Como Park visited by one member on a rainy day!!

I visited the Como Park Conservatory and Japanese Garden on Sunday, June 23. The morning had been rainy and remained heavily overcast yet the park was full of families. The Conservatory was as lovely and well kept as ever and the Japanese garden was peaceful and serene. There was a wonderful display of bonsai as well which is part of their permanent collection. Here are a few pictures including this amazing orchid.

Annual Plant Sale Saturday June 8

Saturday June 8 is our Annual Plant Sale to benefit the club and make possible all our activities.

We will start setting up at 6 am (sale officially starts at 8 am). We need folks to pick up plants at Kris's the night before or earlier if need be and you have a shady place to park the truck!! Becky may also need help transporting plants. Their phone numbers are in the printed Garden Club program.

Kris may also need more tables so if you have tables or sawhorses and plywood, give her a call.

If you can't come to setup, come to sell and/or to tear down and by all means come to buy!! Get first shot early or come at the end for half price left overs.  Tear down is a noon.

Hope to see you all there!!!

PS: Jim of Jim and Nori said they would make a pancake breakfast run for us!! And there is coffee and breakfast at TDawg's. We are in TDawg's parking lot again this year. Thanks TDawg's

Correction from Becky!

Becky corrected me on some of the plants she brought to the potting party. She did have plants up in her gardens after the warm spell we had the previous week.  She brought FIVE types of flowers from her home including or in addition to ferns and fringed bleeding heart. 

From the Grantsburg sign she brought latris and aster.

Last evening was so conducive to gardening that she potted up two types of grasses from the sign (13 pots). She also started two type of sunflowers from seeds (24 pot) and potted up sedum (six pots) and prim rose (six pots).

Wow!! Lets all get out there and pot like crazy!! Becky has given us a really great start!!
 
Thank you so much Becky. 

Remember, if you need pots or potting soil, contact Kris or me.

Update on Potting Party

We has a cold bluster day for the potting party. Nonetheless Kris, Nori and Jim, Mary G, and Pam arrived ready to work but without any plants! We all settled in around Kris' dining room table to drink wine and coffee, eat goodies and commiserate on our situation.... Well, the weather, you know, couldn't be helped (as my Grandmother used to say). Nothing was quite ready in any of our gardens to be dug up and separated. Even with the extra week and a couple of nice warm sunny days, the return of the cold slowed everything down again.

Then Becky arrived to save the day! Becky brought plants!

Becky spent an hour and a half cleaning up the Grantsburg sign.  She couldn't stand it looking so raggedy!. She found plants needing separating and since her garden wasn't ready to dig up yet, brought big clumps of stuff from the sign. Great thinking Becky!  We should start using the sign gardens as a space to propagate plants for our sale, mostly everything we've put in does quite well there.

We were able to pot up 70 plants from the items Becky brought.  Thank you so much Becky!!

We will need lots, lots, lots more for the sale so please, please, please set aside plants for the sale.

You can pick up premixed potting soil and pots from Kris or Pam to pot up what you have or if we get requests for another potting party we could work on setting that up.

Wonderful afternoon at the Victorian Tea Party!

Our final meeting before the summer activities schedule kicks in was an amazing afternoon in a Victorian wonderland! I knew that Teresa, Carrie, Janet and Molly were going to make this event spectacular but they went way beyond!! We all had a great time. Everything was beautiful and the food was fabulous! Thank you to these very talented women. We are so lucky to have you in our club!

Snowed in on April 19, 2013, Potting Party pushed back to Thursday May 9th

Last week we had the Wood River Garden Center preview and had hopes for spring, today we are buried in 15 inches of snow.

Now that we know Big Gust Days and our Annual Plant Sale are pushed back a week to June 8, we will go ahead a push back the Potting Party at Kris' to Thursday, May 9th. Hopefully the extra week will bring enough of a warm up so we can see what our gardens have in abundance for spring.

We will wait to see what happens in early May and will decide about pushing back the sign planting.

Wood River Garden Center Preview 2013

We had a great turnout for the 2013 preview at Wood River Garden Center on Saturday, April 13. The air inside the greenhouse was heavenly with the dense smells of soil and new growth and that lovely humidity we've missed for the last 6 months!

Eight members and one guest were present. We welcomed new member Barb B. from Grantsburg.

Here is everyone except Pam (me) who took the picture and Barb. Now were is Barb?

There's Barb, sitting next to Alma. Be sure to introduce yourself to Barb at our next meeting or event. Goodies were provided by Cindy K. and Kim.

We had our brief meeting before the tour on the comfy deck inside the Garden Center. Dean brought us all coffee to have with our goodies.

After the meeting Dean began by asking what we wanted to concentrate on this year. Of course we said everything!! 

Dean led us to the "chicken coop" to show us his latest experiments with grafting hybrid tomatoes onto wild tomato stock. The extensive root system of the wild stock give added vigor to the hybrid tomato. The new graft will appear to be failing at first. It will droop and look pretty sad but will rebound once the shock period has passed, that is, if the graft is successful!

Click on the pictures to get a larger view.

Notice that some of the grafts are drooping while others are rebounding nicely. Dean uses special clips to hold the grafted  tops in place. An angle cut is used and must be matched in order for the two ends to make good contact. 

Moving on to the Annuals!

Thousands of plants are being propagated from plug and seeds in the green houses. With the cold weather and gray skies the plants are growing slowly.  Plants that would normally be moved outside this time of year are still indoors making for tight quarters and putting deliveries behind as well. Dean will open on schedule nonetheless!

Dean talked about more colors selections and  improved color quality in some of the annuals introduced in previous years. He is recommending New Zealand Impatiens this year to avoid the downy mold. If you love traditional impatiens, keep an eye on them and report any mold issues to Dean. Also, do not compost, any infected plants. Talk to Dean about a good fungicide to use to guard against downy mold.

Hanging pot of  the mini-petunia Lemon Slice. Best viewed up close as this is a small blossom. If you make your own handing pots, talk to Dean about the proper soil mix to use for good moisture retention. 

 Angelface Blue summer snapdragon, for great summer color

Santa Cruz Cascading Begonia with a different sort of flower, great for pots  

The Ravers Sunspot African daisy

  geranium calliope lavender rose

 osteopernum Tradewinds Yellow Improved

Moving on to the next green house. 

                                                What a shock stepping out into the cold!

It is always amazing the transformation the Garden Center goes through before opening!

evergreen begonias

Dean holding cherry cheesecake petunia. Petunias are the best sellers among annuals! 

million bells

On to the Vegie House. 

Dean discussed varieties of peppers and tomatoes for best results.If you love peppers, ask Dean about peppers that will produce well. with great colors and flavor

Small, delicious, great producer, Mountain Fresh tomato. Also try Health  Kick, meaty like a 
Roma with 50% more anti-oxidants

Cajun Belle peppers, hot and sweet, great sauteed with zucchini

Mary in the vegie house, her favorite place!

Alm and Leah discuss heucheras. Dean reommends these for foliage color as opposed to blossoms. Cut back blossoms to encourage a more luxuriant plant.

The sun broke through as we browsed the perennials! Dean, Barb, Lori with Kim in the foreground. Kim made great use of her smart phone to record information. 

Primrose viewed from between clematis vines

What a great preview. Thank you to Dean. He and his staff at Wood River Garden Center are a great resource for gardeners in our area. They are always ready with the information we need to be successful!!

Photos provided by Mary G., Pam and Kim