; they will tolerate light frost outdoors after hardening off.
