President's Letter April

The Garden Club of New Haven

President’s Letter

April 2012

Dear Garden Club Members,

Each day, as I wander through my garden, I see more and more plants pushing through the soil. My hyacinths are now fading, although their wonderful scent lingers, hellebores are proudly standing tall along with the daffodils, and peonies are thrusting up almost in front of my eyes. Just as our gardens are sprouting with dizzying speed, so too our garden club is whirling into spring. We started the month with a presentation by Conservation Chair, Debbie Edwards, who enthusiastically told of her trip to the NAL meeting in Washington, D.C. One of her take-away messages? If you ever have the chance to attend NAL, go! Mikey Hirschoff logged on to our beautiful new website (gardenclubofnewhaven.org) and showed us the interactive, searchable, publication Buy and Eat Local. Karyl Evans gave an engaging talk on the making of our film, New Haven Green: Heart of a City. (See below for more details.)

As the speaker at our first April meeting, flower arranger Miriam Landsman gave us super ideas for springtime arrangements. Lisa Lovejoy was an outstanding auctioneer, raising money for Ways and Means by selling the

arrangements Miriam graciously donated. The next day, Lisa put together an excellent and enlightening workshop on “leaf manipulation” with instructor Laura Haley. There was a great turnout from our club, as well as from several Fairfield County clubs – it was very fun and we all learned quite a bit.

These events were just a start to what the Garden Club has planned over the next few months! To help you keep track of all that is going on, here’s a quick calendar:

April 14 (Saturday) and April 16 (Monday) from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Phelps Triangle, spring clean-up. All active members should try and help out at one of these sessions. Please check with Cordalie Benoit if you have any questions.

April 18 (Wednesday) 12:00 p.m. -2:00 p.m. Underwater Design with instructor Vicki Arkins. The Ag Station. Reservations: contact Lisa Lovejoy.

April 24 (Tuesday) 7:00 p.m. Film Premiere of our 2013 Tree Project movie New Haven Green: Heart of a City, written, directed and produced by member Karyl Evans. (Word is that it is terrific!) Whitney Humanities Center. Reservations: contact Adele Edgerton.

April 25 (Wednesday) 5:00 p.m. Photography Workshop with Isabel Chenowith. 392 Sperry Road, Bethany. Bring your camera. Reservations: contact Mikey Hirschoff.

April 30 (Monday) 11:45 Birdscaping (our final program of the year) with speaker Judy Richardson. This talk is open to the public. Please bring a brown bag lunch; dessert and beverages will be provided. Broken Arrow Nursery will be selling native plants attractive to birds and the Fat Robin will have bird feeders and bird houses for sale. At the Ag Station. There will be no general meeting after the program. Contact Rosita Murphy if you are not planning to attend.

May 3 (Thursday) Board Meeting, Katharine Goodbody’s house, 32 Marvel Road. Since there will be no general meeting in May, all members are welcome to attend this meeting. Bring a brown bag lunch; cookies and beverages will be provided. Please contact Rosita Murphy if planning to attend.

May 10 (Thursday) 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Party! Please join other members and their spouses/partners for a relaxed evening at Susan Ehrenkranz’s house, 25 Killdeer Road, Hamden. Bring a beverage and hors d’ouevres to serve 6-8 people.

May 15 (Tuesday) 9:00 -12:30 pm Botanical Jewels Workshop with instructor Debbie Edwards. The Ag Station. $20.00 fee. Registration: contact Lisa Lovejoy.

June 4 (Monday) 11:45 Annual Meeting Debby Moore’s house, 7 Westward Road, Woodbridge. Contact Rosita Murphy if you are not planning to attend.

June 14 (Thursday) Visiting Gardens trip to Page Dickey’s garden in North Salem. pagedickey.com/ Reservations: contact Jeanne Ciravolo Bjorkman.

What a jam-packed spring!

Garden Club of America news: The new and improved GCA website, http://www2.gcamerica.org/, is filled with lots of first-rate information: essential reading for committee members but helpful and interesting to all. The GCA Communications Committee sent anyone who hasn’t yet logged on instructions on how to do it. I hope everyone in our club who has email will log onto the site before June. Please let Rosita or me know if you need help.

William Seale, a noted historian and preservationist, has written The Garden Club of America 1913-2013: A Growing Legacy, to celebrate the GCA’s centennial. It’s reported to be a brilliant read; I’ve ordered a copy for myself. I also have order forms available (the books are $21.00, postage included) - I’m happy to email or send you a form if you’re interested.

Federated News: Federated’s Annual Meeting and Lunch is April 18 at the Aqua Turf. Please click here to find a reservation form: http://www.ctgardenclubs.org/

Don’t forget to send in your dues as soon as possible; Rosita thoughtfully included a self-addressed envelope to make it as easy as possible. Meanwhile, I hope to see lots of everyone during the next two months- and in between I wish you much time in the garden.

Warm regards,

Susan

P.S. If you are on a quest for a fragrant garden, as I am, you might enjoy this article in the Washington Post about sweet smelling plants: http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/home/the-fragrant-garden/2012/04/04/gIQAb5hjvS_story.html?wpisrc=nl_home.