November Newsletter

NEWSLETTER						NEWSLETTER

                        Gardeners of Somerset Valley
                             Wegarden.org

November 2003					Editor: Mitch Greenbaum
                                                        908-231-8338

SLIDE PRESENTATION ON DAFFODILS
CHRISTMAS PARTY AT CHRISTINE’S
STACY GETS ENGAGED

NEXT MEETING: Wednesday, November 19, 2003
at the North Branch Reformed Church.

Mr. Connie Callas who gave us an informative talk on rhododendrons and azaleas several years ago visits again to present a slide show on daffodils. Mr. Callas, an active member of Rutgers Cooperative Extension Master Gardeners of Somerset and Hunterdon Counties, along with his wife Sally over the past 30 years have created extensive gardens on their Hunterdon County property. Though the highlight of their work is the collection of over one thousand specimens of rhododendrons and azaleas, they also have beautiful annual and perennial borders as well as container gardens. Besides the handful of varieties that we see during the early spring, Mr. Callas will undoubtedly have many photographs of the 13 divisions of daffodil cultivars including trumpet, bell, hoop, windswept and multiple bloom flowers. Not eaten by either squirrels or deer and with many attractive enough to exhibit in shows, some of the more than 13,000 hybrids could find an expanded role in our gardens. Connie will be back again in March to speak about dahlias, and these are two meetings you don’t want to miss.

Former scholarship student Stacy Gould living and working in Arizona has informed us that she and her boyfriend Craig were engaged last month. According to her e-mail, the proposal took place the day before her birthday while driving around in Sedona during a 4x4 jeep tour, and to Craig’s credit she indicated he was “very romantic”. Ray Hawkins has also lined up our current scholarship winners to be the speakers at the January meeting. I find it wonderfully rewarding when we see or hear from ‘our kids’ as year in and year out they seem to always impress with their poise, confidence, work ethic and commitment to horticulture. From all of us at GOSV, congratulations Stacy and Craig.

Christine Feorino has graciously offered her Green Brook home this year for what now has become an annual holiday party. So reserve the date of December 20 starting at 7:00 PM and be on the look-out for the details in a flyer which will go out in the mail soon.

The North Branch Reformed Church has sent the club a Building Use Check List which affects all of us especially those handling the hospitality chores. The #1 concern is for the church to remain a totally ‘nut free’ facility. This would be a great opening topic for a comedy routine, but seriously there are some youths partaking in activities at the church who are extremely allergic to nuts. Copies of this checklist (mostly dealing with clean-up) will be handed out next week at which time we can all take a stab at cracking some good nut jokes.

Odds and Ends

It looks like we will be having our May meeting and plant exchange at the Piscataway home of Eileen and Barry Weissman. Mr. Weissman gave that entertaining program on hosta at last year’s Charter Night Dinner, and this meeting has the makings of a great event.
Former club president Margaret Treacy reports that other than a scary bout with some sodium and potassium dehydration caused by her chemo medicine, she has corrected the deficiency and is now handling the treatments well.
Linda Frisch who brought an interesting little carnivorous plant called Sundew to the last meeting recommends that this would be a good time of year to plan a trip to Longwood Gardens, but check to make sure the Christmas decorations are in place. Also the indoor garden at Peddlers Village in Lahaska, PA can be a nice break from the winter doldrums.
There were no surprises during last month’s pumpkin contest as Ray Hawkins easily won with what was the ‘one and only, but slightly yellowish’ entry.

We’ve finally had some hard frosts in the past week, and with all the leaves down except for possibly some stubborn oak, it looks like we can finally say goodbye to this unusually wet and difficult 2003 outdoor gardening season. So now it’s time to think of the fast approaching holidays and then spring, and a great way to get in the mood is to show up next week, preferably with a guest, and learn about the abundant and beautiful varieties of those easy to grow daffodils.

Happy Thanksgiving!