Inside the Fence. 15th of the month is the DEADLINE for information for ATF. Submit items by to editor, Jane Ford at:

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1 Workday, Saturday, June 3 from 8-8:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Display Garden Open House and Plant Sale, Saturday, June 17 from noon to 2:30 p.m. Inside the Fence Ricky s Reflections (page 2 ) What s Happening in the Gardens (page 3) Educational Opportunities (page 4) Eastern Redbud (page 5 MG Coordinators (page 6) Response Center Volunteer Signup Forms (pages 7, 8, & 9) Speakers Bureau Volunteer Form (page 10) Updated Response Center Schedules (Posted on the Web Site: intitemid=3605) 15th of the month is the DEADLINE for information for ATF. Submit items by to editor, Jane Ford at: bloominthing@gmail.com Extension Office: Option 3 FAX #: TDD:711/for hearing impaired Allen County Extension Web Site Horticulture Educator Ricky Kemery Cell kemeryr@purdue.edu Garden Coordinator Jackie Hoopfer jackiehoopfer@aol.com Response Center Coordinator Denise Lloyd lloyddenise@gmail.com Across The Fence Editor Jane Ford bloominthing@gmail.com Community Garden Manager Jane Ford Plant Sale Coordinators Simone Alberding Jennifer Redwine Sherri Knisley Speaker Coordinator Anita Crusoe anitacrusoe@gmail.com Workshop/Seminar Coordinator Pam Snyder psnyder414@gmail.com Home & Garden Show Coordinators Dave & Nina Thierer Home Cell ntteach2001@gmail.com Purdue Extension - Allen County 4001 Crescent Avenue, Fort Wayne, IN Phone

2 Plant sale We had a great plant sale even with the intermittent thunderstorms and rain. Thanks to Simone, Sherri, and Jennifer for doing a wonderful job as coordinators. Thanks to all the volunteers who braved the weather to help out. I am so impressed by the comradery and organization of the sale. It makes my heart full. We raised around $5,000 this year to help support our Display gardens. Water Schedule I will soon place watering schedules on the door of the phone response room as eventually it may quit raining. Phone Response Thanks also to phone response volunteers and diagnostic volunteers for making my job easier. Calls and s vary from day-to-day based on the weather, and some issues in gardens and landscapes are a bit slower in developing this year. Upcoming Events: Workday and Open House We have a Display Garden workday scheduled for Saturday June 3 beginning at around 8:00 8:30 AM until 2:00 PM. Things are looking good in the gardens. Thanks to all the teams for all your hard work. Our Display Garden Open house will be held on Saturday, June 17 th from noon to 2:30 PM. Make sure to park in the garage across the way - and if you need to bring things to set up for you re a garden activity, try to do so before 11:00 AM. I will be at the Gardens around 10:00 AM to open up the office etc. This year we will once again have the cash and carry sale. Hopefully we will also have honey to sell, along with fruit trees. I have 2 food trucks scheduled to be present, along with a hammered dulcimer player. We will have speakers and I will lead a tour of the gardens. This is your day to showcase your garden area. Online MG Reporting System Once again I will remind you all to get registered on the Online MG reporting system so you can begin entering your hours. You can find the registration protocol in last month s issue of Across the Fence. (Link to newsletters: MG Spring Class Our current MG class is nearing completion so we will have 19 new Interns ready to help out. Welcome them as they begin their MG journey Dates to Remember Workday June 3 from 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Display Garden Open House/Plant Sale June 17 Noon to 2:30 p.m. Workday July 29 from 8:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Workday November 4 from 8:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.

3 By AMG Cindy Trygg, Display Garden Reporter (Photos on this page by Cindy) The annual fund raising plant sale for the MG program has come and gone with just a little downpour on both days and some thunder and lightning to close the sale about 45 minutes early on Saturday. It takes approximately $6,000 to $9,000 dollars each year to keep the Display Gardens maintained. To fund the gardens we sell seeds at the Home & Garden Show each year and then sell plants at our annual plant sale. This year the plant sale brought in approximately $5000. Simone Alberding, who works tirelessly all year long on the plant sale, said she has nightmares every May that there are no plants to sell or she forgot to recruit MGs to work the sale. I don't think that will ever happen as she has 16 years experience at working the sales and she is a very organized person. The MG plant sale has been going on for approximately 20 years. The first few years the plant sale was held indoors in the conference room at the extension. Soon it grew too large to be indoors and it became an outdoor event, come rain or shine! Where do all of these plants come from? Each year MGs divide plants from the Display Gardens if they have outgrown their space, MGs bring in plants from their own gardens, and Lynda Heavrin from the Lawton Park Greenhouse donates plants left over after the Fort Wayne parks and the Conservatory have what they need. Even citizens will donate extra plants from their gardens. Don't forget Lana Wolfe, who goes to the Amish Auctions and buys plants cheap for the sale. MGs have even gone out to the homes of people downsizing their gardens. They dig plants by the truck load and return to the extension to pot them. That is a lot of work and dedication. Also behind the scenes are volunteers like Kay Musgrave who recruits workers for Friday, the set up day, and for sale days of Saturday and Sunday. There are others who come in and water the plants before the sale, help in pricing plants, and organizing the sun loving plants from the shade lovers. If you missed this sale, there will be plenty of plants for sale at the Display Garden Open House on Saturday, June 17th including Desert Rose succulents donated by a woman whose father was a MG up until the age of 94. She is donating them in his honor. June 2017 Volume 19 Issue 6

4 By AMG Pam Snyder ACRES LAND TRUST with Kelly Shepherd. Kelly Shepherd is a Contractual Outreach Specialist whose job it is to reach out to the community to share ACRES stories and inspire folks who love natural areas to get involved in preserving land. The more community interest, the more land we can preserve together. Robert Frost ends his most famous poems saying. Two roads diverged in a yellow wood and I took the one less traveled by. Don t miss this informative and exciting presentation. Workshop is: Thursday, June 8 at 6:00 PM at Fire Station #4. The cost for this class is $4.00 and the registration deadline for this seminar is Saturday, June 3. NOTE: Register with Pam Snyder for the class by Saturday, June 3. Pam can be reached at (260) or psnyder414@gmail.com There is a basket in the Response Center for your registration fee. Please drop the fee by the office on or before the 3rd and deposit the fee in the basket. Please do not bother the office staff. Thank you. Please remember that payment of all class fees is due at the time of registration. We do not accept payment onsite at the seminars. Contact Pam Snyder at or her at psnyder414@gmail.com for registration information for classes. These classes count for Education hours. Take a drive and enjoy a garden walk Heavenly hydrangeas, delightful daylilies, and a woodland wonderland are just a few of the spectacular sites to experience during the 2017 Tour de Fleur Garden Walk in Evansville on Saturday, June 24 and Sunday, June 25. Fourteen private gardens in Vanderburgh and Warrick counties as well as the always interesting MG Display Garden will be adorned in their summer finery. In addition, a variety of succulent planters will be on display at the MG Display Garden. The gardens will be open from 9:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. Central Time both days. Prior to the Garden Walk, admission tickets are $15 and may be purchased in Evansville at Schnuck s, Colonial Classics Landscape & Nursery, Judy Schneider Kron Greenhouse, Wild Birds Unlimited, and Purdue Vanderburgh Extension Office. Advance tickets are also available at Robin s Nest in Boonville and Schnuck s in Newburgh. Garden location information is printed on the admission tickets. During the garden walk, admission tickets will be sold for $20 at the MG Display Garden (credit card/cash) as well as the private garden locations (cash only). The Display Garden is located south of Lloyd Expressway between Stockwell Rd. and Vann Ave., next to Eykamp Scout Center at 3501 E. Lloyd Expressway. Sponsored by the Southwestern Indiana MG Association (SWIMGA) and Tucker Publishing Group, this garden walk funds horticultural scholarships and educational programs in Southwestern Indiana. For more information about the Garden Walk, please contact Karen Flittner at or kflitt@aol.com, or Sandy Mehling at or slmehling@wowway.com. Speaking of hydrangeas, can you plant a hydrangea in a pot? To select a good hydrangea for indoor use, look for a plant with just a few blooms and lots of buds still developing. The plant should fill out the pot with healthy dark green leaves. They need plenty of light to keep blooming. While they are in bloom, hydrangeas require daily watering. Use a good quality potting soil with organic matter, not ordinary garden soil. Plant the hydrangea at the same level that it was in its original pot (that is, don't plant it deeper or higher than it was already growing). Leave some room below the rim of the pot, so you can water. General hydrangea care outdoors If you plant them in the summer, they need a lot more water in the beginning to establish the root system. Most varieties thrive in full sun to part shade, as long as they are planted in moist, rich soil. Water deeply once a week, and maybe more, if the weather is particularly hot or dry.

5 By AMG Peg Erpelding & Luna By AMG Peg Erpelding & Luna The Eastern Redbud (Cercis canadensis) also called the Judas tree or simply referred to as the Redbud is a native to eastern North America. Growing from southern Ontario Canada to northern Florida. The redbud is considered a large deciduous shrub or a small tree. It grows 20 to 30 ft. tall with a ft. spread. They are hardy in Zones 4-9. Redbuds prefer to grow in full sun to part shade, which they tolerate well as they are considered understory trees in wooded areas. They prefer to get a minimum of 4 hours of direct sunlight and do best in slightly moist soil. Redbuds are considered an ornamental tree. They generally have smallish trunks with spreading/irregular branching. They are often planted for their visual interest and the reddish/purple/pink blooms that are one of the earliest to appear of any flowering trees. Redbuds are strong trees and have deep root systems which help them be resistant to storms and ice and wind damage. These trees generally bloom sometime in the month of April and they first begin blooming at four years of age. In spring the leaves emerge as a reddish color, they turn dark green by summer and will be yellow in the fall. The tree has brown seed pods 2-3 inches long. Hummingbirds are drawn to the blossoms of the redbuds which also attracts some butterfly species. The seeds are eaten by Northern bobwhite quail, Chickadees and some songbirds. The trees make a good nesting sight and provide shelter for birds. The Eastern Redbud is the state tree of Oklahoma. The Native American Indians boiled the bark of the redbud for tea and it was used to treat whooping cough. Dysentery was treated with an astringent from the bark and roots and the inner bark of the tree was a treatment for fevers and congestion. The flowers can be fried and eaten. A very important little tree that is a true native to our area in Northeastern Indiana. =^,,^= Photos by Lyle June 2017 Volume 19 Issue 6

6 Ricky Kemery Horticulture Educator MG Program Coordinator AMG Simone Alberding Plant Sale Co-coordinator (260) AMG Denise Lloyd Response Center Coordinator (260) AMG Anita Crusoe Speaker Coordinator (260) AMG Pam Snyder Workshop/Seminar Coordinator (260) AMG Jane Ford Editor of Across the Fence Community Garden Manager (260) AMG Dave Thierer Home & Garden Show Co-coordinator AMG Jackie Hoopfer, Display Garden Coordinator (260) AMG Nina Thierer Home & Garden Show Co-coordinator AMG Peg Davis, Bill Oliver & Kathy O At-Large Council Members AMG Cindy Trygg Display Garden s Reporter Extension Board Member jlt22208@aol.com (260)

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10 I you would like to share your public speaking ability with those in the community fill out the form and either it to Anita or contact her at (260) and ask her for more information.