FEBRUARY Calendar. 2 Executive Board Meeting: Lightkeepers Cottage, 9:30 a.m., Hostesses: Todd, Eisenhauer, Fricano

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1 F E B R U A R Y E D I T I O N We have made it to midwinter! May El Niño be kind to all of us who braved last year here in New England. We have lots to keep us from cabin fever. If you haven't tried helping out at Junior Gardeners, Garden Therapy, or haven t gone to a workshop on horticulture or craft making make this the month you do. It is a wonderful way to meet fellow club members. We have a new keeper of the club's photographs: Laura Horkey at LauraHorky@gmail.com. She is also our Conservation chairperson but has agreed to make sure pictures are posted on our website and archived for an end of the year presentation. Please send Laura your pictures via and make sure they are well labeled and full sized. That means who, when and what. Example: Maureen Adams and Dolores Roy at the Senior Center on January 13, 2016, taken by Barbara Canney. With smart phones, the most available camera, we are counting on all of you to take a few pics at each activity you attend. Thanks. Lelia FEBRUARY Calendar 2 Executive Board Meeting: Lightkeepers Cottage, 9:30 a.m., Hostesses: Todd, Eisenhauer, Fricano 8 Junior Gardeners: Deer Hill School Cafeteria, 2:40-3:40 p.m. Valentine Wreaths with Martha Gjetsby 9 Horticulture & Design: Lightkeepers Cottage, 9:30 a.m., Air Plant Workshop with Dana Roberts - learn about air plants and make an arrangement with them. 10 Garden Therapy: Harborview Center for Nursing & Rehabilitation, 2:00-3:00 p.m., Be Mine 16 Craft Workshop: Lightkeepers Cottage, 9:30 a.m., Gift Bags and Boxes with Debbie Jenks - create gift containers of our very own. 23 Monthly Meeting: Second Congregational Church, 43 Highland Avenue; Coffee: 9:00 a.m.; Meeting: 9:30 a.m. Flower Arrangement: Emily Moore Hostesses: (Food, Set-up, and Cleanup): Ferreira, Fitzgerald, Fricano, Gilmore, Gjesteby, Grant, Groebel, Gruber, Helbock, Hearth, Hood, Hough Program: Claudia Thompson - Designing with Native Plants. Claudia is the founder of GrowNative, where the motto is Every Garden Matters and Every Landscape Counts. She will dazzle us with the transformation of her local yard where both people and wildlife can thrive. Join us to learn some closely-held botanical secrets, from seed germination and companion plants to pruning and watering. 25 Field Trip to Fuller Craft Museum the COMMUNITY GARDEN CLUB of CohassetMA Newsletter Editor: Pat Cammett pcamme@gmail.com

2 Announcements Welcome new member Elizabeth Keenan (Mrs. David) of 41 Chittenden Lane, Cohasset, , In the yearbook, the phone number for Marlene Tabor is incorrect. Her correct phone number is Please make these changes to your yearbook. Please join us for our craft workshop on Tuesday, February 16th, at the Lightkeepers from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. Debbie Jenks will show us how to make our own gift bags and boxes, and guide us as we make our own. Please bring your "X-acto" knife, glue sticks, and ruler. Light refreshment is planned, but bring your own beverage. Let us know if you are coming so that we may plan for adequate supplies. Contact Judy Dickstein, or If school is cancelled due to inclement weather, our workshop will automatically be cancelled. Field Trip to the Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton, MA, Thursday, February 25th. We will meet at the Feng Shui parking lot at 8:30 a.m. to carpool. Our tour will begin at 10:00 a.m. Bring a bag lunch and beverage. Admission will be $10-12 depending on how many people go. RSVP to Barbara Canney, barbaracan@me.com or The Museum will have 3 exhibits that will inspire us all! If you have never been there before, this is an opportunity to enjoy an eclectic collection of artists and crafters. The main exhibits are Toothpick World: From Sliver to Skyline Utilizing 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. Paper and Blade: Modern Paper Cutting will celebrate the pioneering spirit of artists working in this genre with a curatorial focus on cut paper. Toothpick construction Material Witness: Joan Pearson Watkins Potter, Educator, and Collector The late Joan Pearson Watkins ( ) was dedicated to the preservation and promotion of the arts. This passion was expressed through her extensive collecting, thoughtful tutelage, and her own creative practice at the potter s wheel and kiln. January Junior Gardeners

3 FLOWER SHOW SCHOOL FAQS In the event you may be interested in enrolling in Flower Show School, sponsored by the GCFM, here is information that should answer your questions. * WHAT IS FLOWER SHOW SCHOOL? FSS is a series of 4 courses, each entailing 2 days of lectures on flower show procedure, horticulture and floral design followed by an exam on the third day. * WHAT IS ITS PURPOSE? FSS prepares students to exhibit horticulture and floral design in flower shows and prepares them to become Flower Show Judges if they are interested. * WHO CAN ATTEND? The school is open to anyone wishing to learn how to enter a show. Anyone wishing to become a judge needs to be a member of a Federated Garden Club, not only in Massachusetts but also from any other state. * WHAT IS THE COST? Each course has a registration fee of $135 for a member of a garden club and $150 for non-garden club members. Additionally there is a list of required reading material. * DO I HAVE TO TAKE THE EXAM? No, the exam is only required if you wish to become a judge. * DO I HAVE TO TAKE THE COURSES IN ORDER? No, the courses may be taken in any order. * WHERE ARE THE COURSES HELD? FSS is usually held in a hotel that is centrally located and easily accessible from major highways. * HOW DO I SIGN UP? The GCFM Website has sign-up information. The fall Mayflower will have the course outline and registration form. Your District Director and Club President will also have all the information. * IS THERE ANY FINANCIAL HELP? There is one scholarship offered by GCFM, the Helen deorsay Freidberg Tribute Scholarship. Your own garden club may offer scholarships or have financial resources available to its members. Our CGCC does offer reimbursement for a portion of the course cost. * ARE THERE ANY DISCOUNTS AVAILABLE? If you don't wish to be a judge, you may take the courses with a friend using the 2 for 1 option, which means you would only pay $60 each for each course. For more information, call Cathie Healy at or Julie Pipe at of the GCFM. Snowball flower holders with Judy Dickstein

4 Schedule a Next Step Living Home Energy Assessment Through the Refer a Friend Program Here is a pic of Kate Farrington at the January Horticulture Workshop showing how to arrange with supermarket flowers. By contacting laurahorky@verizon.net or calling with your name and phone number. A Next Step Living associate will call you to schedule a free Home Energy Assessment. By making the appointment through Laura, the Community Garden Club of Cohasset will receive a $15 dollar gift card for amazon.com. The cards will be used to purchase books that are donated to the library. Conservation by Laura Horky Lightkeepers Cottage Landscape Design Committee The Lightkeepers Cottage Landscape Design Committee met several times each month from April to October. Barbara Canney, Barbara Dillon, Lee Drew, Elizabeth Durant, Martha Gjesteby, and Sheila Toomey were joined by new club members Kate Farrington, Carol Groebel, Kao Li, and Marlene Tabor. These dedicated club members worked rain or shine to keep the gardens looking beautiful. Many thanks to all. Terese D Urso

5 Nasty Plants by Terry Hale (submitted by Jan Todd) Warning: If anyone offers you anything prolific from a garden, BEWARE! Granted, many such plants have lovely flowers or foliage, but they can be quite deceptive. There are many "official" invasives (see official websites at end), but there are also just as many devils lurking in friends' gardens that they are more than willing to share with you. Have you noticed that gardeners hate to throw out plants? You may have just become a victim of an endless battle against plant eradication. I consider a "nasty" or an "unofficial" invasive (i.e., anything not on an official list) a perennial that takes off running and smothers everything in its path. These plants usually have roots that cannot be completely removed unless the soil is finely sifted down to 12". Tiny broken pieces of fleshy roots can produce another vigorous plant in no time. There are many spreading plants that are fairly easy to eradicate in one season that I do not classify as nasty. My top six "Nasty Nightmares" in order of hate: Violet (Viola sororia) is my #1 hate winner. After 50 years of struggling with violets, I still have a blue-violet lawn every spring. Violets love hopping into my flower beds where they grow into gigantic weeds. Fibrous roots make total removal impossible and the waxy leaves resist herbicides. Yet some people purposefully plant violets in their gardens unaware of their weedy and aggressive nature. I have been battling Campanula rapunculoides for over 40 years!! Novice gardeners call it "Lady Bells." Striking blue bells line up on a 2-3' tall stalks that are very pretty but have nasty, fleshy roots that break if dug up. It spreads like crazy. Check out Adenophora for the true behaved lady bells. Chameleon plant (houttuynia cordata) has been my latest challenge over the past three summers. It is a beautiful variegated ground cover in shades of red, yellow and green - lovely, until it takes over and smothers everything in its path. It can grow in water but my flourishing crop is in baking hot sun and bone dry soil. Year 1 of removal was dedicated to digging it out. Year 2 it multiplied and so I painstakingly painted the foliage (mega hours) with Round-Up. Year 3 (this year) it tripled and so far I have removed wheelbarrows full leaving lots of bare ground and knowing that Years 4, 5 & 6 will be ongoing removal challenges. Bishop's weed or goutweed (Aegopodium podagraria), a variegated green and white leaved ground cover, is actually sold in garden centers without warning labels. This is another multi-year eradication project. Invasive Plants web sites: Gooseneck loosestrife (Lysimachia clethroides) spreads as quickly as bamboo! My nickname for this traveler is Marco Polo. Don't be deceived by the gracefully curved, beautiful white racemes up to a foot long. This plant can travel across a half acre in no time. There are many more "beauties" to stay away from, especially ground covers. Watch out for anything being offered by someone who has an abundance of a plant. If you must have a vigorous spreader, curb it within a sunken pot with the bottom cut out, but still be cautious that it doesn't escape its barrier

6 Friends of the Earth - BeeAction.org Help stop this second "silent spring! Acetamiprid Clothianidin...Dinotefuran...Imidacloprid...Thiamethoxam. These chemicals are killing bees. If you see any of these ingredients listed on products in your home or at your local garden center, do not use them. NEONICS HIDE IN THESE POPULAR BRANDS; Aloft-Arena-Allectus-Bithor-Caravan Coretect-Derby-Dino_Dominion-Equiladonis Flagship-Flower, Rose, and Shrub Care Gaucho-Grub No-More-Grubout Hawk-Imaxxpro-Ima-jet-Imi insecticide-the complete list can be found at BeeAction.org. Bees are "canaries in the coal mine," warning us of an imminent and frightening threat to our food. You can help save the bees - and ourselves - by supporting Friends of the Earth and their Bee Action Campaign. Four Ways You Can Help Save the Bees 1. Plant any of these flowers listed below using organic starts or untreated seeds to provide a good food and a safe haven for bees: Aster, Black Eyed Susan, Blazing Star, Cal-strop, Creosol Bush, Currant, Elder Flower, Goldenrod, Huckleberry, Joe Pye Weed, Lupine, Oregon Grape, Penstemon, Purple Coneflower, Rabbitbush, Rhododendron, Scorpion Weed, Snowberry, Stonecrop, Sunflower, Wild Buckwheat, Wild Lilac, Willow, Woodland Sage. 2. Bee Aware! Use alternative pest control methods, like landscaping to attract beneficial insects, and eco-friendly pest control products. 3. Bee Vigilant! Read labels and steer clear of products containing neonicotinoids. 4. Bee Vocal! Tell your friends and family about the importance of bees and how they can help. SUPPORT FRIENDS OF THE EARTH...FOR THE BEES, FOR OURSELVES!! Submitted by Ann Pompeo CGCC 221 Massachusetts Avenue #1018 Boston, MA 02115