June 28 LAGC Member Picnic 2023

We had a great turnout for the annual club picnic this year even though we had to adjust the date due to the weather.  A huge thank you to our host Andrea Maire and her husband, Gene for making us feel so welcome at their home.  Andrea provided the paper products, iced tea and adult beverages which members really enjoyed.  Club members brought a variety of delicious salads, shrimp cocktail, cheeseburger sliders and decadent desserts. Thank you to the members for bringing such delicious food.  It’s always such a glorious spread! 

 

We had a short meeting after dinner.  President Nancy announced that so far this year we have 7 new members.  That’s fantastic!  A warm welcome to all of them.  We’re glad you joined LAGC.

 

Evan Fingal will be stepping down as the club’s Service Coordinator at the end of the year.  This position is responsible for coordinating the maintenance of the White Garden at Passavant Hospital.  You don’t have to do all the maintenance yourself, but are responsible for organizing members to volunteer to help out.  Please let Nancy know if you are interested in the position.  Consider teaming up with another member to co-coordinate.

 

We will not be meeting at the church on July 25th because we will be touring the garden of Sandy Csikari.  No carpooling – meet at Sandy’s house.

 

The August 22nd program will be Edible Landscaping with Pat Morgan.

 

The North Park and Penn State Master Gardeners will host Garden in the Park on July 29th from 9am to 1pm.  The event will be held at the demonstration gardens at the corner of Babcock and Wildwood in North Park.

 

Mary Anne Kurtz, Program Coordinator reviewed the programs that she already has planned for 2024 and the schedule is filling up nicely. She asked members for program ideas by way of a survey that was distributed and collected at the picnic.  If you have any additional ideas for tours or programs, then please e-mail Mary Anne. We can never have too many suggestions!

 

Next year’s club member picnic will be held at the home of Bill Goff.  Since members are very interested in seeing Bill’s peonies, we have to change the date for the best show in the garden. The 2024 club member picnic will be held on June 4th.

 

Our 2024 plant sale will be held on Saturday, May 18th.  Please mark your calendars.

 

Just a reminder that the Shaler Great Gardens Tour will be held on Sunday, July 9th and the Wexford Garden and Pond Tour will be held on Saturday, July 8th.

 

 

Tour of Andrea (and Gene’s) Gardens

 

Andrea gave us a tour of their gardens after we ate dinner. Andrea generously offered members a piece of her plants.  Please e-mail her if you would like something.

 

Our tour of Andrea’s garden started along her driveway where she grows tomatoes behind tall netting to keep out the deer.  Deer are a concern in her yard and a couple of deer were bold enough to run thru as we enjoyed our dinner. The front garden near the street is a beautiful mix of delphiniums, evening primrose, crocosmia, cherry bells, zinnias, dahlia, black eyed susans, and both rose campion and white lychnis — just to name a few. Spigelia, indian pink with tubular red and yellow flowers was of particular interest to many members who were not familiar with the plant.

 

Andrea grows vegetables behind the house in raised beds which are covered to protect the plants from deer and rabbits. The veggie beds have garlic, onions, kale, nasturtiums, lettuce and cabbage. All of the plants looked healthy and happy.

 

As we strolled thru the property from garden to garden we couldn’t help but comment on the beautiful, lush emerald green lawn.  The lawn is diligently maintained by Andrea’s husband, Gene. We crossed the bridge to the back of the yard to see poppies, daisies, hostas, ferns and other shade loving plants. 

 

After the tour, Gene delighted members with a fireworks display while we enjoyed dessert.  It was a very pleasurable evening being able to enjoy good food while we talked gardening with friends.

 

Meeting notes by Colleen Fingel                Pictures by Dianne Machesney

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

May 23, 2023 LAGC Meeting Notes

President Nancy Madeoy opened the May 2023 meeting with What's blooming in your garden. Members responded with peonies, Iris, chives, catmint and rhododendron.

Welcome to our 3 new members who joined last month — Alicia, Kate and John.

A few embers brought plants to share.

 

Please remember that there will be no meeting at the church in June. Our annual garden club picnic will be held on Tuesday, June 27th at Andrea Maire’s house starting at 6:30 p.m.  Andrea said that we may park in the church parking lot across the street from her house.  There are also six parking spots in Andrea's driveway.  Please leave those spaces for those members who may have mobility limitations. Please bring an appetizer, dessert, salad or casserole to share and also bring a chair.

 

Again this year, we'll have our discount towards a purchase of plants at Quality Gardens garden center on Route 228 in Valencia.  Marlow Madeoy sent an e-mail to all members  which includes the document that shows the discount information.  You must print the document and take it to Quality Gardens and show it to the cashier when you check out in order to receive the discount.

 

We're still looking for volunteers to help with the maintenance of the Passavant White Garden.  A sign up sheet was circulated.  We appreciate all the help that you can give tending the garden.  Evan will send a reminder message to each volunteer to let you know which week you signed up to care for the garden.

 

Our annual Perennial Plant Sale held on Saturday, May 20th was a phenomenal success.  We netted about $3,200.  Mary Ann Kurtz gave an overview of the plant sale and we talked about what worked and things that could be changed for next year.  Advertisements seemed to be really helpful; our plants looked very healthy; the holding tables work well for customers and it was suggested to have more holding tables next year.  Mary Ann suggested that we could use more tables and tents. Looking to next year’s plant sale, Mary Ann is asking for a volunteer to put up signs along Route 19 and keep an eye on the signs and also looking for a volunteer to sweep the parking lot prior to the sale.  Let Mary Ann know if you are willing to take on one of these tasks.  It was proposed to have a 50/50 raffle and a donation box next year.  Members are not in favor of either of these ideas. Another idea for next year is to offer tool and knife sharpening. This service would be setup and offered by another group who could charge a fee or accept donations.  More research will have to be done to see if this is a viable idea. 

 

Many thanks to Mary Ann for all her hard work and organizational skills for another successful plant sale. LAGC members really appreciate it!

 

Treasurer Denny gave a report that we had $3,400 in our account last month. After adding in the new member fees and the plant sale profits and deducting expenses, LAGC has a balance of $6,400 total.

 

Two members brought tasty desserts this month.  Linda Brown brought rice krispie treats, mallo cups and sugar cookies. Cindy brought a delicious fruit tray. Thank you!

 

Bill Goff created a glorious arrangement of peonies and Siberian Iris from his own garden which was appropriate in keeping with the topic of his presentation. The Red Charm peony with its huge red blooms was very striking.

Peony Arrangement from Bill's May Garden.

 

Program

 

“The Peony and the Glories of the June Perennial Garden” 

presented by Bill Goff

 

Bill Goff, Penn State Master Gardener and longtime LAGC member showcased the photos that he took of his garden for this month’s program. He stated that his talk was based on his two premises below and he proceeded to prove the truth of these premises.

1. I love peonies.
2. The peony is the undisputed star of the May garden.

 

He explained the many reasons why we should grow peonies such as fragrance, big blooms, dark green foliage, deer resistance, able to withstand cold weather, great for flower arrangements, easy to share plant with other gardeners and long living perennial which may live 100 years.

 

There are 3 types of peonies:  herbaceous or bush type which die back in the fall; tree peony which is like a rose bush and doesn’t die back and shouldn’t be cut back; the ITOH peony or intersectional peony which is a cross between the herbaceous and tree peony and dies back in the winter.  This peony was invented in 1948 by Toichi Itoh, a Japanese peony grower and breeder.

 

Peonies prefer a sunny location in fertile, well-draining soil.  They generally need support for their heavy blooms and it’s best to install the support when you can see the small red shoots coming out of the ground in early spring to avoid damaging the roots of the plant.

 

September and October are the best months to plant, move and divide peonies.  It’s critical to remember that the pink eyes of the plant should be no deeper than 1 or 2 inches below the soil. Bill explained that planting too deeply is quite often the reason why peonies don’t bloom.

 

Peonies do not get many diseases. Botrytis blight happens during damp weather when leaves get too wet. To prevent this from happening, allow plenty of room for airflow around the plant and don’t allow grass or groundcover to grow around the base of the plant.

 

Bill told us that there is no symbiotic relationship between ants and the peony.  A plant will still get blooms even if it doesn’t have ants. If you happen to get ants on your plants then, it’s best to leave them alone.  If you want to bring the flowers inside then a gentle swish in water should remove the ants.

 

Bill’s photos of his own garden showed that there are many plants which are good companions for peonies which bloom in the June garden.  Bill Suggested planting the following: Foxgloves, Allium, Siberian Iris, Oriental poppies, Amsonia, Columbine Bachelor's Buttons, May Daisies, Nepeta, Geranium and Baptisia.

 

Club members thoroughly enjoyed Bill’s presentation and we could see his love of peonies thru the photos of his garden and his enthusiastic delivery when he talked about the variety of colors and fragrances that peonies offer. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge with us. 

 

 

 

 

May 28 Meeting Notes

Mary Ann Kurtz opened the meeting.
 
Plant sale--$1465 (7% sales tax & a couple of other expenses not yet paid). Will do tweaking for the next sale. 76% of our members participated. Take pictures this summer of plants you may donate. Could separate this fall.

Colleen Fingal asked members to bring small thank you items for our speakers.

Passavant Garden--Helen Dean told story of a patient who was so appreciative 

50 50 raffle—Mary Ann won $12, 2nd place was a guest won the tea cup sculpture/bird feeder.

Thank you to Esther Nagy for dessert and Anita Wagner for arrangement

Bill Goff introduced our speaker, Penn State Master Gardener Sandy Csikari who presented “Best Plants for a Carefree Garden”

She showed numerous slides of the plants she mentioned and most of these were from her own garden.  (the projector was not picking up all of the colors, but even then, we could see how the plants looked). Her handout listing the plants followed concurrently with her talk. The handout is a great resource as it has common name, botanical name, height, bloom time and miscellaneous information for the categories such as shrubs, perennials for shade, etc.

Take home points:  For a carefree garden, plants need the right soil and the right location.  If this not followed, carefree it won’t be.  Pick plants which are long-blooming, have good foliage, provide seasonal color or interest, and are resistant to deer and pests. Sandy does use drip irrigation for some areas of her garden and likes the tubes which can be coiled around a plant or snaked through the garden and more tubes can be connected by attaching another tube.  Sandy is very involved in the Hosta Society and is also a judge. “Hostas are the love of my life, after my family,” she said.

Dates to Remember

Saturday, June 1, Hosta Sale and Show at Soergels 9 -4 p.m.
Tuesday, June 25, LAGC “Redoing a Garden,” Alan Peacock speaker

Submitted by:  Rose Mary

Passavant Garden May 2013

Margaret thought everyone might like to see what our garden is looking like this time of the year. The hospital very kindly has mulched for us already.