The fun garden club has gone back to lunch meetings. The no lunch situation just began in September and it was not popular. Wow, what a difference, we could hardly fit everyone in our host home. I was on the lunch committee today so I was very busy being a hostess. Many people came out of the woodwork when they heard "lunch." It was at a beautiful home build in the late 1880's, lots of remodeling, but retaining the original character of the home.
The driveway and the patio brick was from a past era, and the gardens looked true to the original time period of the home. Our lunch was a wonderful salad of tortellini on a bed of lettuce with bread sticks and salami gorgonzola biscuits with chive butter. The deserts were yummy, carmel brownies and homemade chocolate chip cookies.
This was a very active crowd who could barely stop talking to hear the presenter. It is amazing what food will do! Our speaker was a Botany major in school and has a business as a garden designer and coach. She spoke on roses, their requirements, culture, pruning and her favorites for our area. She demonstrated pruning techniques on a real rose bush and answered questions on fertilizing, coffee grounds (not a proponent of using coffee grounds) and protection for the winter (mulch - not rose cones). She recommended compost as a first course when planting and then the Bayer Systemic throughout the season until August.
I am showing some of her recommendations for our (zone 5) area, but I am sure many will do well in several zones. There were many more listed, but I just picked out one in each category. I have had problems with the original cherry colored Knockout, but I agree with our speaker that it is still the most desirable. The doubles grow smaller and do not have the same spreading habit as the original. I would say the Rainbow Knockout, even though the flowers are smaller, has a similar spreading growth habit to the original Knockout.
9 comments:
What, exactly, is a garden coach!
I imagine someone in workout gear, shouting "You grow, girl!"
That Apple Blossom Rose is stunning. I am drooling all over myself now.
Hi Lisa ans Robb,
A garden coach is someone who doesn't do a to-scale landscape design, may take photos and make a simple sketch. Most of all, it is more like a consult on what would work in certain areas of the garden.
A coach usually does not purchase or put in the plant material. It is a low cost way of getting a professional looking garden.
Eileen
Hi Becca,
I had a carpet rose at my other home, but is was so pale. This would have been stunning and supposedly will hold the soil on an incline.
Eileen
Dear Eileen, I so enjoyed reading this posting which I found delightfully amusing. The garden club lunches sound very jolly and are clearly becoming more and more popular. The talk on roses sounds to have been very informative - always useful to hear from an expert.
I am not always sure what is "expert" advice. I think we all have to do what works for us. It is great to be exposed to lots of information.
Do you grow the David Austin English roses. I just wonder if they would survive in the heat we get during the summer?
Eileen
All of these rose photos are getting me so excited for May! I can't wait.
Delighted to hear you are in a garden club too, Eileen. Ours meets the 2nd Wed of each month (board meetings on the 1st Thurs). Most lunches include each member bringing a salad ingredient ... hostesses provide the greens, breads/muffins, etc., drinks and dessert. Several times a year we have a lovely luncheon. I have been swamped since in charge of a $20,000 budget from the Trustees (plus our garden club pays for most of the flowers) ... it's been a delight planning our Village Gardens. And, of course, I have my own to juggle ... lovin' spring!
Joey, your lunch routine sounds great with each person bringing something. I actually belong to two groups, this post being about the fun group. I actually see community involvement being the difference between the two groups.
The more serious group does a lot of community projects (such as plantings around our historical house, donating a sprinkler system, etc.) The fun group donates flowers to the hospital. Both worthy causes but different.
Eileen
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