KEY WEST GARDEN CLUB Spring Newsletter 2017

Transcription

1 KEY WEST GARDEN CLUB Spring Newsletter 2017 Message from the President I am thrilled to be taking over as President of this wonderful organization for the next two years. Many thanks to Robin Robinson, who has been a marvelous President for the past four years. The Club is in the best standing it has ever been! We should all be very proud of everything we have achieved together over the past ten years: We have a First Class, professional level Propagation Program; a beautifully maintained historic fort, entrancing our visitors and providing the perfect setting for our fabulous gardens; a stunning butterfly garden; an amazing orchid collection and plentiful native and exotic plants, which are now accessible to all wheelchairs and strollers included! We have a wonderful active and enthusiastic membership and volunteers, excellent monthly educational & social membership meetings; a hugely anticipated Fall Plant Sale and Annual Garden Tours our gift back to the Community. We have over 70,000 visitors a year and over 80 weddings or events which are held in our gardens. All are delighted with what we have to offer. Thank you to everyone for making the Key West Garden Club a special place and a wonderful organization for everyone to enjoy! Rosi President Garden Club Board First row, left to right: VP/Propagation, Kitty Somerville; Past President, Robin Robinson; President/Garden Chair, Rosi Ware; Treasurer, Sharon Lieberman; Finance Consultant, Sharon Thomas. Second row, left to right: Programs, Jane Tiedeman; Recording Secretary, Lynne Bently-Kemp; Membership, Christa Varacalli; Orchid Chair, Sharon Jones; Fertilizer bags, Donna Farrow; Plant Sale, Mary Brady. Third row, left to right: VP/Fort Chair, Hazel Hans; Communications, Sue Sullivan; Garden Tour, Bert Butler; Back-up to Fort Chair, Lou Anne Steely.

2 STRAGETIC PLANNING OVERVIEW: Every year the Board has a strategic planning meeting to discuss and plan for the future of the Club; every two years we have a newly appointed board of directors and hold a major strategic planning session. This year was a major, long term planning session, with goals to set the direction of the Club for the next several years, as well as next season. Overall, we want the Club and Gardens at West Martello to be fully self-sustaining, and to have enough reserves to weather any storm years. We need to keep up with the times, remain relevant, maintaining and, where possible, improving the experience for both our members and our visitors. Given the Club s overall mission, we want to build on educational elements with our programming and throughout the Fort and Garden experience. We would like to increase our outreach to other local non-profit organizations We want to grow diversity within our membership. Specific action items include: - Increase Plant collections throughout the gardens to provide more education on specific plants or types of gardening, such as Gardening for the Shade. - Continue to build on plant signage and provide a weekly list of items of interest in the gardens for our visitors. - Investigate extending the Flexi-paving to provide increased access to all parts of the gardens. - Create a Facebook Page already done check it out and Like us!! - Increase shade areas in Propagation both for plants and for the workers! - Gain more professional advice for Propagation and Gardens to keep evolving. - Fixing a number of areas of the Fort buildings which are now crumbling via the County/TDC grants. - Dates for Fall Plant Sale will consistently be the weekend Prior to Thanksgiving; and the Garden Tours will always be the last full weekend in February. - Working with the Receptionists to look at redesigning the reception area to address the overcrowding/bottle neck situation. Gardening A Still Life Design

3 We sent out a survey to members regarding different aspects of the Club. Summary of all Membership Survey Many thanks to all of you who took time out to take our membership survey. I thought you would be interested in seeing the findings: The Board found your feedback very useful as input into our Strategic Planning session; we hope that you will see our response to your suggestions over the next 12 months. Question 1: Overall, how satisfied are you with your club membership with Key West Garden Club? Club membership includes education, socials, membership meetings, and the experience of walking through the gardens. Responses : 81% very satisfied, 12% somewhat satisfied, 3% Neither, 4% somewhat dissatisfied, 0% very dissatisfied. Summary of suggestions for how to improve the Club: More education and training in all aspects of Gardening.plant ID; garden design; pruning, etc. etc. Education on the Fort history. Clarity of membership benefits. More communication & outreach to members. Volunteer/member induction buddy system. Increase social aspect of Club. Attract younger members. More collaboration with other non-profits. Organize trips for members Fairchild Gardens; private gardens in The Keys; Naples Etc. - Short summary action plan from the Monday AM Volunteers Survey The overall results are very encouraging. The vast majority of volunteers are satisfied with the experience and the training. Comments were helpful. Each area, of Garden, Fort and Propagation have initiated appropriate ideas into their strategic plans. Examples are reinstating a garden orientation, and bringing in an expert to teach propagation. Issues that we have already moved on: -Name tags will be available at the front desk. If the ones we have are insufficient to stick to our clothes, then new ones will be bought. -Many ideas fed into the 10:30 education talks and will be implemented (pruning lessons/propagation lessons/ Plant ID/mini tours in the garden/tool sharpening). -Initiate 2 pot luck lunches in January and March and put them in the calendar of the yearbook. -Early announcement of dates to be ed to all members as soon as the calendar is finalized. For the 10:30 educational sessions on the last two Mondays, Kim Gabel, the Monroe County IFAS Extesnsion Agent, talked to volunteers about pesty and beneficial insects. Kim will be retiring this fall. She has been involved in many projects around the Keys and taught many Master Gardeners. We will miss her.

4 Work around the Garden Clockwise: Lynne Bentely-Kemp air layering a stopper. Hanna Schenck air layering the portlandia. Dexton giving the clerodendrum a haircut. Fertilizer Day! Rosi giving pruning lessons. The Chinese Hat plant getting trimmed by Celeste Steil.

5 New grasses at the top of the hill Volunteers at the top of the hill helping with the new plantings. Can you say Paspalum vaginatum? That is the name of our new grass planted at the top of the hill. A common name is biscuit grass. It is native to the Americas. The grass has taken the place of the brick lizard which was crumbling and becoming a hazard. Scott Montgomery from Native Landscaping and his assistant, seen here to the right with the new plantings, have worked hard with Rosi to establish a plot of this grass. It is a perennial grass with rhizomes and/or stolons similar to bermudagrass but forms a higher quality turf. It has been bred into cultivars that will grow well next to the ocean as it is very salt tolerant and tolerates foot traffic. One of the main issues that the grass will help with is erosion which has been a big problem in this part of the Garden. If this planting does well we will increase the coverage in the area. A Our Vanilla Orchid bloomed!! the bloom only lasts a day Vanilla planifolia, commonly called vanilla, is a terrestrial or epiphytic orchid vine that is native to Mexico. In its native habitat, it may grow to as much as 50-75' tall over time, natural vanilla flavor comes from the cured seed pods of this orchid. It was known to the Aztecs for its flavoring qualities (vanilla seed pods), but was unknown to the rest of the world until 1520 when Cortez brought plants from Mexico to Spain. A tiny bee (the Melipone) which lives in Mexico is the sole pollinator of this plant. Unfortunately, this bee does not survive outside of Mexico hence plant flowers growing outside of Mexico must be pollinated by hand. Vanilla is the only orchid that produces an edible fruit. Vanilla is very expensive to purchase (reportedly it is the most expensive spice after saffron). Sadly

6 Garden Tours The annual tours were the most successful in many years. Donna Farrow did a wonderful job of organizing and coordinating. Garden Club member, Helen Walker, is seen here surrounded by Mexican flame vine. Helen was very generous to offer her gardens to be on the Tour. Hazel Hans and Marisol Mittnacht were two of the volunteers who helped with plant identification. The Garden Tours are a huge undertaking and involve a large number of volunteers. It is always a positive experience for our members and the public. Thank you to everyone who participated. Seashells and Bunnies

7 Arbor Day The City of Key West, the Trophia Butterfly Foundation, and the Monroe County Extension Service planted trees at Bayview Park for Arbor Day. Garden Club members, Clay Beattie, Bridget Dawson, Robin Robinson, Bunny Porter and Sue Sullivan helped out. The species selected were particularly salt tolerant as that area of the park frequently hosts low-lying water. Before the planting was even finished mockingbirds and monarchs arrived to check out the trees and blossoms. The Key West Garden Club and Keys to Be the Change, Farm to School Program got together to plant a poinciana tree in honor of Earth Day at Poinciana School with the 2nd grade students. They also decorated pots and planted begonias with the Montessori school. Thanks Debbie Jo Clem!

8 KWOS Orchid Fair The Orchid Society held its Fair in January and it was well attended with lots of gorgeous plants. Below is Sharon Jones, one of the Garden Club s orchid caretakers in front of the well orchidstrated Lignum vitae in the courtyard. Pot Luck Lunch Everyone pitched in for a potluck for the Monday morning volunteers. The Monday morning members work really hard and this is a small note of appreciation. I heard the food was superb. Looks like Kitty Somerville really enjoyed it!

9 Key West Reverie Both the Garden Club and the Studios of Key West coordinated with Wendy Taucher s Dance Opera Theater, a New York City production company, and her creation of the Key West Reverie, Visitors wandered through the many hidden passageways and secrets of the Civil War Fort and discovered surprising performances. There was dance, innovative music in the beautiful setting at the top of the hill and opera. The performances, settings and performers were magical. Florida Gardening Magazine Many of us were surprised to learn during a Monday morning 10:30 educational session that not everyone knows about Florida Gardening Magazine. So this is a heads up. This publication is one of very few that deals with gardening in Florida and South Florida. I am including the website so you can check it out.

10 Budding Artist Six year old visitor, Lawson Martin, from Big Pine Key, drew pictures of the trees in the garden. Thanks to Elaine Belanger, Receptionist, for sharing. t- 0,, ffgnlr1 t shogh mos5 g J, Gur1 Lirn S bo 01,ffiP1*'T fol /(-W,. 4 5 lm/ I + 1,.*':i',9i+ 'i:'-.rt rv r rr;rr$3= S I,',kl t'*=w,r=qr-,,,;ir#:tz '::QKspt;rya*_* Laucbon fnhft n,bpl

11 Visitors and the Garden We have had over 70,000 visitors to the Club in the last year. The donations from visitors, wedding events, the Plant Sale and Garden Tours all help to maintain the gardens and defray expenses like the flexi-pave that has made the Garden more accessible for all. We also now have beautiful, sturdy new chairs for our meetings. Propagation has new tables for their plants and the Tiki thatch roof over the planting table has been rethatched. We have bought new plantings and have had our trees trimmed and done heavy maintenance on them in preparation for hurricane season. We are fortunate to have had many volunteers in the winter season to maintain the gardens so that visitors have a tropical paradise to wander through. The butterfly garden is just one of the lovely and peaceful spots to visit. President Rosi Ware, writing on a white board to inform visitors of the exciting items of interest to look for in the garden. Every week it is something different and this will help guide visitors to the butterfly garden or what is blooming up on the hill. Our receptionists can point visitors to the board which is located in the courtyard. The receptionists are a huge reason we have done so well. Please always say thanks to Ron, Kathy or Elaine if you are at the Club. Summer is Around the Corner Our Monday morning volunteers have begun to dwindle. Please, if you have a little time to spare, come and help with pruning, weeding and watering. Even if you can only spare an hour, many hands make the work go faster in the hot summer months. Wishing everyone a happy summer and safe travels. Sue Sullivan, Editor Many thanks for photos from Hazel Hans, Lynne Bentley-Kemp, Kitty Somerville, Robin Robinson, Rosi Ware, Debbie Jo Clem, Eloise Pratt and Sue Sullivan. Thank you to Christa Varacalli for proofreading.