President's Letter March

Dear March, come in!
How glad I am!
I looked for you before.
Put down your hat–
You must have walked–
How out of breath you are!
Dear March, how are you?
And the rest?
Did you leave Nature well?
Oh, March, come right upstairs with me,
I have so much to tell!

-Emily Dickinson

I think that we all experience Emily Dickinson’s excitement, enthusiasm, and genuine pleasure as we welcome longer hours of sunshine and a hint of warmth in the air. As I have been bundling together sticks and branches (the by-product of an incredibly windy weekend), I have seen clumps of delicate snowdrops (Galanthus spp.) with their milky white blossoms and the tips of geranium Narcissi. Soon my yellow Daffodils will be standing tall, gazing about the garden, and I will be transported to Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie with the images of Amanda Wingfield carrying in bunches of jonquils. I can hardly wait!

In the meanwhile, however, I am using some of those cast-off branches to try my hand at Ikebana. What a wonderful program Kaye Vosburgh presented last Monday! I think that we all learned a great deal about the importance of height and depth in an arrangement and gained practical tips about cutting plant material under water and camouflaging wounds on branches. For more information about Sogetsu Ikebana and for a listing of sources, please refer to Marty Dauwalder’s very complete notes that accompany the minutes.

Once again I voice my appreciation and congratulations to our amazing Club – to those members who participated in the Federated Flower Show (The Spice of Life) and garnered so many wonderful prizes and awards; to our committees and chairs who continue to promote our mission and our causes throughout the community; and to all of you who voted enthusiastically for the Zone II Founders Fund project, following Peg Campbell’s compelling historical presentation. It is wonderful to announce these events and to be able to share exciting news with you – particularly the news that I received last weekend from Katie Stewart and Marshall Lawson. They have decided to distribute some of the surplus funds from the 2009 GCA Annual Meeting to our Club to support the Training + Trees Project, noting that our project promoted the greening of the New Haven community and continued the GCA Annual Meeting theme of ‘Celebrating the Urban Landscape’. I know that you all join me in sending them warm and heartfelt thanks.