The Magnolia Messenger Fall 2017 ========================================= Plant Magnolia - Honor our Heritage and Create Our Legacy Greetings from Our Director Dear Magnificent Magnolias, Wow! The Magnolias have started this term with a blast. So many have come on board, putting their oars in the water. We had a wonderful Spring Gardening Symposium in Plains on May 5th. Oglethorpe Garden Club hosted a beautiful and magnificent District Board Meeting. The attendees were invited to visit their magnificent new butterfly garden near their library. Be sure to register your butterfly garden with the Rosalyn Carter Butterfly Trail and with Monarchs Across Georgia. We hosted a magnificent Leadership Workshop with our former Director, Willie Maxwell, at the helm. Many of our Magnificent Magnolias attended the joint Awards Workshop in Tifton. I know this will produce many award applications to the State. A Bench was dedicated in honor of Magnolia District in Athens for the magnificent job on using Native Plants in our district. Many thanks to those Magnificent Magnolias for attending. So many of you have applied for certification that we keep winning CWP Awards. There is a new award for us to win.
We have had a plethora of yeses to serve our district. The Columbus Council is busy with magnificent plans for our magnificent district meeting on October 12th. We are in the processes of organizing the planting of 1100 daffodil bulbs at our four State Parks. The steering is by Rebecca McNeill with Kay Hagler, Bess Hartley, and Martha Price as her first mates. Our Expressions sales have begun. Be sure to order for your club through Joyce Barrett. One of our own Magnificent Magnolias is featured in this gardeners calendar. Just a reminder for our magnificent District Meeting: send or bring your club s $25 maintenance fee to Clare Jenkins, Magnolia Treasurer, and bring 1 door prize to the District Meeting. We will not have a Country Store. We will be selling beautiful Cyprus Birdhouses and entry hole guards as our fund raiser. We will also have a silent auction and a raffle. I'm looking forward to seeing all of you at our Annual District Meeting in Columbus on October 12. Terry Johnson from TERN will present our program on Backyard Wildlife and Natives. You will find the registration form on the GCG website under Forms. Jean O Shields, Magnolia District Director Preserving Watchable Wildlife with Natives
An Invitation from Our Director The Magnolia District of The Garden Club of Georgia, Inc. Cordially Invites You to Attend Our Annual District Meeting Honored Guest: Jane Hersey, President The Garden Club of Georgia, Inc. Featured Speaker: Terry Johnson Executive Director The Environmental Resources Network Thursday, October 12, 2017 Coffee and Registration 9:00 a.m. Business Meeting 10:00 a.m. Green Island Country Club 6501 Standing Boy Road Columbus, Georgia ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Beautiful View Garden Club The Beautiful View Garden Club of Buena Vista met on March 13, 2017 at the Community Center. Mulkey McMichael gave an excellent program on floral arrangements for the home, demonstrating the use of flowers and greenery from the yard. Club members appreciated his taking the time to teach floral designs. Each member present made an arrangement. Some are also working to create designs for the 2017 Perry Fair. Carol Wells, Clare Akin and Cindy Haulk provided refreshments.
Magnolia District Special Projects Magnolia District Chairmen, Evelyna Keadle Rogers & Barbara Keadle Johnson As the Special Projects chairmen for Magnolia District, we are excited to share with you the special projects our District Director, Jean O Shields, has selected for this year. In support of the National Garden Club, The Deep South Garden Club, and The Garden Club of Georgia, Inc., the special projects are each built around the central theme of planting. Magnolia District Director Jean O Shields is both knowledgeable and passionate about supporting wildlife, and using native plants. That one of her special projects for Magnolia District is PLANT NATIVES FOR WILDLIFE is a perfect match of her special interest and the National, Deep South, and Georgia themes of planting. The National Garden Club theme is PLANT AMERICA. The theme for Deep South Garden Club is PLANT AMERICA SOUTHERN STYLE. PLANT AMERICA-GEORGIA S HERITAGE, GEORGIA S LEGACY is the theme for The Garden Club of Georgia President Jane Hersey. The PLANT NATIVES for WILDLIFE project encourages each garden club in The Magnolia District to plan programs and projects using native trees, shrubs, vines, and to plant natives to provide habitats, protection, and food for wildlife. And as an additional bonus, adding more native plants into the landscape. One of the components of the national theme is using the book The Saved Seed as a way of sharing the knowledge of gardening with children. Evelyna shared the book at the August Magnolia District Meeting in Oglethorpe, and suggested garden clubs use the book for programs, projects, and to present copies to schools and public libraries. The Saved Seed links past and present - honoring our heritage and leaving a legacy. Books are available for purchase from the NGC website.
The third part of the Magnolia District Special Projects is The Magnolia Challenge. Each garden club in the Magnolia District is invited to join in the challenge by sending in your pledge card agreeing to plant a Magnolia tree in a public place in your community. You are also asked to send us any newspaper articles about your planting. Clubs participating will be recognized at the District meetings, and clubs will receive a certificate of recognition. Your pledge card is included below. Please enroll your garden club in The Magnolia Challenge now. We thank you for your participation in this special project. The pledge card should be emailed to rogers2767@bellsouth.net. (Please put Magnolia Challenge in the subject); or, pledge cards may be mailed to Barbara K. Johnson, 7695 Georgia Highway 37, Camilla, Georgia 31730. THE MAGNOLIA PLEDGE The garden club pledge to plant one or more Magnolia trees in a public place in our community as a part of The Magnolia District Special Project-The Magnolia Challenge. (city) President. Contact information for President (phone) Email Mailing We are excited to serve as your Magnolia District Special Projects Chairmen. Working together we can make these special projects successful, and honor our Magnolia District Director, Jean O Shields. Please contact us if you have any questions, concerns, or suggestions for any of these special projects. Happy Planting! EVELYNA & BARBARA
Save Your Pull Tabs for the Ronald McDonald House Hello Everyone, We are Debbie Vann and Carolyn Herndon, the new Pull-a-Tab Co-chairs for GCG. As you probably know, for years GCG has encouraged clubs to participate in this worthwhile project; and again this year your club s help is needed. Ronald McDonald Houses are Homes away from home for many families that have seriously ill or injured children receiving treatments in a nearby hospital. These homes provide beds, food, a place to do laundry, rest and be with other families in a similar situation, but most important to be near their child. All tabs are taken to the Ronald McDonald Houses or recycle centers in each district. Money collected is used toward items needed to make guests comfortable. Please continue to support this Special Project and make your District NUMBER ONE at the 2018 State Convention. Be sure to put your Club s Name, Town & District on your containers. Listed below are the District Pull-a-Tab Chairman s name, email and phone number. If you need any further information or help, please contact your district Chairman or GCG Co-Chairmen: Debbie Vann, at 770-378-1982 or debgailvann@gmail.com; or Carolyn Herndon, at 404-409-7675 or carolynhrgc@gmail.com. Thank you! Magnolia Chair is Anne Brock, briarwod@windstream.net, 229-937-5774.
YOUTH HIGH SCHOOL ESSAY CONTEST 2017-2018 THEME: COMMUNITY GARDENS A SOLUTION TO BLIGHT, CRIME & HUNGER The Garden Club of Georgia is very proud of our State Winners for Essays. Over the past years our State Winners have gone on to earn top honors in the Deep South Region and often times have placed first at the National level. Let's start now to prepare for this next year's contest. It takes adult help for these students to effectively compete not to write the essay of course, but to help entrants understand the NGC theme and complete their applications. Most entries received were from students who had been mentored by a garden club member who understood the rules and regulations. Find a relative, neighbor or friend and let your club, district and state shine in the High School youth awards! Eligibility Contests are open to high school students attending 9th through 12th grades. A single member garden club, group of member clubs, councils or districts, or a state garden club must sponsor the contest. All entries become the property of National Garden Clubs, Inc. Length of essay should be between 600-700 words. The entry will be penalized if the essay does not conform to the required length. All words are to be counted. Students should write the essay so it is suitable to be published in the NGC publication, The National Gardener.
SCALE OF POINTS (TOTAL 100) 1. Content (65) a. Knowledge of subject (25) b. Practicality of proposal (10) c. Originality (15) d. Subject matter well organized/clarity of presentation (15) 2. Composition (25) a. Vocabulary (15) b. Conformance to length (10) 3. Manuscript (10) a. Requirements (5) Wallet sized photograph, name, address, phone number, school attending, grade, list of activities, name of sponsoring club b. Neatness and legibility (5) a plastic folder to keep manuscript neat Awards- A State Certificate and cash award of $300 may be awarded annually to the winner. Second place and third place entries receive $150 and $75 respectively. Winning essay will be printed in the fall issue of Garden Gateways. The winner will be sent to Deep South and that winner to National. The National winner receives a $1,000 scholarship. ENTRIES All essay entries are due December 1, 2017. Contest entries plus state award entry form must be mailed to the Georgia High School Speech and Essay Chairman, KAREN HENDRIX. Call or email her for information. Karen Hendrix 4008 London Lane Ann Howell Tifton, GA 31793 Magnolia District Chrm. 229-848-5463 229-939-1766 hhendrix1@mchsi.com ahowell01@windstream.net
A Learning Opportunity!!
MAGNOLIA WINS AWARDS! Dear Magnificent Magnolias, I wanted to share with you some of the recognition that Magnolia District received at the GCG State Convention in April, 2017. (These are the awards that the District as a whole won.) In the Native Plant Competition that President Martha established because of her concern for promoting native plants during her term, Magnolia came in FIRST among the seven districts!!! This means that a bench has been placed in the State Botanical Gardens with a plaque honoring Magnolia District. Thank you to all of you for pushing native plants and for sharing what you have done on the Native Plant Questionnaire. Hopefully we have helped to raise awareness of the importance of planting native plants. In the Dollars for Scholars District Director's Challenge, Magnolia District came in FIRST among the seven districts and earned a "crown" for me at the convention!!! Thanks for sending in the Dollars for Scholars and helping to provide an education for deserving Georgia students. And, once again, Magnolia District came in FIRST in the Community Wildlife Certification competition for the most overall certifications received for Backyard, Hummingbird Haven, and Roosting/Nesting Boxes for the year!!! We appreciate all Jean O'Shields has done to promote this effort. And finally, The District project, "Growing the Trail" won second place in the Deep South Region for the DSR Regional Unified Project on Butterfly Conservation. Also, Magnolia District
won a First Place Award for Butterfly Conservation in the state. Good job on planting those butterfly gardens and attending workshops and having programs on pollinators. A huge thank you goes out to Annette Wise and the Rosalynn Carter Butterfly Trail with their help with this project. It was a pleasure serving as your District Director and getting to know so many of you. Even though we are small in numbers, we can stand up to the other districts. I hope that your clubs will apply for more awards this year because you do so much that is worthy of recognition. Willie Maxwell, 2015-2017 Magnolia District Director ********************************************************************** Native Plant Competition Winner! The Magnolia District placed 1 st in the Statewide District Native Plant Competition for 2015-2017, the signature project for GCG President Martha Price. A bench was placed in honor of the first place recipient at the State Botanical Garden in Athens along with a storyboard explaining the competition. Congratulations to all Magnolia District clubs who worked hard to promote the use of native plants in their home and community gardens and to all who helped to sponsor the Native Plant Symposium in Plains in October, 2016. A dedication ceremony was held at the State Botanical Garden on August 7, 2017. Magnolia District Members and State Board Members attended the dedication. Bess Hartley sang In the Garden. Joyce Carreker gave the Inspiration and Willie Maxwell received the Award and Bench on behalf of the District in a presentation by President Price. Martha Price and Project Chairman, Barbara Bourque, hosted a reception following the dedication in the Terrace Room of GCG Headquarters. Dogwood District placed second in the competition.
***************************************************************** Fall Workshop In Athens The 2017 GCG State President s Workshop will be held in the State Headquarters at the State Botanical Garden in Athens on Monday, November 13 through Tuesday, November 14. It is entitled, Plant America Symposium and Tri-Refresher. More information and registration form is available on the GCG Website, www.gardenclub.uga.edu under GCG Forms. District Flower Show in Perry October 6, 7, and 8 are the dates for the annual District Flower Show held in conjunction with the Georgia National Fair in Perry. This year Annelle Moore, Camellia District, is the Chair with Martha Price, Magnolia District, as the co-chair. The show is entitled, With a Song in My Heart and promises to be a beautiful show with entries in design, horticulture, and educational exhibits from both districts. Consult the website for the Georgia National Fair for additional information. **************************************************** To submit articles in the Winter Edition, please email them to jbcliett@bellsouth.net by January 31, 2018. Janice Cliett, Magnolia Messenger Editor