LAGC Meeting – June 1, 2021
On a lovely Tuesday evening, Colleen welcomed garden club members to the beautiful home and garden of Lynn and Ross Betts for our annual picnic and she thanked them for hosting the club.
Mary Anne gave an update on the plant sale, as well as some recommendations for changes. We made $2,120 and only had to donate 57 plants at the end. We started with 576 and over ½ were sold before 10. The highest sale was $136 and the average was $25.
Mini-blinds are needed for plant tags for future sales. If you have any you are getting rid of, pass along to Mary Anne, she will take care of getting the slats out.
For future pricing efforts, Mary Anne is going to take some cutlery holders and use them to hold the various colored popsicle sticks, to make it easier for those doing the pricing. We are also going to move further down in the lot, to open up the entrance, making it easier for customers to find parking.
In the future, the sale will be cash only, as a $40 check bounced, and cost us $12 in fees. This will be announced in our advertising for the plant sale. We will also add a “Pay Here” sign at the cashier station, as it was not obvious to customers where they needed to pay.
We have a lot of repeat customers, who have given the feedback that everything they have purchased in prior years grows.
Possibility of a “garden garage sale” was discussed. As a group, it was determined that it was not worth the effort, but if individual members want to get together to set something up, they are welcome to do so.
A special thanks to Mary Anne for keeping everything organized and tracked.
Lynn thanked Colleen for all of her hard work, both as president, and getting programs put together. She also suggested a day trip somewhere as a way of using up some of our funds. This will take some research and coordination.
A member is still needed to step up and assume responsibility for programming. You can partner up with one or more members to make it a little easier. Please contact Colleen to get more information if you are interested. Holding office or chairing a committee is a great way to get involved. In the interim, let Colleen know if you know of any presenters or potential tours for future meetings.
On June 22, we will be touring the Wilpen Rose and Perennial Garden in Sewickley Heights. Colleen is going to scope out the parking situation, we’re thinking there will be a need to carpool, as parking will probably be limited.
On July 27, we will be touring the Millvale Community Garden.
Suggestions are being sought for August, September and October meetings.
Rosemary brought some gladiolus bulbs to share.
After a delicious meal and desserts, Lynn took everyone on a tour of her many gardens. They’ve lived in the house since 1990 and have done a lot of work to the various gardens over the years. She started building a berm along Route 910, both as a visual and sound barrier in 1996. Over the years, as the berm ingredients have composted down, “black gold” has formed.
Some highlights:
Lynn has placed deer netting up a tree to allow clematis to climb up, a very unique idea.
She moved a rose that was tucked away, doing not much of anything, to her main garden, and fed it banana peels, and it has exploded. It loves the new location, soil and banana peels.
Most of her plants in her garden have come from plant sales, friends and family.
The main flower garden is a work in progress. Members who saw it 4 years ago can see how far it has come. She is now in maintenance mode.
Her fence around the vegetable garden is a heavy duty black chain link fence. The top does not have a defined edge, which makes the deer afraid to jump
She has early, mid and late blooming clematis to give her a full season of color. Of note was the “Villa de Leon” which was currently blooming.
In her shade garden, she had many varieties of Hostas, Astilbes, Solomon’s Seal, Sweet Woodruff, Turtlehead and Hellebores, to name a few, which she views from her kitchen.
Pictures by D Machesney & RM Highman
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| Entry way gardens |
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| Delicious food in a lovely setting |
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| Mary Ann giving Plant Sale results & suggestions |
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| Shade garden area |
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| Another stone wall the Betts family has changed over the years. |
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| Lynn telling about the gardens. |
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| Lovely evening for a tour. |
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| Lynn & Ross Betts |
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| Looking into the vegetable garden. |
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| Lynn talking about some of her plants. |
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| Recipe from J Schomaker, good pot luck dish we enjoyed. |
Wilpen Rose & Perennial Garden Tour, June 22, 2021
LAGC Meeting – June 1, 2021
On a perfect June evening, club members were privileged to tour the gardens at Wilpen in Sewickley Heights.
Wilpen Hall is an estate in Sewickley Heights located at 889–895 Blackburn Road and 201 Scaife Road. It was added to the List of Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation Historic Landmarks in 2001 and the National Register of Historic Places on April 20, 2011. The estate was built from 1897 to 1900 for William Penn Snyder and his wife as a summer home; "Wilpen" is a contraction of the name William Penn. The home was designed by George Orth and Brothers in the style of an English Manor house. Snyder was the founder of the Shenango Furnace Company and other subsidiaries. The estate was left to their two sons, William Penn Snyder, Jr. and G. Whitney Snyder, in 1930. As of 2006, the Snyder family still resided in the home. The mansion served for interior shots of John du Pont’s Foxcatcher Farm estate in the film Foxcatcher (2013), starring Steve Carell, Mark Ruffalo, and Channing Tatum.
Verna, the wife of the late William Penn Snyder III was our tour guide, accompanied by volunteer Mark, who has been refurbishing the rose garden on the first and second terrace gardens. The gardens are maintained by 4 – 5 volunteers. In its heyday, there were anywhere between 30 – 50 servants who helped maintain the house and properties
The estate is registered with the Smithsonian American Gardens. Upon Verna’s passing, it will become a part of the Heinz History Center. An endowment has been setup for the upkeep and improvements to the estate and gardens. Verna has promised to haunt the estate after she passes.
QR Codes will be supplied by Verna to Colleen, which will give us more historical information than what we probably want on the estate and gardens.
The roof has been replaced on the main house. It took 70 tons of Ludiwici tile, which is guarantee for at least 100 years.
There is a huge Wisteria which covers the entire front of the estate, quite impressive.
There are 20+ bedrooms, each one has at least one fainting couch. Women that were there for parties or some other type of getaway would typically change outfits 4 to 5 times per day.
To combat the deer problem, they put up deer fencing around the whole estate to keep the deer out, and it works. We saw a small fawn on the other side of the fence, looking longingly in at all those delicious hostas.
A tree in the pasture area dates back to the late 1600’s, quite a specimen.
The first garden we saw was on the one side of the house which is called the White Garden. Similar to our white chapel garden, all plants bloom white and one can imagine how breathtaking it is in the moonlight. Some of the plants are potted in pots that are original to the estate. Lamium, White Sage, Viburnums, Daisies, Impatiens, Bacopa, Catmint, Hibiscus, Angelonia and Hibiscus were just some of the plants planted in this garden.
Then we walked through the rock garden area, which has both sun and shade areas, and properly planted by a variety of plants suited to the light requirements. This garden is maintained by 2 volunteers.
The ruins of the old pool house were also visible. It was a heated, indoor pool house, with a sitting room, and male and female changing rooms, just to name a few of the amenities. In the spring, there are “billions” of tree frogs.
The outdoor pool is also in ruins, and what to be done to refurbish it is under discussion. It is actually less expensive to renovate the pool, than it is to putting in a pond in the location.
Mark then toured us through his perennial/rose gardens. Mark has completed master gardener training and also has a lifetime of gardening knowledge. All of the roses which have been planted are historic roses. He said there are only 6 business in the country that carry historic roses. One of the ones he found is Freedom Gardens, near Ravenna, OH. They have a large number of antique roses, should any of us happen to find ourselves near Ravenna, it is worth stopping by. Mark tries to employ natural methods to combat common rose problems like blackspot. Typically he will cut leaves off, or spray with copper if it gets to be really bad. Ramblers are planted along the wall, and he is working on trellising them so that the entire wall is covered. He uses green Velcro to attach the vining branches to his trellis. What he is working towards is continual bloom in the garden. All of the rose varieties that he has planted are labeled, as well as all of the accompanying perennials. He has found that English Roses tend to be fragrant, and that older varieties will produce long canes. The Gallica Rose is an apothecary rose, known for the rose hips it produces. Any tender rose varieties that he has growing are brought indoors in the winter and then moved back outside when the weather warms back up. The nearby nursery that he recommended is the Sewickley Creek Nursery.
Outside of the rose gardens were a huge bed of Peonies, several huge Dahlia plants (he thinks they came from Sewickley Creek Nursery) and several raised beds that used to be used to grow vegetables, and now are used for ornamentals.
After the tour, we were treated to refreshments, which included Golden Raisin Scones from the Enrico Biscotti Company in the Strip District.
Then we were treated to a tour of the carriage house, which houses carriages owned by the family throughout the decades, including a 1909 Horseless Renault Carriage. The roof of the carriage house is also being renovated with the same tiles used on the main house. It will take only 40 tons for the carriage house.
On July 27, we will be touring the Millvale Community Garden.
Suggestions are being sought for August, September and October meetings.
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| Verna, owner of the estate. |
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| B Goff getting close ups (see his pictures farther down in this entry). |
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| D Machesney's selfie. |
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| Evan & Marlow relaxing. |
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| Inside the carriage house. |
