March 2025 Meeting Notes

 President Nancy Madeoy welcomed members to the March 2025 meeting of the LAGC. 

Nancy had a joke for the group.  What kind of pickles do gardeners like?  Daffodils!

 We have a new LACG member: Mark Donatelli.  He did not attend the March meeting. We hope to welcome him at the April meeting.

 We were reminded about the upcoming Tree Planting Service Project which is scheduled for Friday, April 11^th at the Horse Arena in North Park.  We’ll begin at 3:00pm and work until we’re done.  We anticipate completing the project by about 6:00pm but, if we have great participation then we could be done even earlier. Parking is available at the location. All the tools will be provided. It’s suggested that you bring your own gloves. Please wear your new LAGC T-shirt. The event will occur regardless of the weather so please be sure to dress appropriately.  The North Park Rangers will provide a tutorial to show how to plant the trees.  Members are encouraged to bring kids and grandkids to participate in the planting process. Drinking water will be available for participants.  

 The Penn State Master Garden Symposium will be held on Saturday, April 26th at the Hampton Community Center. Last month LAGC members voted to be a “Friend” of PSMG and will have our club name printed in the program brochure. The symposium is a great opportunity to do some shopping for plants even if you don’t want to attend the symposium.

 Mary Ann Kurtz, Plant Sale Coordinator, was unable to attend this evening's meeting so Claudia stepped in to talk about the preparations for our annual Perennial Plant Sale which will be held on Saturday, May 18^th. Please check your e-mail for a message from Mary Ann with many details but, here are some of the highlights.

·      Publicity is important for a successful sale.  Paper reminders were distributed to all members to hand to family and friends.  When you see the post on Facebook, please share it with your friends.

·      The sign up sheet was circulated for members to volunteer for specific jobs at the plant sale. 

·      Plant sale tags were available for members to take.  Please be sure to mark the top of the tag with the symbol of the light requirements for your plants. Draw a sun for “full sun”, a solid circle is “shade” and a circle that is half-shaded signifies “part sun/part shade”.

·      Please bring as many plants as you can. The more plants we have then the more we have available to sell. 

WWear your new blue T-shirt.  

·      Bring your gently used plant and garden items for the free table.  Shoppers love to look at the treasures and get something for free.

·      If you have extra plastic pots to share with members, please bring them to the April meeting or the Tree Planting Project on April 11^th.  

·      Marlow Madeoy, Vice President announced that our holiday tour and luncheon have been confirmed for Saturday, November 15, 2025.  We will be visiting Phipps Conservatory and having lunch at Monte Cello’s Restaurant on Babcock Blvd.  More details will be given when they become available.  Please mark the date on your calendar.  

·      Diana Berendowski invited LAGC members to the Earth Day Celebration sponsored by  Bradford Woods Conservancy on Saturday, April 26th from 10:00am to 2:00pm at the Reserve in Bradford Woods.  Admission is free along with a free picnic lunch.  The highlight at 11:00am is a Birds of Prey Presentation. Enjoy the other programs and vendors. 

 Hostess and Arrangement:  Linda Brown’s table arrangement represented Spring with the bright yellow daffodils, purple Siberian Iris and adorable ceramic bunnies.  Rosemary Highman delighted everyone’s taste buds with a selection of apple cake, cashews, grapes and maple cream cookies.  Thank you, Ladies!

 

Program – “Backyard Invasive Species - Don't let them bug ya!” by Dawn Shaffer

Our March speaker, Dawn Shaffer was very informative and engaging as she presented her talk about some common backyard invasive species.  She focused mainly on the praying mantis.  We learned that there are 2,400 species of praying mantises in the world and 20 species in the USA.  In Pennsylvania we have 3 species: Asian or Chinese mantis, European mantis and the Carolina mantis which is our native mantis.

Praying mantises are indiscriminate eaters and will eat all varieties of bugs, bees, butterflies, mosquitoes, Spotted Lanternflies and even hummingbirds if the praying mantis is a large species.  Mantises hatch from an egg sac which can contain between 70 to 200 nymphs.  All mantis nymphs are bright green and look alike, which makes it difficult to determine what species of mantis you are observing.  Adults can vary in shades of green and brown.

There are some common misconceptions about praying mantises that we may have learned as children.  Many people think that the praying mantis is a protected species but, this is not true.  They are not classified as a protected species.  The second misconception is that all mantises are green but, mantises can be green or brown.  The last misconception that Dawn discussed is that all females eat their male partner after mating.  Studies have shown that mantises may eat their male partner, but not always.

Since mantises eat everything in our gardens from pollinators to our plants we should try to remove them from our gardens.  The best way to deal with praying mantis is through integrated pest management rather than pesticides.  Dawn suggests destroying the egg sacs by putting them in water or feeding them to your chickens. You can keep the native sacs. 

Our speaker presented us with a few cautions when dealing with praying mantis: don’t take the egg sacs inside your house because the egg sac will think it's spring and the nymphs will hatch and disburse everywhere; Don't buy praying mantises or nymph sacs online because you can't guarantee what kind of praying mantis you're going to receive; Don’t interact with the praying mantises – just leave them alone and they won’t bother you.

We also talked about the Spotted Lanternfly and the fact that it is still expected to be a problem in our area again this year.  Our speaker is concerned that the invasive insect is moving towards Erie County and will affect the grape vineyards and in turn affect wine production.  This could be a major issue for the Erie economy because grapes are such an important money-making crop in that area.

Now is the time to be looking for the egg masses of the Spotted Lanternfly on flat surfaces of your car, trees, outdoor furniture, etc.  The best way to remove them is by using an old credit card and discarding the egg masses in your municipal trash.  Dawn brought along a variety of handouts with her display and members could pick up a scraper to remove the egg masses.

Our speaker, Dawn also spoke about the decline of butterflies and that the plant we know as the Butterfly Bush is now on the invasive species list and we should be removing this non-native from our yards.  Instead, we should be planting milkweed for Monarch butterflies, spice bush for Swallowtails and plants from the parsley family for Black Swallowtails.

Members really enjoyed Dawn’s informative presentation and asked many interesting questions. The handouts that we could pick up and the egg mass scraper are very beneficial takeaways. We enjoyed another interesting lecture from a Penn State Master Gardener speaker.

 

 

Picnic & Tour of Bill Goff's gardens, June 4, 2024

We had a terrific turnout and the perfect weather for this year’s annual club picnic which was hosted by Bill Goff.  A great big thank you to Bill and his wife Diane for welcoming us to their home and garden.  The variety of salads, appetizers, mini-sandwiches and desserts was enjoyed by everyone.  Water and Paducah Iced tea quenched our thirst.  The iced tea has a citrus ingredient, pineapple juice and was delicious.  We’ll have to get the recipe from Bill!

Although we were hoping to see the peonies in

Bill Goff

bloom, Bill explained that most of the peonies had bloomed early this year so there were only a few pink blossoms for the picnic. We enjoyed strolling through Bill’s mature garden which sits on a double lot. He has been creating and working on his gardens for more than 30 years. Deer and rabbits can be a problem for Bill so he uses Liquid Fence and Milorganite with some success.

Beautiful peony blossom

Dawn redwood

The property in the backyard is divided into 2 distinct areas separated by a fence. The first area is a shady spot which surrounds a lovely patio with eating area and fountain. This garden bed is full of hostas of varied colors, sizes, and different shaped leaves.  Sprinkled among the hosta are a few reddish lilies which piqued members’ curiosity.  It’s called a Martagon Lily, also known as Turk’s Cap Lily. This lily thrives and blooms well in part shade where other types of lilies prefer full sun.  This lily is unique because of its downward facing blooms and many blooms on a single stem.

Martagon Lily

The shade in this area is created by Bill’s Dawn Redwood Tree.  Bill planted this amazing tree many years ago.  It’s a cousin of the Sequoia and loses its needles in the Fall.  It’s architecturally unique because of its vase-like trunk.

On the other side of the fence is the second area where there is a large perennial border filled with mature plants such as: Mountain Mint, Crocosmia Lucifer, Culvers Root, Feverfew, Lambs Ear, Verbena Bonariensis, Catmint, Bachelor’s Buttons, Solidago Golden Rod and a variety of Peonies.  I’m sure there are many more plants which I didn’t recognize!  This area also has a large swath of greenery which promises to display a large variety of daylily blooms in a few more weeks.  Tucked in amongst the plants are perfectly placed decorations such as a concrete statue of St. Francis, a bird bath, sundial and a special metal sign which says “Pap Pap’s Flower Garden”.

We thank Bill for allowing us to tour his garden. From what I can see it’s the perfect place to enjoy your other hobby, photography.  The variety of mature plants and landscaping really makes a relaxing space and I hope you get to enjoy it with your friends and family.

Meeting Notes

We took a group photo in front of the perennial bed.

President Nancy shared a thank you note with members from the Penn State Master Garden Symposium. This year we made a donation to become a Friend of the Symposium and have our club’s name listed in the garden symposium directory.

Nancy will reach out to board members and committee chairs to confirm who would like to continue in their current position in 2025.

Mary Ann Kurtz, Plant Sale Coordinator talked about the success of the 2024 plant sale.  Great job to our members!  Many thanks to Mary Ann for coordinating our efforts!!!  Our profit is $3344. We had 690 plants brought to sell with 92% participation of our club members. 

Three of the plant sale signs were stolen so we might have to budget for more next year.

No changes need to be made in terms of publicity or pricing.

It was determined that we could use 2 more tables for the plant sale setup. Members are asked to bring as many tables as you can.

We discussed whether we should sell plants which are listed on the PA Invasive species list. We’ll get a copy of the list and discuss in the future.

Ideas and uses for an LAGC logo were discussed. Sample ideas for the logo were circulated. Club members were asked what we should purchase to print the logo on such as a t-shirt, apron, ball cap or button. No decision was made and this topic will be discussed at another meeting.

Notes by Colleen Finegal, pictures by Bill Goff and Rose Mary Highman