SARNIA HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER DECEMBER 2018 The purpose of a Horticultural Society is to increase interest in horticulture by encouraging private and public gardening, and by holding meetings, exhibits, plant sales and field trips. PRESIDENT S MESSAGE As another year comes to an end, I would like to thank everyone for all their work in 2018. We can be proud of our park on College Avenue. A lot of work goes into the upkeep and maintenance of the park and the words of encouragement from visitors are appreciated. It is a place to stop and appreciate nature s beauty. We had another successful plant sale and enjoyed speakers talking about Sarnia and area gardens, Cuddy Gardens, the Sarnia Parks and Recreation program, container gardening, a video with on Emerald Ash as seen through the eyes of a local artist, useful information on the horticultural program at Fanshawe College, herbs and their uses, an entertaining hosta slideshow and an aerial presentation of the Papineau garden. Thank you to the 3 members (Doug Chaytor, Connie Da Silva, Valerie De Jong) who opened their gardens for touring in July. The gardens were fabulous. Even in winter we can make our gardens a place of beauty as shown during the presentation of container gardening. Next year is the 99th anniversary of the Sarnia Horticultural Society. We are quickly approaching 100 years. We will make it a special year. Everyone have a safe and healthy holiday season. Marilyn Rawson EVENTS FOR 2019 SAVE THE DATES Sarnia Horticultural Society meetings take place on the 3rd Wednesday of the month at DeGroot s Nursery in the green room. Wednesday, January 16th - 7 pm, meeting at DeGroot s. The speaker is David Hughes on hummingbirds. Wednesday, February 20 th - 7pm, meeting at DeGroot s. The speaker is Ryan Slyzak on organic gardening. February 28 th - March 3rd, the 19th Annual Stratford Garden Festival presented by the Lung Association.
Saturday, March 2nd, Seedy Saturday by London Middlesex Gardeners. Garden events, seeds, seminars and exhibitions. Carling Heights Optimist Centre, 656 Elizabeth Street, London. March 8th - 17th, Canada Blooms at the Encore Centre, Toronto. This year s theme is A Family Affair. Wednesday, March 20th, 7pm meeting at DeGroot s. The topic is Garden Tools presented by DeGroot s. April 5 th - 7th, Sarnia Home and Garden Show at the Clearwater Arena. April, date TBA, will be the annual spring cleanup at College Park. Wednesday, April 17th, 7pm meeting at DeGroot s. The topic is Invasive Species with speaker Mike Kent. Saturday, April 27th, the District 11 annual meeting will be held in Chatham. Saturday, May 11th, Sarnia Horticultural Society annual plant sale. Wednesday, May 15th, in lieu of regular meeting, a barbecue and pot luck supper at College Ave Park. June - garden week Ontario. Saturday, June 1st and Sunday, June 2nd Cuddy Gardens will have their open garden and plant sale in Strathroy. June, July and August garden tours, more information to follow. Friday, July 19 th - 21st the 113th annual OHA convention takes place in Windsor Ontario with District 11 hosting the event. The theme is Come to the Deep South Where Everything Grows. Sunday, August 25 th Tuesday, August 27th is the Mackinac Island Garden Show. Day tickets are available through their website. Wednesday, September 18th meeting, speaker TBA September, date TBA - seed day at Germaine Park
Wednesday, October 16th meeting, speaker TBA October, date TBA, the District 11 Fall Advisory meeting. October, date TBA, fall cleanup at College Park. Wednesday, November 20th, 7 pm annual meeting and social. Speaker TBA VOLUNTEER HOURS TO BE SUBMITTED BY YEAR S END Remember to submit your volunteer hours to our secretary Marlene Jackson. Her email is marlenej007@gmail.com Please send them before the end of the year as the hours help us to receive a grant each year. The time spent attending board meeting, administrative work, volunteering at events (including the preparation for the plant sale, Hobbyfest etc.) adds up very quickly. Let's not forget all the hard work at the College Avenue Garden. Last year we logged in 2000 hours, thanks to all our dedicated members. SARNIA HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY BOARD OF DIRECTORS The Board of Directors meets 4 times a year, currently at the Village on the St. Clair. We are thankful for the use of their room. In January we will be planning the budget for 2019, and also discussing supporting activities and donations. We are working on revising our web page and creating a logo for our society. Plans are in progress for celebrating our 100th anniversary in 2020. If you have any ideas or suggestions and would like to be on this committee, please speak to Marilyn Rawson. Three of our members are retiring from the board- Frank Van Delft, Alice Walent-Bellar and Lynn Magda. We thank them for their hard work. The two new members are Barb Szkwarek and David Finch. COMMUNITIES IN BLOOM Communities in Bloom is having another lottery to raise funds for parks and other projects. The draw takes place January 11, 2019. Prizes are a 3 day Las Vegas vacation in February with airfare, accommodation and spending money included, and a second prize of tickets to a Maple Leafs game in Toronto.
DISTRICT 11 FALL ADVISORY MEETING Sarnia Horticultural Society hosted the fall meeting on Saturday, October 27th at the Clearwater Arena. It was in the lower hall and a good facility. Fifty seven people registered for the event with every area except Thamesville in district 11 represented. Thanks to everyone who provided muffins and loaves for the welcome. The food was great as Coffee Culture catered the lunch. Nelly's niece, Pauline Slegers from Slegers Greens in Strathroy spoke about herbs and potted living salad plants before lunch, and provided a fresh salad for lunch. Nelly Hyde did the decorating and made the centrepieces for the tables with dried hydrangea and leaves, which were used as door prizes. With all her hard work, it was good to see Nelly win the 50/50 draw. President Marg Lamen chaired the meeting with updates of business in the society, the judging school and scholarships. A video was shown about the areas of district 11. We had an update on the Highway of Heroes, The OHA is selling hosta plants. Marg Symthe, president of OHA, gave a report and update on all plans for the convention in Windsor in July 2019 which district 11 is organizing. Sarnia is responsible for the goody bags. Other areas are looking after the registration, the photography show, the flower show, the advertising, the speakers, events and tours. We were given an update of the tours available. Volunteers for the convention are needed and there is a discount on registration for volunteers. Information about the convention will be on the website, www.gardenontario.org ONTARIO HORTICULTURAL ASSOCIATION Vision: To inspire, grow, share gardening. Mission: The OHA is a volunteer charitable organization that provides leadership, education and promotes interest in gardening and related environmental issues with horticultural societies and like-minded organizations. Goals:1) Provides recognition, awards and grants throughout Ontario. 2) Develops and supports programs in the areas of youth, gardening, environment and conservation. 3) Provides support and resources to horticultural societies. 4) To encourage the development of new horticultural societies.
Garden Ontario has a new website www.gardenontario.org. The OHA is excited to share the Garden Ontario Information Videos, created by Joanne Rachfalowski, OHA 2nd Vice President. Joanne has been creating a variety of videos on topics such as annuals and perennials, gardening 101, seed library 101, gardening zones, outdoor fall containers and several others. These videos have been added to the GardenOntario YouTube page as well as the GardenOntario Facebook page. For those who do not have Facebook accounts, we wanted to share the GardenOntario YouTube link so you can bookmark it and visit it as often as you like. As new videos are completed, Joanne will continue to upload them here. https://m.youtube.com/channel/ UCkr9CMkFzHgylEpQ-nuUU8Q/videos If you have any suggestions for future videos, please reach out to Joanne Rachfalowski at vp@gardenontario.org The fall issue of the OHA magazine Trillium is now available on the gardenontario.org website. FINAL THOUGHTS A Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all the members and their families and friends! A special thank you to Marilyn Rawson and Mary Rastall for their time editing the newsletter for me. It's been a learning curve for me this year, but one I have thoroughly enjoyed. Jackie Spearman GARDEN QUOTES The garden is a love song, a duet between a human being and Mother Nature. No Winter lasts forever, no Spring skips it's turn. Gardening is a medicine that does not need a prescription and has no limit on dosage. Friends are the flowers in the garden of life.