So shake off the winter and go out and enjoy spring. the

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1 A P R I L E D I T I O N With the change to daylight savings time, I was awoken to the rhythmic pweet pweet of a male woodcock courting his lady friend in the front yard. Too dark to spot him, but know I would find a very long bill capable of rooting out earthworms 2" down and lovely large brown eyes. The Cornus mas is coming into full yellow-flowered bloom, the early forsythia mimic. Soon we can all start digging up those perennials and shrubs we want to donate to the plant sale. These days of warming daytime temperatures we itch to put on our gloves, sharpen our pruners and trim some trees and shrubs. Beware of pruning bleeders. These are trees like birch, maple and yellowoods that will produce sap that flows out of the wound. Best to wait till mid summer for those. Snow damage or wind damage can be cleared away now. I love these still cool days to garden as the biting insects haven't awoken and I am wearing warm clothes that protect me. It is fun to explore the beds and rediscover bulbs poking out of the ground that I haven't seen since last year, all while listening to the male Cardinal serenade nearby. APRIL Calendar 4 South Shore Spring Meeting So shake off the winter and go out and enjoy spring. Lelia 5 Executive Board Meeting: The home of Mary Eisenhaure, 9:30 a.m., Carol Graham, Patty Johnson, Arienne Lima and Iku Ishihara and the Special Events Committee will provide for the New Members Luncheon. 7-8 GCFM: Gardening Studies School, Tower Hill Botanic Gardens, 11 French Drive, Boylston, MA 11 Junior Gardeners: Deer Hill School Cafeteria, 2:40-3:40 p.m. Books in Bloom with Cynthia Chase 12 Horticulture & Design: Field trip to Dana s new garden, 176 Water Street, Hanover, 9:30-11:30 a.m., Spring Garden Prep - hands-on how to prepare your garden for spring after the winter 12 GCFM: Design Morning #3, Massachusetts Horticultural Society, Hunnewell Building, 900 Washington St., Elm Bank, Wellesley, MA the COMMUNITY GARDEN CLUB of Cohasset 13 Garden Therapy: Harborview Center for Nursing & Rehabilitation, 2:00-3:00 p.m. Spring is in the Air 19 Craft Workshop: Lightkeepers Cottage, 9:30 a.m., Stepping Stones - We will again make concrete stepping stones to decorate our gardens and walkways. 21 Southeastern District Spring Meeting, Plymouth CC, 9:00 a.m. 26 Monthly Meeting: Second Congregational Church, 43 Highland Avenue; Coffee: 9:00 a.m.; Meeting: 9:30 a.m. Flower Arrangement: Gretchen Sheets Hostesses: (Food, Set-up, and Clean-up): Mascart, Massa, McCann, McCarthy, McLaughlin, McLaughlin, Medwid, Moody, Moore, Nicynski, Nowak, O Brien Program: Emily Rothmans - The History of Weir River Farm and Sustainable Farming - Learn about a wonderful resource just around the corner. Weir River Farm is a gem in our suburban surroundings. Newsletter Editor: Pat Cammett pcamme@gmail.com

2 Announcements Welcome a new member and a returning member. Please revise your yearbook to include their contact information: Donna Beaudry 132 Wheelwright Farm, Cohasset beaudryd73@gmail.com Rejoining: Gail Saccone 33 May Ave. Braintree gvsaccone@comcast.net Our April craft workshop will be on Tuesday, April 19th, at the Lightkeepers from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. Having suggested that we change the program to "Fairy Gardens" from the original "Stepping Stones, I received some feedback that resulted in returning to the original plan. So "Stepping Stones" it will be. Please bring an aluminum cake pan for your form and your choice of items to decorate your stones, and I will supply the concrete, as well as spray oil to keep the stone from sticking to the pan. There will be a small charge for the program, depending on the number of attendees. Please let me know if you are coming as I will need to buy an adequate amount of material judyd617@comcast.net or Art in Bloom at the Museum of Fine Arts is coming up April 29 thru May 2nd. Get ready for the PLANT SALE Saturday, May 21st from 9:00 a.m. - 1:00 pm Cohasset Historical Society More information to come! Club member Cynthia Chace will once again demonstrate her flower arranging prowess as an exhibitor at the MFA s Art In Bloom! On Monday, May 2nd, we will meet at Feng Shui at 9 a.m. and car pool to AIB. The Elegant Tea times are 12:30 and 2:30 p.m. with an extra cost of $35.00 and you do need make a reservation. Some people might want to go down to the café to buy their lunch. There is no lecture, but there will be ongoing flower arranging demonstrations from 12-3 p.m. at no charge. Also, at 11:00 a.m. to noon in Remis Auditorium, senior horticulturist and designer Darrah Cole will give a visual tour of the Greenway parks and features as seen through the lens of its organic horticulture program. If you want to join us, please contact Barbara Canney, barbaracan@me.com or call This year s Annual Luncheon will be at Hatherly Golf Club in Scituate on May 24, 2016, at 11:00 a.m. As a special thank you for a job well done at Yuletide, the board has voted to subsidize the cost of tickets for this event. Cost to members will be $20.00, an $8.00 savings! Tickets will be on sale in April and May at meetings and workshops. If you prefer, contact Jeanne Carroll or Carol Graham, and we will get tickets to you. The menu includes cheese, crackers and iced tea, Caesar salad, your choice of baked stuffed sole with rice and asparagus or chicken parmesan with linguini and garlic bread, key lime pie, and coffee or tea. A cash bar will be available. We hope many members will attend this last event of the season!

3 Conservation Submitted by Laura Horky Submit Your Public Comment on the State Pollinator Protection Plan The Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources (MDAR) is seeking public comment on the state Pollinator Protection Plan. A link to the draft of the state plan is below. The plan is intended to be the framework for the Commonwealth s program to protect pollinators, including honey bees, as required by the Federal Government. The Eight County Beekeepers of Massachusetts have submitted a plan and are not in support of the MDAR Proposed plan draft. A link to the Beekeepers Protection Plan is provided below. Comments can be sent to the following address: Kim.Skyrm@state.ma.us with the subject line "Pollinator Plan Comments" and in the body of the mail you can express your support for the Eight County Beekeepers Protection Plan. The deadline to submit comments is April 30, The following listening session is provided for those who wish to provide public comments in person on the Pollinator Protection Plan draft: Wednesday - March 23 - MDAR Office University Dr., Amherst, 4:00 pm - 6:00 pm Eight County Beekeepers Protection Plan uploads/2015/09/beekeepers-pollinator-protection- Plan-Framework-FINAL-MA.pdf MDAR Proposed draft plan docs/mdar-pollinator-plan-final-draft.pdf Painting the Modern Garden: Monet to Matisse A link to an exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts in London submitted by Jan Todd When the weather is gray and rainy, find here medicine for the soul. This exhibition, Painting the Modern Garden: Monet to Matisse, is currently at London s Royal Academy of the Arts. Find the enclosed web site, scroll down the page and you will find videos to introduce the show, to take you to the home and gardens of Max Liebermann and Emil Nolde. There are articles which will encourage you to think about contemporary art and the garden: Le Jarden Hospitalier in Lille, a flying garden in Dusseldorf, just to mention a couple. Read the comments and see the art selected by six of the world s most celebrated garden designers as each explores a favorite artist who painted gardens. The show includes ten artists and 120 paintings. Have a relaxed look, and enjoy all of this beauty - spring is around the corner!

4 Spring Planting Guide There are 7 plant zones in the U.S. (3-10). Cohasset and surrounding towns are in planting zone 6. Zones with lower numbers are colder. One can plant species that are hardy in zones 3-6, but not 7-10 as these species need warmer growing conditions and/or a longer growing season. Here are some pictures from this month's Garden Therapy - "Shamrocks & Leprechauns. A grand time was had by all constructing these lovely arrangements, along with some rousing renditions of traditional Irish tunes (including two very lively versions of McNamara's Band)! We are also pleased with our small ecological footprint for the afternoon, as you can see by the picture of Sue Reagan holding the total amount of trash generated! Air conditioning & refridgeration (commercial & residential)

5 New England Flower and Garden Show 2016 Monochrome mass arrangement by Cynthia Chase for which she won a blue ribbon Fuller Craft Museum Field Trip Jeanne Boutross, Laura Horky, Deb Jenks, Marie Sullivan, Tania McCann and Barbara Canney enjoyed a field trip to the Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton in February. This museum is a treasure trove of permanent collections, exhibitions, demonstrations, workshops, and special events. The media include wood, metal, glass, ceramics and fiber. We viewed the permanent collections with a guide, then the special exhibits that last for a month or so. The next exhibit was Toothpick World: From Sliver to Skyline. Using a toolkit of just toothpicks and Elmer s Glue, New York s Stan Munro uses his ingenuity to construct precise 1:164 scale reproductions of architectural masterworks and world-renowned structures including iconic buildings such as the Empire State Building and the White House, while also incorporating internationally celebrated structures such as the Taj Mahal, St. Patrick s Cathedral and the Eiffel Tower. Barbara Canney Creation by Tania McCann for the Ikebana exhibit

6 The Garden Club of Nagoya Activity Report of March 2016 Our March general meeting was a field trip to Sato Tsubakien (Camellia Garden) in Inazawa City, a western suburb of Nagoya. Since 1948 the Sato family has been engaged in cultivation of Camellia japonica (Japanese camellia). They have successfully produced new species while developing their own varieties. There are thousands of cultivars of this genus having many colors and forms of flowers. In the wild it is found in mainland China, Taiwan, South Korea and southern Japan. The specific epithet japonica was given to the species by Carl Linnaeus, Swedish Botanist in 1753, because Engelbert Kampfer, a German doctor, was the first to give a description of the plant while he was stationed in Japan. Besides their main business of cultivation, marketing, sales and landscaping, they have been successfully developing new species such as Senbazuru (thousand cranes), Hatsune (first song of nightingale) and Jinnya no tsubaki, (manor house camellia). They also have an on-line business called where they sell Camellia honey, Camellia oil, and even Camelia tea. To provide and meet all the needs for their business, they own about three acres of land accommodating more than fifty-thousand camellia trees. They have gained a good reputation and frequently exhibit in major cities including Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya, etc. In 1987 they were honored with royal visits to their exhibition by the prince and princess of Japan. In honor of the royals visit they developed two new species of camellia named Senbazuru and Hatsune. Takako Kohri Recording Secretary CGCC 221 Massachusetts Avenue #1018 Boston, MA 02115