Mercer Garden Club April 2016

Orchids, April 11, 2016 7:00

Methodist Church, Butler St. 

Nancy Griffin will talk about the many lives and deaths of the orchids she has lived with over the past 16 years of taking care of orchids.    Repotting:     http://youtu.be/Z67yc0JZy-8

Caring basics watering. Check out this. Link http://youtu.be/HmY9GE8rxoY

Owning and careing for orchids is alot like having a pet.  You have to love it and pay attention to its needs.  The Zygopetalum pictured above is one of my favorites.  This orchid has rebloomed for me many times over the past 5 years .  It is an unusual variety not usually found in local stores.  It is very fragrent and need to be always kept moist.  

Spring into Garden Season. Start some seeds on your windowsill.

Starting seeds.  Happy Spring

Mercer Garden Club begins its 2016 growing season.

Kick off the new year by attending our first meeting of 2016 on Monday Feb. 8 at the Mercer Methodist Church. 

Our program will be provided by Jim Law from Sheakleyville.  He will be showing showing photographs set to music featuring Pennsylvania wildlife.  He will have prints for sale.

Refreshments will be provided by Connie Jewell and Diana Jackal.

Winterizing Your Garden

Monday, November 9, 2015 at 7:00 PM at Mercer Methodist Church

"Winterizing Your Garden."  Dennis James will speak on getting beds ready for winter.  

He'll also touch on care of your garden tools.

Hostesses:  Dorothy and Karen  Maxwell, Leslie Finkbeiner

Raffle donations wanted!

Take Note:  There will not be a Garden Club meeting in January.

Thank you to everyone that worked to clean up our beds for winter and plant tulips for next spring.

Mercer Garden Club September Meeting is Monday, September 14. 2015

Our September 14 meeting will be at The Birdwatchers Store, 630 New Castle Road. (Route 108) Slippery Rock.  It is 2.5 miles from I-79, Exit 105.  We will meet at the church at 5:00 PM to carpool.  This store is an official Audubon and National Wildlife-certified bird and animal sanctuary.  We will be able to watch the birds in the sanctuary.  There is also a very nice gift shop. 

My Pink Lily's are blooming!

Last fall I gave away pink lily bulbs to members of Mercer Garden Club.  These Lilys come up in the spring with green long leaves then they disappear and in August a flower spike emerged and bloomers. Spectacular!  Many of my bulbs did not bloom, I suspect bulbs were eaten by moles, however I had 6 blooms.  Beautiful and very fragrant.  Post your pictures or add comments if you had your Lily's bloom.

Joe in his Lily Garden

Mercer Garden Club members in the garden 

Hey! Look here!

Truly amazing collection of the rare and unusual Lilys and other flowers and native plants.

Mercer Garden Club July Meeting and Field Trip

This photo is of our leader Connie at last months meeting at Altmans Hosta Garden. 

Altmans Gardens are impossible to capture the beauty and scale of these gardens.  The many shades of green in the shade are breathtaking and relaxing to view.

Our July 13 meeting will be at Joe Nemmer's gardens on North Perry Highway.  We will meet at the church at 6:00pm to carpool. We visited Joe's garden on June14, 2010.  Joe maintains "grow gardens not show gardens".  He is a breeder of rare and unusual Lilys and is active in  the North American Lily Society,  To learn more about NALS check the web page http://www.lilies.org.  Several of our members volunteered to help Joe in 2010 at The International Lily Show and Conference held in Mars PA.  It was a wonderful experience. You can go to Mercer Garden Club Blog www.mercergardenclub.blogspot.com, archives June 2010 and see pictures of his garden.  I am sure we will see changes. His water features were just completed before our last visit. The trees and other plants will have settled in and grown a lot in 5 years.   Joe also presented us with a wonderful program on growing  Lilys in 2009 and many of us planted unusual Lily bulbs from Joe.  

Lily from my garden last summer.  Several of my Lilys were damaged by frost so no bloom on this one this year. I plant a dozen new bulbs and am anxious to see which ones will bloom this year. 

Spring Garden Tours

Welcome Spring!  May is our busiest month of our Garden Club year.  The uptown beds need to be cleaned up and I hope everyone will lend a hand.  The beds need to be cleaned and planted by May 20when we do the mulch.  Rain date for the mulch is May 21.  Our Conservancy planting is May 19 around noon.    We will have more discussion at our May 11 meeting.  Here's an amusing definition I found in a garden dictionary:  "Green Thumb:  Common condition suffered by gardeners in which the skin of the thumb develops a greenish hue as the result of handling large amounts of currency at nurseries."  Connie

 

May 11 Program

We will travel to Mast's Greenhouse off Route 318.  There will be a variety of hanging baskets, garden flowers and vegetables.  Meet at Mercer Methodist Church by 5:45 PM to carpool.

 

June 8 Program

We will tour the many gardens of Joan Altman in New Wilmington.  Joan is the hosta lady and also has many garden rooms/areas and gazebos.  We will leave Mercer Methodist Church at 6:00 PM to carpool to New Wilmington.

 

March and April 2015 programs Mercer Garden Club:

March 9 Program

Master Gardener Laura Hlusko will present our program on "Attracting Wildlife To Your Garden:  Toads, Mason Bees, Insects and Birds."  Laura will focus on why we should want wildlife in our gardens, what benefits these wildlife provide us as gardeners and methods to attract.

Hostesses:  March hostesses:  Vera Filer, Betty Graham and Sheila Craig

April Program

Our April 13 program will be presented by Gary Micsky of the Mercer County Extension Office.  His topic will be "American Chestnut Tree Restoration."  A project is underway in Mercer County to promote planting and growth of chestnut trees.

Hostesses: Maria Farrell and Connie Jewell

Gourds and the beautiful items that can be made from them.

Nov. 10   Gourds, Gourds, Gourds,

Message message our President:

I hope you all enjoyed our October program on "Bees."  Buzz Swank was informative and entertaining!  This month we'll find out how to decorate using gourds.  John and Nancy Chlpka will join us.

I'm trying to get my flowerbeds cleaned up, leaves raked, and porch furniture put away!  My hanging ferns are still "hanging in" there, so they'll be up for a few more weeks.  Remember to bring a tip for the Tip Jar and an item for the Auction.

Connie

Gourd Gifts and Decorations

November 10, 2014  7:00 PM at Mercer Methodist Church

Hostesses:  Christy Hunter Hall and Maria Farrell

Program:

We welcome John and Nancy Chlpka of Jackson Center,    Wet Dog Studios (Facebook and Etsy)  Nancy and John create lovely items from gourds.   They will give a talk on using gourds as part of holiday decor. and gifts and they will provide a door prize.

October 13 Buzz the Bee Man

Monday, October 13 at 7 PM at Mercer Methodist Church.
Our speaker will be "Buzz The Bee Man."
Hostesses are Sheila Craig and Margo Borowicz.
We will hold a Seed Exchange.  Bring seeds in ziplock bags, clearly identified.
Bring items for our auction table, which will resume this month.

Mercer Garden Club September 2014 Garden Tour

 September 8,  Garden Tour meet to car pool 5:50 at the Mercer United Methodist Church.

We will visit the gardens of Rodney Toth at 5637 West Liberty Street, (route 304) in Hubbard.  The gardens will include speciality plants and include a Mexican dahlia garden, unusual varieties of tomatoes, the Great Gourd Tunnel, a Grandchildren's Garden, a Super Sky High Sunflower Garden and The Potpourri Pole with Blue Sky Vine and Red Mandevilla.  

The photos are from our visit to Rodney's garden last fall in the rain.  This is a spectacular garden not to be missed.

Please meet at the Mercer Methodist Church at 5:50 PM to carpool.  The Garden viewing is at 6:30 PM.

Hosta Garden Tour

The Mercer Garden Club visited a spectacular hosta garden in Coolspring Twp.  Here are some pictures:

The stone walls lining the beds and driveway were much admired. This garden is amazing to see when you take into account the work these gardeners have put into to create this wonderful woodland garden.  It took years to create these walls and collect the plants. 

Here we are having our short meeting in the drive way of this lovely garden. There were about 23 people including 6 guests who we hope may decide to become members. 

Our next meeting will be in another spectacular garden at DJ's for our annual picnic.  Aug. 11, 2014

Mercer Garden Club, Summer Hosta Garden Tour July 14, 2014

July 14th Meeting and Hosta Tour

Mercer Garden Club members will tour the many Hosta gardens at the home of Jim and Sandy Ellenberger.  They are members of the Daffodil and Hosta Society of Western Pennsylvania, and sometimes show their lovely gardens to bus tours.  Over the last several years, Jim and Sandy have developed hosta gardens along the driveway, in the wooded areas, and around the yard.  All hosta beds are raised and surrounded by stone.  Also included in the tour is Sandy's rock garden and many daylilies.  Jim has a hosta nursery where he plants and grows seedlings.  Jim and Sandy are anxious to share their gardens with us.  Please wear your walking shoes.

We will meet at the church at 6:30 PM to carpool to 165 Coolspring Church Road.  There will be ample parking, but please do not park on the left side of the driveway as you will block the viewing of the hostas there.  

Garden Pallet idea and photo from Leslie

Feeding the roses

June is for Roses, and now that the pruning is done I am looking at the spring feeding.  I had 28 antique or old fashion roses. So far I think I may have lost 5 or 6 roses over the winter. The photo is of New Dawn 2013, it is an old fashion climbing rose. I pruned off about 60% of the old wood.  There is just a little bit of new green leaves starting here and there which is a good sign. I was afraid New Dawn was dead.  It is slow showing signs of life. Maybe after I feed it, I will see more leaves.  

I am trying new fertilizer again this spring. I just bought a 50lb bag of alfalfa pellets sold as horse feed at Agway. I will also use bone meal, fish emulsion, and earth worm castings and compost. I still need to buy some epison salts.

Here is a basic rule that I found on one of the rose sites I looked at tonight.

This article link:  www.springvalleyroses.com/inthegarden/fertilizing.html                                                  explains how to give your roses the food they need to be healthy, productive plants. But, for those of you who want a quick answer, here's the bare-bones guide to fertilizing:

Give each rose 2 cups of a well-balanced, natural-based or organic granular fertilizer in the spring. Sprinkle onto the soil surface around the base of the plant. Additional amendments that can be fed include: 1/4 cup of epsom salts, 2 cups of alfalfa, 1/2 cup of rock phosphate or bone meal, and a shovelfull of compost. Optional summer feeding: One month after the first feeding, give each rose a dose (about one gallon of solution per rose) of an organic liquid fertilizer, such as fish emulsion. Apply this each month during the summer up until 6 weeks before the first frost. Don't use Miracle Grow type liquid chemical fertilizers on Rugosa roses. It burns them right up.

Paula McComb of Sweet Pea Flowers

Paula fiest puts in ferns and then some airy stems then tall flowers,  Delphinium then Larkspur, open roses( force open with fingers, Esperanto rose ,  wire the roses, take off birth petals and remove the center. Continue adding small filler flowers and finish with a Gerber Daisy.

The finished floral arrangement 

 very beautiful.   We must vist Sweet Pea Flowers in rural Stoneboro.

Tulips planted by Mercer Garden Club

May is our most active month. We not only have our meeting but we get together and plant the summer flowers around the Courthouse and the Mercer Boro building, and beds under signs. 

May events:

Conservancy Planting

Tuesday, May 13 at 11:30 AM

Rain date is Wednesday, May 14

At:  911 building and Shannon's

May 12th Meeting Information
7:00 PM at Mercer Methodist Church

Hostesses:  Betty Graham, Vera Filer, and Arlene Peters

Program:  Paula McComb of Sweet Peas Flowers will speak.  She is located at 2259 McComb Road, Stoneboro.  Check out her website at www.sweetpeasflowers-stoneboro.com.

Today I took pictures in the rain of the Tulips blooming up town.  Thank you to Pat and Gary and all the members that helped plant tulip bulbs last fall. They look wonderful and make our town look more friendly. I smile when I see them and hope other people are enjoying them too.

When do you prune roses in PA?

I was on the www.pghrosesociety.org the Western PA. Component of the American Rose Society web pages to find out when and how to prune roses.  

I was surprise to learn that the rule of thumb is to wait till the forsythia bloom. Wow! Why did I miss this info, where have I been, this is so simple.

  I have 28 roses bushes some really famous or popular Heirloom varieties that I am trying to keep alive, a few are thriving and the others are just hanging in there.  I really need to learn more, I love my roses and some varieties are so much easier to keep than others.  I really want to save my Austin and Buck Roses and hope they made it through the winter; so far they look dead. I see some green looking stems near the ground so they will need serious pruning this year. 

Pictures below.  Mercer garden club members are welcome in June to see my roses.  If any Mercer Garden Club members want to talk roses please email me, spinningotter@gmail.com,  perhaps we can arrange a rose meet up.     Nancy