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Tuesday, April 8

8:30 a.m.

Onwentsia Club

Governor's Room

 

Tuesday, May 6

8:30 a.m.

Onwentsia Club

Governor's Room

 

President's Message: 

 

Enchanted Forest at Crab Tree Farm

February might have felt like a plodding, slogging kind of month without the burst of beauty at the Club Flower Show, Enchanted Forest. Chairmen, Betsy Hough, Liz Lavezzorio and Marni Wilson presented a truly enchanting show made all the more stellar by its location at Neville and John Bryan's, Crab Tree Farm. We were most grateful to display the flower arrangements and hort exhibits in such an elegant and tranquil gallery setting. I'd like to thank the chairmen, their committee and all of you who shared your time and talent to make the show such a success. (Hort and flower reports appear in this issue)

Before the show opened we tallied the votes cast in-person and by email for three GCA Founders Fund Projects. Safeguarding the American Elm: Preserving New Haven's Roots proposed by The Garden Club of New HavenZone II received twice as many votes as either the Restoration of the Temple of Love: Untermeyer Park and Gardens in Yonkers NY proposed by Garden Club of Irvington - Zone III or The Big Green Time Machine proposed by the Peachtree Garden Club Zone VIII. The Big Green Time Machine came in 2nd with just 2 more votes than the Temple of Love restoration. The results were reported to GCA and the overall winner will be announced at the GCA Annual Meeting in May.

 

Heavenly Sky by Liz Lavezzorio Best in Show and Blue Ribbon

Our members on the SOS Committee are Crissy Cherry, awards chairman, Louellen Murray, chairman of the cut flower class, and Stephanie Fisher member of the photography committee. Thank you very much to all who have volunteered to represent LFGC at SOS. We'll need many more of you to enter your thriving plants in the hort division, to collect clear bottles and fill them with specimens from your gardens for the cut flower display and to record and transport entries to the CBG. If you'd like to participate in any aspect of the Show please contact flower chair, Betsy Hough - hort chair, Liz Lavezzorio or Maggie. You will be welcomed with open arms!

Claudia Altounian, Dianne FitzSimons  and Kate Spencer

I look forward to welcoming you back on April 10. We'll be at Elawa Farm where the landscape will be greening and local beekeepers will discuss the

recent decline of the honey bee and other pollinators in North America, the

serious challenge posed to our food supply and ecological health and what you can do to help increase the number of healthy bees in the world. At last, it's sure to be a Spring has sprung day. 

 

Maggie

Lucia Heyworth Best in Show Phragmipedium Orchid

The entries were impressive, in number as well as variety. Lucia Heyworth received a Best in Show with her Phragmipedium Orchid in the survivor class and additional ribbons for her blooming Cattleya Orchid and a Sarracenia Pitcher Plant. Denise Scherck's Begonias were outstanding and she received blue and red ribbons. The Interpretive Class was entertaining with plants that imitate their containers including a rabbit container planted with a Davallia fejeensis, Flapjack Kalanchoe in a miniature cast iron fry pan and a Pinguicula vulgarism 'Gold Dagger' (aka butterwort) staged in a Herend butter dish. Thank you to all those who entered and congratulations on your ribbons: Margaret Marshall, Charenton Drake, Elizabeth Pruett, Sophie Twichell, Betsy Hough, Cathie Denckla, Ann Frost, Leslie Smith, Marni Wilson, Louellen Murray and Maggie Coleman.

Claudia Altounian	Melody Fatheazam	Betsy Norton
Prue Beidler	Dianne FitzSimons	Elizabeth Pruett
Katie Belcher	Betsy Hough	Marina Puryear
Vanessa Clarke	Beth Kiernan	Cassandra Vermillion
Joan DePree	Liz Lavezzorio	Marni Wilson
	Ann Miller

                                                                 

In Class 1 "Fairy Tales & Fantasies", the blue ribbon went to Vanessa Clarke and Melody Fatheazam for Thumbelina, second place was awarded to Ann Miller for Not in Kansas and third place was awarded to Prue Beidler for Rapunzel.

 

In Class 2 " Chasing Aurora", Liz Lavezzorio won the blue ribbon and Best in Show for Heavenly Sky, Katie Belcher and Joan DePree were awarded second place for Flash Dance on a Northern Shore and third place went to Marni Wilson for Glow on the Horizon. The judges awarded an Honorable Mention to Betsy Norton for Chasing Chinese Lights.

 

GCA Judges:

Floral Design:

Angie Brown, Judge - Winnetka Garden Club

Chace Wolff, Prospective - Lake Geneva Garden Club

Horticulture:

Barbara Kehoe, Judge - Garden Guild of Winnetka

Gwen McConnaughy, Judge - Winnetka Garden Club

 

Clerks:

Floral Design: Mary Hoffman & Jane Hodges

Horticulture: Stevie Boggess & Ann Dixon

 

Submitted by Betsy Hough, Flower Chairman

    ~ Albert Einstein

GCA National Affairs and Legislation Conference

February, 2014

 

Highlights of the GCA National Affairs and Legislation Conference, attended by LFGC members Judy Boggess and Marion Cartwright: 

• Our club's donation to the Bridge the Gap fundraiser for the GCA Redwood Grove was both needed and generous. Conference attendees heard a plea for more club participation. Only 33 clubs out of 200 have contributed so far and only $170,000 out of the $270,000 needed had been received by NAL conference time. LFGC contributed $2,700 or 1% of the total.

• We were reminded that May 16th is Endangered Species Day and garden clubs are encouraged to mark the date. For our club, how about a walk in McCormick Ravine to share the importance of the Plants of Concern monitoring program for rare and threatened plants our club supports thru the GCA Partners for Plants Program? Anyone interested in a hike this May 16th please call or email Marion Cartwright. 

• Con-Watch editor, Marsha Merrell, encouraged clubs to email requests for articles/areas of study they would like to see in Con-Watch. She said, "We have great writers, we need to hear ideas from clubs." The latest edition of ConWatch, GCA's online conservation magazine, was published in December. The issue focuses on agricultural topics - everything from GMO crops to honey bee colony decline, to urban agriculture and livestock grazing on public lands. It is a wonderful resource for GCA members.  

• Here in Lake County, IL we have the Conservation @ Home program to encourage people to create healthy habitats in their yards and to incorporate more native species in their plantings. (Our club learned about this program at our Sept 2013 meeting.) We hope to hold a follow-up workshop this spring for members. At NAL, we heard about a similar program started by the Bedford Garden Club called "The Great Healthy Yard Project." A book is coming out this June. The project's focus is on how lawn care affects our water quality. Homeowners are using 10 times more chemicals per acre than farmers and the chemicals we put on our yards and down our drains end up in our drinking water. The author of the book is a physician and a Bedford garden club member. Many residents, schools, parks and sanctuaries in Bedford have already taken the pledge to be chemical free. 

• We were encouraged during visits to our congressional representatives to schedule a follow-up visit in their home offices. Let's follow-up! They like to hear personal stories from their district about how legislation and regulations (and also the lack-thereof) are affecting residents. We were told repeatedly during our two days of preparation for such visits, "Tell your representative a personal story from their district." A phone call or a letter represents the voice of 3,000 other people who probably feel the same way in a congress person's estimation. A visit to their home office means even more to them. Click here for GCA reports on pending and recent conservation legislation. 

• Just to give a glimpse of how lucky we are to attend the NAL conference, we heard from: Sen. Rush Holt (D-NJ), Rep. Susan Collins (R-ME), Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI), Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-GA), David Yarold, President and CEO of the National Audubon Society, John Podesta, Counselor to Pres. Obama, Peter Byck, producer of documentaries "Carbon Nation," "Garbage" and soon-to-be-released "Soil." Just to name a few! 

Submitted, with gratitude for the opportunity to attend this important legislative conference, 

Marion Cartwright, Conservation Committee, vice chairman

Class 7: 6 spaces - "Urbs in Horto" - two different viewpoints of the same 

Class 9: 3 spaces - Treekeepers - monochrome photograph of any aspect of a tree

Click here for the full schedule. 

CLICK HERE to print Dues Notice 

April 11-13

Chicago Botanic Garden

Preview Night

Thursday, April 10

 

A clean slate, ready to  green again