LAGC Meeting Notes & Annual Picnic - June 23, 2026

     

      This month we had our annual LAGC club picnic. Chris Kerin and her husband, Dave welcomed us to tour their beautiful garden and lovely mid-century modern 1950’s home. Thank you very much for being such gracious hosts. LAGC members enjoyed a delicious variety of potluck dishes and beverages while we talked gardening.

 
LAGC Meeting Notes
President Nancy Madeoy welcomed LACG members to our June picnic. She announced that former member, Heidi Sestrich has joined again. Welcome back!
 
The new officers and committee chairs for 2027 have been decided as follows:
President – Mary Anne Kurtz
Vice President – Amy Foreman
Treasurer – Mary Jo Benedetti
Recording Secretary – Karen Barczak and Cathy Rose
Programs – Andrea Maire and Diana Berendowski
Community Service – Colleen Fingal
 
Claudia spoke about 3 potential projects for LAGC:
 
·         Remarkable Tree Challenge – McCandless Township has invited the community to help identify and celebrate the community's most remarkable trees. LAGC members Claudia, Helen and Bill will complete the nomination form for one or more of the trees that the club has planted:  Tulip Poplar and Japanese Snowbell on Northland library grounds and Korean Spice Viburnum at the Chapel Garden at Passavant Hospital. The winners will be announced on 9/19/26 at the MCandless Community Day

·         McCandless Community Day Booth of 9/19/26 – does LAGC want to sponsor a 10 x 10 booth for $125 to hand out information about our club or do a planting project or give away plants. The booth must be open from 1 to 9pm. We’ll need at least 8 members working in pairs for 2-hour shifts. Members are undecided. Topic will be discussed at the next meeting.

·         Members have the opportunity to volunteer to install a new garden at the Suffragist Grove in Hartwood Acres on July 8^th from 9am to 12noon.  Please contact Claudia ASAP if you are interested or have questions.
 

Vice President Marlow Madeoy confirmed the details of the 2026 LAGC Holiday Tour and Luncheon on Saturday, November 14^th.  We will tour the National Aviary at 11:00am and meet for lunch at 1:00pm at Max’s Allegheny Tavern. Marlow will confirm with the restaurant if we can get separate checks.  Additional details will follow in the upcoming months.
 
 
Mary Anne Kurtz, Plant Sale Coordinator discussed some of the things that went right at the plant sale and what things could be better. She applauded all members for participating in the success of the plant sale. Thank you for your leadership, Mary Anne!
 
·         The plant list with light requirements worked well. Contact Mary Anne if you have any additions to the list. A column will be added to list which plants are PA Natives
·         The chalk lines which identified where to place the plants worked well but, it was time consuming to set up. We’ll need a volunteer to handle this job in the future.
·         Members appreciated the detailed documents about the plant sale: timeline, parking lot map and job descriptions
·         The Specialty Irises which we purchased from Larry Grundler was positive and members agreed to purchase the plants again if given the opportunity. The project of potting them up was a huge task which was handled by Denny and Linda. We will need more volunteers to commit to potting up the plants and overwintering them in the future.
·         We need more visible signs to indicate sun versus shade plants. Mary Anne would like to consider the purchase of tall sign holders. This will be researched further.
·         Tracking the Buy one, Get one free sales was tricky.  It was decided to return to plants are half off at 11:30am
·         The customer holding tables are essential. Next year we need 5 tables and we need to use the large tables.
 
At the conclusion of Mary Anne’s talk it was decided to form a Plant Sale Committee to discuss ideas for improvement.  The committee members will be Mary Anne, Anita, Karen, Denny and Mary Jo Benedetti.
 
Mary Jo Benedetti circulated the volunteer sign up sheet to maintain the White Garden at UPMC Passavant Hospital. Please contact Mary Jo if you are still interested in signing up.

Photos provided by Dianne Machesney and Chris Kerin

A wide range of delicious foods to choose from!

... and many delicious desserts!

Chris Kerin, hostess for the evening

Cindy having a conversation w/other club members

Colleen, Evan and Andrea enjoying the perfect weather outside

Diana, Jane, Linda and Amy

Chatting over beverages

Bill, Mary Anne, and Nancy

Claudia and Dianne

Enjoying the food and conversation

Mark and Heidi

Chris, Andrea, and Lynn smiling for a photo

Note: many of the daylilies were not blooming on picnic night, so pics included below

Rose campion in full bloom

"Seven seas" daylily

Siloam double classic daylily

Herb container garden

LAGC Meeting Notes - May 26, 2026

President Nancy Madeoy welcomed LACG members to the May meeting.  She posed the question of what’s blooming in our gardens?  Members have Peonies, Iris, Columbine, Larkspur and weeds😊.

Nancy reminded members that LAGC will need all new officers for next year. Please consider becoming the president, vice-president, treasurer or recording secretary. The descriptions of the officer’s duties can be found on page 18 of the handbook. 

Members & guests arrive as Linda B, membership chair, chats and welcomes them.

Our president Nancy addressing the group at meeting

Members "settle in" before program starts.

Mary Anne Kurtz, Plant Sale Coordinator presented an overview of our successful annual plant sale. The weather was perfect and members worked together to make it a great fundraiser for LAGC. Thank you to Mary Anne for her leadership and for organizing all the details for the event. We will discuss any areas for improvement at our June annual club picnic. 

Here are some of the highlights of the plant sale:

•  1100 plants to sell
•  Profit of $4723
•  Perfect weather
•  194 customers
•  826 plants sold in the first 80 minutes of the sale
•  53% returning customers
•  34 of our 40 members participated
•  Members brought an average of 32 plants
•  Donated 54 leftover plants
•  The specialty irises which we purchased from Larry Grundler netted a profit of $467. Many thanks to Denny and Linda for potting up the irises.  You did an excellent Job!
•  Members brought irises from their own gardens to sell that were not marked with the color of the flower and customers had questions.  It was suggested to take a picture now of your irises so that you know what color of iris you have.

Vice President Marlow Madeoy spoke to members about the planning of this year’s holiday luncheon.  It was suggested to tour the National Aviary and find a restaurant within the vicinity.  Marlow will do some research to see if the Aviary can accommodate us. Notify Marlow with any tour or restaurant suggestions. 

** LAGC Annual Picnic **

Our June 23^rd meeting will be our annual club picnic and will be held at Chris Kerin's house. The picnic starts at 6:30pm. Please bring a potluck food item to share such as an appetizer, salad, dessert or side dish.  She will provide the beverages, plates, napkins and cutlery.  We will need some members to bring a chair.  Look for the upcoming e-mail for all the details. 

Mary Jo Benedetti is still looking to fill a few open slots on the sign up sheet to volunteer to maintain the White Garden at UPMC Passavant Hospital.  Please consider helping out with this community service project.

 

Hostesses 

Rose Kiselica brought pound cake, fruit tray and chocolate treats.

Sue Brozick provided the beautiful arrangement for the table.

Arrangement of peonies and iris graciously provided by Sue Brozick

Chocolate brownies and pretzels... yummy!

Moist and delicious pound cake.

 A fruit tray makes a lovely compliment or alternative to chocolates and cake. 

Thank you to Rose Kilselica for bringing all of the goodies!

Program - "Tomatoes!" presented by Barb Kline, PSMG

June Garden Tour 2020

LAGC Meeting – June 24, 2020

On a perfect summer evening, members gathered in the beautiful gardens of Mary Anne Kurtz.  Her garden was to be on the Shaler Garden tour this year, which has unfortunately been cancelled, but we had the privilege to get a private tour – not a weed in sight, and everything was growing beautifully.  If you have an interest in getting a piece of any of her plants, please let Mary Anne know.  She will coordinate with you when it is appropriate to divide, typically in the fall.

Colleen opened up the meeting by thanking Mary Anne and Ron for opening up their home and gardens.  The dessert choices were delicious.

Old business – what to do with excess monies was decided for us … nothing at this point, as we did not have a plant sale this year.

The July tour of Bernie Taylor’s daylilies has been confirmed.  She is excited to share her gardens with us.  Tour dates is Tuesday July 14, the 2^nd Tuesday of the month instead of our normal 4^th Tuesday.  An e-mail re interest in carpooling from the church will be sent out prior to the 14^th, for those interested. 

Colleen gave us the sad news that Len Lehman had passed away.  We will miss having him as a speaker, he presented on a variety of topics over the years and was actually supposed to present at the October meeting.

Colleen has a call in to the church to see if they will open up the Fellowship Hall to us for our meetings in September and October.  If you have any ideas on speakers for those meetings, please get in touch with her.

2 year terms are up, so volunteers are being looked for President, VP and Treasurer, as well as if you have any interest in chairing one of the committees.  Especially needed is someone to assume responsibility for programming.  You can partner up with one or more members to make it a little easier.  If you’re interested in any of the positions, or chairing a committee, please let Colleen know.

A sign up sheet for weekly chapel garden maintenance at Passavant was passed around.  If you have not picked a week yet, please get in touch with Colleen to find out which weeks are still available.  You will receive a reminder email when your turn comes around.

Long time member, Janine Zink will be moving to Florida in a few days.  We all conveyed our best wishes and good luck with this new chapter in her life.  She will be missed! We thank Janine for bringing her extra tools and pots and other garden items to share with members!

Pictures by Colleen.