NEWSLETTER : APR. 2017

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1 OFFICERS Texas Garden Club of the Year (Bronze) 2013, 2014, 2015 President Helen Quinn Proud member of National Garden Clubs, Texas Garden Clubs, and District V The nation plants, designs, and works to help the environment together!!! Meeting 2 nd Friday of the month, September May 9:30 11:30 at College Station WW Facility 2200 North Forest Parkway College Station, TX NEWSLETTER : APR CALENDAR MAR/APR ````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````` Apr 6: Craft Workshop at Judy s Apr 7: AMGC Board Meeting CSWWF Apr 11: AMGC Regular monthly meeting- Program by Michele Ramotowski-Food Forest Gardening NOTE: DATE! Apr 22: Earth Day, Wolf Pen Creek, CS Apr TGC Spring Convention, Odessa Apr 26: Garden Therapy Workshop, Crestview Apr 28: Field Trip LadyBird Johnson Wildflower Apr 28: AMGC Board Meeting May 5: AMGC FLOWER SHOW, CRESTVIEW May 12: AMGC Regular monthly meeting- Installation of Officers, Pot-luck, Birthday Cake AT THE GEORGE BUSH PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY NGC: TGC: VP Programs: Michelle Ramotowski VP Yearbook Sherry McKenzie VP Community Events Sherry Ellison VP Hospitality Greta Merritt Recording Secretary Pat Pierson Corresponding Secretary Joyce Wilkinson Treasurer Debbie Puetz Historian Jane Cohen Reporter Janice Swarz Parliamentarian Michele Wehrheim Member at Large Mary Aasterud Immediate Past President Helen Quinn Like us on Facebook Follow our Blog at amgardenclub.wordpress.com

2 MARCH IN REVIEW Members enjoyed a great program on Beneficial BATS by Dr. Thomas Lacher of Wildlife & Fisheries Sciences, TAMU we learned all kinds of interesting things about these useful pollinators. DISTRICT MEETING IN KEMPNER Five A&M GC members attended the District meeting on March 9. Kempner GC hosted, and provided a wonderful lunch. The speaker gave a great presentation on Peppers of all kinds, and most of the attending District members wore magnificently decorated hats for a contest. Michele W. was installed as District Director for , Helen was installed as Recording Secretary. Our club won a special award for greatest increase in membership! HERBAL FORUM FIELD TRIP Several members attended the Herbal Forum in Round Top, Tx on March 17 th, either for the Plant Sale/program by Henry Flowers on the Friday, or for the whole experience over the weekend. The prize find of the day was Moringa tree seedlings lots of healthy eating and smoothies in the future!!! EASTER WORKSHOP #1 MARCH 14

3 BIG EVENT MARCH 25 Many, many thanks to AMGC members who donated plants, provided wheelbarrows and tools, and came and worked at the Big Event at Richard Part on March 25th! 26 members of the TAMU Biomedical Engineering Society were our energetic, eager, cheerful volunteers from 10:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. We added garden soil, weeded, planted more than 80 plants, and planted seeds. With the recent rains the seeds should come up, and the new plants will grow quickly too. Sherry E. OTHER NON-AMGC DATES TO REMEMBER: April 1 Howdy Farm Plant Sale April 1 Brazos Co. Master Gardener Plant Sale April 1 Gay Houston at Martha s Bloomers Reliable Perennials for our area 11:00 am April 7-8 Navasota Noon Lions Plant Sale April 8 Chappell Hill BB Garden Club Flower Show April TGC Spring Convention, Odessa April SCR Convention, Albuquerque NM April 29 Brazos County Master Gardeners Garden Tour May NGC Convention, Richmond, VA APRIL IN THE GARDEN PLAN: A regular schedule for fertilizing and spraying. Make a calendar for gardening use to remind you when to plant, fertilize, start seeds and place orders. PRUNE: Early flowering trees and shrubs after they bloom. PLANT: Coral vine, cosmos, elephant ears, zinnias. Divide mums and place in beds prepared in March. FERTILIZE: Lawns, with extra fertilizer under trees. SPRAY: Watch for black spot and other pests. Check roses after each rain and treat if necessary. Chinch bugs and brown spot may appear in the lawn. Use treatments recommended by your County Agent and continue to keep an eye out all summer. WEATHER PROTECTION : Mulch, water deeply if needed. Protect small trees from wind. BLOOMING: Spring flowering annuals and perennials, geranium (pelargonium), iris, calla and Easter lilies, oxalis, early daylilies and gladiolus. Many flowering shrubs and vines. VEGETABLES: Continue direct sowing radishes, snap beans, dry beans, sweet corn, cucumber, okra, watermelon and cantaloupes. Sow New Zealand Spinach. Set out tomato, eggplant and pepper plants and protect against frost if necessary, feed and keep well watered. MAY MEETING REMINDER At our final meeting of the Garden Club Year on May 12, 2017 we will have a Pot Luck lunch. A Birthday Cake will be provided by the club, as well as Installation of Officers for , and surprises. PLEASE NOTE WE WILL BE HOLDING THIS MEETING AT THE GEORGE BUSH PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND NOT THE USUAL FACILITY. STAND BY FOR FURTHER INFORMATION!

4 80 th Birthday Celebration Tea Huge thanks to Sherry M., Eugenia, Jane, and everyone for the tremendous amount of work they put in to ensure the success of The Tea. From the old scrapbooks retrieved from the Cushing Library at TAMU, the trifold with pictures/information, old year books, the slide show, the Club History Scroll, down to the beautiful (were they really fake?) orchids at the entry, it was a wonderful event! Not many photos have come in yet, but here is one of past, current and future presidents in attendance, from l to r in order of years served. Hopefully we will be able to display the books at the May meeting for those of you who were unable to be with us. FLOWER SHOW UPDATES-HORTICULTURE Did everyone receive a copy of the Flower Show Schedule? There is a copy posted on our website This is our major Community Event for 2017, and we are looking forward to this fun day! May 5, By now those who have signed up for designs should have sent a preliminary picture of your intended design to Idalia. If you need display bottles, please pick up at the April meeting, also entry cards for the horticulture classes, and be thinking of what you might like to exhibit in the Horticulture section. If you have a plant or flower that you want to enter and are not sure of its name, take a picture and it or bring it to the April meeting for identification. IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT YOU COMPLETE THE ENTRY CARD WITH COMPLETE INFORMATION BEFORE YOU GET TO THE SHOW (see above comments for help with I.D.). Remember not to exceed dimensions of containers/height-width of plant materials, don t add shine to leaves, and please remove all livestock such as cute little baby snails!! NOTE FROM SHERRY E. FLOWER SHOW CHAIR Chairs of the 2017 Flower Show will be meeting at Crestview Courts on Thursday, April 6 at 3:30 p.m. Questions can be answered, plans will be made, and we will be looking at our three rooms for the Flower show. Please watch for an with more about this. Watch for s about the 2017 Flower Show. Be ready to ask questions at our April 11th meeting. We do need more volunteers to help our Chairs from 2-4 p.m. on Thursday, May 4th and on Friday, April 5th. On the Flower Show Day you can be a docent for an hour between 12 and 3 in one of our show rooms and as a greeter at the front door of Crestview Court. You can help in the morning as people bring in their plants and designs. You can help on Thursday putting tablecloths and signs on tables for Friday s Show. The Chairs of the Show are Helen Q, Sherry E, Michele W, Heather W, Eugenia W. Idalia A, Helen B, Sherry M, Angelika H, Suzanne M, Sandy W, Greta M, Terry U, and Pat R. All are happy to answer your questions! MONARCH MOMENT Updates from Jane C. Come help TAMU SAIL students identify weeds in the Monarch Waystation and Butterfly Gardens on Sunday afternoon, April 2, 3 pm, at Bee Creek Park, 1900 Anderson, CS. These TAMU students have been very faithful to help maintain the gardens, but need help with GC members saying - "Yes, pull that - it's a weed" and "No, keep that - it's a plant." They will also be available on Tuesday, April 2, morning, if a few of you could go then. I have a regular dental appointment, so can't go then. Contact Sammi Hofstra sammi.hofstra@gmail.com.

5 The Bee Creek gardens are looking very nice. Thanks to all who helped plant last October. Come out and enjoy!! Butterflies in the Brazos - thanks to the GC members who helped with the Community Butterfly meeting on March 24. We had 96 register. Great program, refreshments, and garden tour. Everybody is encouraged to attend District meetings. Since we are on the outside edge of the District (in fact Navasota is actually in another district, as is Brenham!), we car pool to make the drive shorter and more fun! There will be a Summer Workshop in June (details tba), and District V is hosting the TGC Fall Convention in Killeen in October (17,18,19). Our own Michele W. is the District V Director (following our own Suzanne M ), so come to all the meetings you can, and support her! Last, but not least, Congratulations to another of our own, Johanna Roman for her recognition by the American Hoticultural Society, winning National 2017 Great American Gardeners Teaching Award! THE LAST WORD Newer members might not be fully aware of the heirarchy of Garden Clubs to get you started, we are located in Zone II of District V (with District V being part of Texas Garden Clubs, South Central Region, and National Garden Clubs.) Here is an overview of District V Clubs: Helen