Evergreen Garden Club Minutes - November 16, 2021
The meeting was held on Zoom hosted by EGC President Colet Mitchell. Attendees:
Kathryn Donaldson Baker, Jean Barquin, Louise Beale, Carol Cramer, Winkie Crigler, Jane Dana,
Jane DeCell, Betsy Forster, Betty Langhammer, Sally Marshall, Colet Mitchell, Sharon Stoliaroff, Susie Taylor, Susan Vanderver, and Xenia Wilkinson.
Social Pre-Meeting: The group generally agreed that the Covid situation is improving so we should be able to meet in person again by the February meeting. The March meeting will also be in person. The April and May meetings are garden tours. Sharon Stoliaroff is interested to find back-up homes and food suppliers for February and March. If you can assist, please contact her at drsharon@aol.com or cell phone (301) 785-6369.
Speaker: Jeanne Ha of Park Florist in Takoma Park, and Head of the Washington Flower School, AIFD, SAM, AND IFDA, led our group through a series of three dried flower arrangements in beautiful and different containers. Jeanne mentioned that our meeting was timely, because young people are expressing new interest in dried flower arrangements. She suggests selecting a simple container, and emphasizing different textures while creating your arrangements. Other tips:
To dry flowers, hang them upside down in a dark room with air circulation to avoid mold. A cold garage or shed should be fine. Spray with unscented hair spray to help preserve.
Hydrangeas tend to lose their color; use mostly for texture. May want to spray paint them. (Winkie suggested that lower branch hydrangeas, out of light, retain color best.)
It’s okay to mix dried and fresh flowers in a vase. It’s nice to have a vase of dried/fresh flowers displayed throughout the year. Just change out what is looking tired. For the holidays, throw in a few purchased sparkling balls, berries, or tinted leaves.
Jeanne likes narrow-necked vases for dried arrangements or mixed dried/fresh. When using a vase that contains fresh flowers, fill the water nearly up to the neck of the vase.
If using frail stems like lavender, spray with water before arranging, so the dry elements don’t drop while being handled.
Magnolia leaves are beautiful, both the green parts and the velvety back sides. Don’t let the leaves touch water in a vase, or the velvet texture will be lost.
When our speaker finished demonstrating, Colet, Jane DeCell, Jane Dana, Betty, Betsy and Winkie shared their creative arrangements with the group.
Business Meeting:
October meeting minutes were approved.
Xenia (Membership Chair) reported that we have 4 openings for the spring as we currently have 41 active members. Nomination letters, with seconding and supporting letters, are due on February 1st.
Jane Dana updated the group on the recent Tregaron Conservancy work day on November 9. The weather was lovely and nine women attended to help move plants. The area around our EGC plot is changing with a new terrace and bench planned. There is a new volunteer supervisor who met our group, as well as Executive Director Lynn Parseghian.
Our January meeting will be a Zoom with selected members sharing their experiences from re-doing their gardens or landscaping recently. February will be in person and will feature Eco-Gardening with the head of Hillwood Gardens. March will be in person and will feature Cooking with Lavender. Colet is looking for members to help our focus on native plants by highlighting a favorite plant for two minutes at the end of a meeting. Contact Colet if you can help.
The web site is up and running successfully. A big thanks to Jane Dana and Cathy Farrell who made this happen. The website is www.EvergreenGC.org, and the password is Forevergreen. The website is not as easy to maintain as hoped. There is some consideration of moving to a new platform. Contact Jane Dana or Cathy if you can help with this. Some members have had trouble accessing the site from their phones. Colet said the web site and password will be included on all meeting notices this year so members are reminded of the site.
Attached are photos of the arrangements prepared by our speaker, Jeanne Ha
A good time was had by all attendees.
Respectfully submitted,
Susan Vanderver for Pam Selden