November Minutes

GARDEN CLUB OF NEW HAVEN

General Meeting

www.gchn.blogspot.com

November 7, 2011

CT Agricultural Experiment Station

President Susan Ehrenkranz called the meeting to order at 11:20 a.m. and announced that Katherine Goodbody had placed copies of last month’s minutes at the back table for anyone who wanted them. She also said Katharine would be presenting an accounting of the Zone II meeting at December’s meeting and urged those members still in arrears to submit payment for their Zone II meeting Lawn Club luncheons.

President Ehrenkranz then gave the Club a glowing report on the success of the Zone II meeting, and said she’d been flooded with thank-you notes which she’d put in a basket on the side table so we could read them. She extended hearty thanks to everyone in the club for the many kinds of help rendered and specially thanked Lisa Lovejoy and Vicki Arkins both for pressing her to have a flower show and for assembling a fabulous one which she felt added much to the Zone II meeting and brought several awards to the Club as well. She next turned to Carol Ross, thanking her profusely for taking the helm of the Zone II meeting – for the many late nights she put in, the making of arrangements, signs and badges, the answering of endless queries and for always being there. To thank Carol for those many efforts for the Club, Martha Alexander presented her with a lovely framed poster (given to the club by John Lapides) originally done for a June 1929 Flower Show held at the Lawn Club. Also,, “so she’ll never forget ‘Neath The Elms’”, Susan presented Carol with a handsome trencher made from a slice from one of New Haven’s own fallen elms.

Carol Ross presented the Carol Stancliff Bowl -- an award founded in 2004 by Horty Wilson to be given to a member with great enthusiasm for gardening -- to Jeanie Kashgarian, who, Carol noted, had held many offices, participated in every civic project and kept a beautifully designed garden “filled with the complex fragrances of well tended roses.”

Lisa Lovejoy presented two in-house flower awards. The first, the Belle Rooks Creativity Award -- for a member “who best embodies the spirit of creativity” -- to Marty Dauwalder for her blue-ribbon winning entry into the Zone II Flower Show . The second, the Robin DuBois Horticulture Award -- created to inspire people to do horticultural work -- to Billie Ladd (in absentia) who manages to keep potted plants going for “up to thirty years” said Lisa, including the snake plant entered in the Zone II Show.

A thank-you also went to Amy Estabrook for doing such a wonderful job of designing certificates for both in-house flower awards which will be used again in the future.

Other announcements from Susan:

• Sign up for the silent auction of the wonderful flower arrangement on the lunch table, donated by Anne Godsey, the money to go to Ways & Means.
• As of October 2012, the AG station will be closed to the Club for two years. Meanwhile, she, Vickie Arkins, Judith Cushingham and Debby Moore are looking for other places and hope to have an announcement of a new Garden Club meeting place soon.
• Letha Sandweiss who suffered a broken sacrum has been moved to the Montowese Health & Rehabilitation Center and would love to hear from everyone. Her direct line is 203-624-3303.

Committee Comments

For Floral Design, Lisa Lovejoy announced:

• There were WAFA flower show books for sale on the side table
• A sign-up sheet for the first workshop, which will be the day before Thanks- giving – a table round arrangement
• The Federated show will be February 23 – 26 with a Fabulous 50’s theme
• To please bring greens to the Holiday Workshop which starts at 9:30 a.m. on December 12^th.
• Great thanks were due to all the flower show helpers and all the people who entered with 9 dahlia entries and Marty taking a first place for her floral arrangement.

For Holiday Workshop, Lucy Elliot announced:

• That cans for the Workshop were all in the back and ready to be picked up
• That more people are needed to make deliveries of the arrangements
• To please bring in greens

For Horticulture, Millie Legenhausen announced:

• A gavel challenge at a Zone II show in RI to grow European beech trees from seeds and that we have 3 packets of 20 seeds per of three different beech varieties
• A Broken Arrow home propagation offer to learn to grow plants from stem cuttings on Thursday from 10 to 12. Pre-registry required

For Hospitality, Sondra Haller announced:

• Great thanks to the day’s helpers and providers, Debby Moore, Rosita Murphy, Martha Alexander, Stephanie Rank, Nancy Ahlstrom, Ann Burrow and “the first food volunteer ever”, Jennifer Radford. Also, more thanks to Marty Dauwalder for bringing the fall-themed table basket

For Membership, Jody Bush:

• Reminded everyone to find friends and relatives to join the club and that the deadline for new members is February 1^st

For New Member Education, Bonnie Sullivan:

• Announced a thank-you to her, Joan Nast and Trish Helms from Ingrid Perry, head of volunteers at the Children’s Hospital saying that they were “a credit to the Garden Club”

For Photography, Mikey Hirschoff:

• Asked any members who took Zone II Meeting pix to send them to her to be put on our new website, i.d.’ing the persons if possible

For Ways and Means, Elaine Anderson:

• Reminded everyone to be generous and donate something to sell at the Holiday Bazaar after the Christmas Workshop

For 2013 Tree Project, Susan Ehrenkranz:

• Asked for volunteers to adopt two baby elms and to speak to Debbie Edwards about them

For Phelps Triangle Park, Cordalie Benoit:

• Reminded everyone that Saturday Nov. 12 will be bulb and burlap day and that there was no signup – she expects everyone to show up even for just an hour or two.

At 12:20 p.m. Susan Ehrenkranz concluded the business section of the meeting and after a short break, Program Chair Debby Moore introduced the day’s speaker, Tovah Martin (whose website is www.plantwise.com ), to talk to the Club on the subject of “Terrariums and You”. Martin says she believes spreading the word about the beneficial effects of terrariums is a mission for her. She feels there is nothing there is nothing more “de-stressing” than looking at a terrarium. She said it’s also easy, “you don’t have to design a garden” and showed in slides how “green makes the room”. Martin discussed the historic origins of terrariums, ascribing a great deal of the credit to Nathaniel Ward, an 1860 Londoner and inventor of Warder Cases. She showed the various types of containers antique and new that can be used; described the water-recycling process in a terrarium; and listed the conditions and plant types for creating one. Then in mere moments, she created two of them before us, one with three plants, another with a single plant. Following her demonstration and a round of happy applause, she conducted a workshop with a group of the Club’s members.

Respectfully submitted,

Stephanie Rank