Guy’s Greetings
Hear ye! Hear ye! Hear ye! The Patchogue Garden Club hosted our 6th successful “Think Spring” luncheon. Congratulations and thank you to Georgia Dulmovits, Arlene Lamberti, and all the wonderful members on the committee for your tireless dedication to the luncheon’s success. In our shaky economy you managed make the luncheon grow in both attendees and the beautifully crafted baskets. Again, the accolades have been many, but the success is all yours.
St. Patrick’s Day was Tuesday, March 17th, and Patchogue’s parade is Sunday, March 29th at 1:00 pm. We start on Rider Avenue and finish with corned beef, cabbage, and a beer or two at the BrickHouse Brewery. Let’s show the village what makes the Patchogue Garden Club such a great service organization: our community involvement.
Historically, the average spring temperature in late March is in the mid 50’s, perfect weather for a Sunday stroll down Main Street and to get the blood flowing for another gardening season.
Mark the Date
Tuesday, March 24, 2009, 7:00 PM, general meeting at Hagerman Fire Department, on the corner of Dunton Avenue and Oakdale Avenue. The speaker will be Joy Kaminsky from Bayard Cutting Arboretum. The topic will be the history of arboretums, including cemetery arboretums, which will tie in with the idea of creating an arboretum cemetery on West Main Street where the cemetery restoration project is taking place. THIS IS NOT A GARDEN CLUB PROJECT!!!! Some members of the club are advisors.
Sunday, March 29, 1:00 PM, Patchogue St. Patrick’s Day Parade, Rider Ave.
Final dues closing date is March 31.
If anyone is interested in having a summer club meeting in your garden, please contact Paula. This invitation is offered to members' friends as well and does not have to be in Patchogue. Gardens are needed for June, July, and August.
April 4, 3:00-8:00 PM, Hagerman Fire House Spaghetti Supper fundraiser for Michael Vignato. See www.HagermanFD.com for details or call 654-2790 Ext. 200.
Saturday, April 25, 2009, opening of the Terry Street garden; rain date Sunday, April 26. Both days begin at 9:00 AM.
February Meeting in a Flash
Erik Meneses, Asian garden specialist, of Blue Monkey Asian Design and President of Eastern Suffolk Bonsai, made a presentation about bonsai which included a slide show and raffling off of the maple bonsai specimen he demonstrated. Marie Magnano was the happy winner. Eric also brought a beautiful specimen of azalea in flower. For further information about Eastern Suffolk Bonsai, email www.EasternSuffolkBonsai.org or call 363-6490.
Garden Conservancy Open Days: Plan Ahead!
More than 300 gardens participating in the Conservancy’s Open Days program will be open in 2009. You are invited to explore first-hand examples of outstanding design and horticultural practice that are growing in America’s gardens. The 2009 Open Days Directory is now available. The Suffolk County Open Days for May 2 are listed here. For details and directions, other dates, or if you happen to be traveling during the garden season, checks out the other gardens on the schedule at http://www.gardenconservancy.org/opendays/events.pl. For general information about the Conservancy, visit http://www.gardenconservancy.org/.
Abby Jane Brody. 44 Glade Road, East Hampton This is primarily a woodland garden in which the native oaks are the upper story. I am an inveterate plant collector with a special interest in rare or unusual flowering trees and shrubs as well as herbaceous plants. The half-acre site has something in flower, preferably fragrant, almost every day of the year. In early May, the last of the camellias and hellebores may be in bloom, as well as daphne, epimediums, and hundreds of other woodland plants.
Biercuk/Luckey Garden 18 Sayres Path, Wainscott. Our four-season woodland garden under a high oak canopy shelters a collection of rhododendrons, azaleas, kalmia, pieris, understory trees, perennials, bulbs, and tropicals in season. A mostly sunny rear corner contains a pool designed as a pond with a waterfall and is surrounded with plantings which peak mid-July through October. Winding paths and stone walls enhance a sense of depth and elevation change on a mostly flat acre. There is something in bloom every season.
Margaret Kerr. The garden, designed by Kerr, surrounds the house and studios on two acres that extend down to the wetlands of Accabonack Harbor. Kerr’s brick rug sculptures, inspired by tribal Middle Eastern carpets, are placed throughout the garden. One, a brick prayer rug, lies in a contemplative glade below her studio. Kerr collects plants grown in the Middle Ages in a courtyard around a fountain and lily pool highlighted with espaliered pear trees. In the spring, drifts of thousands of daffodils bloom in the fields around the house and are left unmown until late fall. Native grasses and wildflowers make islands of meadow during the summer.
Mrs. Donald J. Bruckmann. This seaside location emphasizes traditional and informal plantings of herbaceous borders, woodland, meadow, and rose gardens. Two ponds are surrounded by iris, asters, and other sun-loving plants. An ocean terrace and adjacent dune combine beach vegetation with bright annuals for an interesting contrast of the cultivated and naturalistic.
Serious Dirt from Richard Waldman
Roberto Burle Marx
At the New York Botanical Garden until April 12th is the Orchid Show featuring an exhibit designed by the landscape designer Raymond Jungles. He has used influences the well-known Brazilian landscape architect, painter, ecologist and naturalist Roberto Burle Marx (1909-1994). Jungles met Marx when attending a lecture while a student at the University of Florida; he subsequently made many trips to Brazil to view Marx’ design work. Landscape architects have been influenced by Marx through his many lectures and writings.
Marx was born in Sao Paulo, but it was in Germany as a student of painting that he became interested in Brazil’s native flora while visiting a local botanical garden. When he returned to Brazil in 1930 he began his extensive collection of native plants and two years later had his first commission for a landscape at a private residence. Years later his collection of native plants grew to be housed in a large estate outside of Rio de Janeiro that had been donated to the Brazilian government in 1985. The use of native species within his designs was very important in order to show off each plant’s characteristics. The use of water and pavements is also something that can be found in many of his designs such as in the Copacabana promenade.
If Roberto Burle Marx found influences in his work at a trip to a botanical garden, isn’t it time you venture out to the New York Botanical Garden yourself?
Economics 101
This is the garden club newsletter, not the Wall Street Journal, so I am not about to write about the current state of the economy. But I am reminded of Econ 10, reading about the cost of tulips and the havoc caused in the Netherlands back in the 1600's. A book written in 1841, “Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds”, claims that investors in tulip bulbs were ruined in the dramatic rise and fall of bulb prices, with tulip contracts selling for more than ten times the annual income of a skilled craftsman at that time. Historians now disagree with author using with the term 'tulipomania' as it refers to an economic bubble. Tulips were introduced to the Netherlands from the Ottoman Empire in the mid-16th century. Within a short time tulips became status symbols. Previous thinking had the entire population speculating, causing the cost of tulip bulbs to rise. People felt this could last forever and had visions of wealth for all. In 1637 the traders weren’t able to get new buyers willing and able to pay the highly inflated prices, so the demand for tulips fell along with the price, and the bubble burst. Tulip speculators were now asking for aid from the government in declaring that contracts could now be voided by paying a 10% fee. According to the author, those who now held the tulip bulbs were left without any enforcement of their contracts since the judicial courts considered this gambling. Now it is thought that the tulipomaniacs were really just a small group of people, not the entire Netherlands as originally believed. Recent findings show trading in tulips was only by merchants and wealthy craftsmen, making the bubble very limited. During 1636-1637 there was a dramatic rise and fall in the cost of tulip bulbs, but not as dramatic a bubble as originally thought. Since the original book was highly popular and widely cited by other writers and economists (even up till the 1980's) the use of the term 'tulipomania' has remained. What will they say about today’s economic climate years from now? I just hope they keep the plant world out of it!
The 6th Annual “Think Spring” luncheon was a grand success, and a good time was had by all who attended. The Mediterranean Manor, as always, did not disappoint, and in fact was better than ever.
Many club members made donations for the raffle baskets. Those marked with an * were members of the committee who gave generously of their time as well. Those marked with & also participated in the Members’ Art Show, a first for the luncheon and a big hit. Let’s have a round of applause for all of these members!
Special thanks to co-chairs Georgia Dulmovits and Arlene Lamberti for a bang-up job yet again! In no particular order: Margaret Atkinson*, Babette Bishop*, Barbara Bruce*&, Rosalie Coleman&, Sandra Franco, June Petruccelli*, Carolyn Savastano*&, Diane and Bert Voland, Judy Zuck, Jo Miller, Fred and Bonnie Bossert, Peg and Frank Densing, Jim Tooher, Barbara Aragon*, Guy R. Vitale and Mark Jeffers, Joan Delaney, Ann Rubbo*, Marie Magnano*, Carolyn Young*, Ruth Szuminskyj*, Paula Murphy, Millie Zimmerman*, Donna Mujic&, Karen Ferb*&, Violet Mulligan*, Janet Heyer*, Carol Tvelia, Gladys Heimburger*, Joanna Drake, Marita Morello*, Joan Kattau, Mary Ann Tchinnis. Other members of the committee were Barbara Bestafka, Pauline Carleton, Carla Steward, Ellen Brandt, and Joan Tifford. Other members in the Art Show were Kathy Barthman, Carol Reitz-Butler, Kathy McMahon, and Tony Wenderoth. If I left anyone out, please let me know and accept my apologies. Ed.
Many businesses and organizations gave their generous support to our 2009 luncheon. We are ever grateful:
Jim Tooher Three Village Music Bayport Flower Houses
Friends of the Patchogue-Medford Library The Fish Store
Trendsetters Hair and Skin Care Blum’s
Town of Brookhaven Highway Dept. Nino’s Pizza
Long Island Statuary J&R Steak House
Waitress to Go Casino Clam
Fantastic Gardens Country Kitchen Restaurant
New York New Wave Hair Salon The Curry Club
Petite Pets Day Care and Boarding Swiftway Wine & Liquor
Finest Fitness Health and Sports Club The Pilates Studio at Bayport
Signs and Advertising Associate Prime Meat Market
Karl Ehmer Pork Store Advance Auto Parts
Time On My Hands Bissett Nursery
Bobbique Swan Cleaners
King Kullen Grocery Gallo Tropical Restaurant
BrickHouse Brewery and Restaurant The Good Steer Restaurant
Pura Vida Burrito Company Carvel
Panera Bread Painter’s
SunWave Liquors Alchemy Design
Tricia’s Hair Galleria Home Depot
Head Cutters Long Island Flower Garden & Florist
Quench Wine & Spirits Forever Young National Display Garden
Timely Tips for April
Prune forsythia soon after it finishes flowering for next year’s flowers.
Plant trees and shrubs. Plant new roses before growth begins.
The months of March, April and May are ideal for pruning evergreens. Remove all dead, diseased, and undesirable wood. However, do not prune back into the bare wood of the plant.
Plant summer flowering bulbs, but take care to wait until last frost for tender ones.
April is a great time to select and plant fruit trees and berry plants. Fruits and berries do best in full sun.
On Arbor Day, attend a ceremony and plant a tree.
If you ignore beauty, you will soon find yourself without it…
But if you invest in beauty, it will remain with you all the days of your life.
~Frank Lloyd Wright
Thanks to Diane Riviello-Voland for the quote.
