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.