.: New Westminster Horticultural Society :.

I'll archive these properly soon. For now, at least they are available. -web ed.

Well it seems like we leaped from early spring to mid-summer weather and everyone is looking to their gardens. This leads me into speaking of our upcoming NWHS roadside plant sale on Sunday, May 26. It will be held on the boulevard outside 720 5th St., from 10:00am and 3:00pm.

Club members can list what plants they plan to donate for the sale at our May meeting. We are looking for plants in all areas of gardening, but please no invasive plants and please limit the numbers of plants which normally are already in almost everyone's garden. We are asking club members to pot up their plants and provide a label with the basic plant information.

Let's all keep our fingers crossed that May 26 will be a warm, sunny day.

Our next regular meeting is on May 14 at 7:30pm. Our guest speaker is Dr. Rob McGregor, Head of Urban Ecology at Douglas College. He will be speaking on Pest Free, Chemical Free Gardening.

The "From Our Gardens Plant Sale Table" did very well last month. Thanks to everyone who participated. This in-house sale is now a regular feature at our regular meetings except for the October Silent Auction meeting and the Christmas dinner event in December.

We are accepting indoor and outdoor plant donations as well as gently used garden tools or accessories for the garden. Please no invasive plants and those plants that everyone already has in their gardens.

Sunday, May 26, 10am to 5pm, is also the date for the New Westminster Preservation Society's 34th Annual Heritage and Home Tour and Tea. The tour includes Honour House, the recently renovated Kirk house (aka Dance Academy) and a 1950s Massey Heights gem. The tickets are $35 and went on sale on May 4. For more information go to www.newwestheritage.org.

The Queen's Park Healthcare Foundation is embarking on a wheelchair accessible , roof top garden for the second floor of the Queen's Park Care Centre. They are looking for volunteers to help with this worthwhile project. If you are interested in helping with setting up this garden please email Tandrea Jang, Executive Director of the Queen's Park Healthcare Foundation, at tandrea,jang@fraserhealth.ca.

One last reminder May is the last meeting you will be able to renew your membership ($15.00) before your membership lapses. Also, remember to bring your mug. After the styrofoam cups run out we will not be buying anymore.

Enjoy your garden and this exceptionally beautiful May weather.

- Julia

We strongly regret that we will not be holding our regular plant sale at the armoury this year. Thank you for your past support.

For those attending the March meeting, Tom Baumann gave a very entertaining and informative presentation on blueberries. Ellen will try to bring him back to talk about raspberries!

He covered his recommended cultivars: Duke (standard commercial cultivar - firm, good looking berries) and Reka (tolerates wet feet) for early season; Blue Crop, Liberty (higher yield but not as tasty as Blue Crop) and Draper (very large fruit) for mid-season; and Elliott and Aurora for late season. He mentioned Aurora can fruit until November!

Because blueberries don't have root hairs (those white fuzzy things according to Dawn!), they don't readily absorb water and nutrients. Therefore they prefer acidic soil and to be kept moist. Tom also recommended a mulching, a balanced fertilizer, and not disturbing the roots when planting.

We got a bit of a shock when Tom demonstrated how to prune a new plant (someone called it "hacking"!) - he pruned everything but just 10 inches of 2 or 3 of the strongest stems, from which tall shoots would grow. He then recommended picking all the blooms off in the first year. Studies have shown that this technique creates higher yields. Maintenance of blueberries bushes involve removing low growing stems as well as the oldest stems, and snappling off branch tips by hand.

As promised, Tom sent along the slide show that we missed out on: A Fruitful Garden.pdf

Sorry, I'm a bit behind in my work. This emailer should have been sent out a few days ago. I was preoccupied with organizing the Fundraising Committee meeting which was held on March 6. Twelve of our members deliberated and came up with a number of excellent ideas to help our club generate some operational funds. I want to take this opportunity to thank those that participated. I will bring these ideas to our March meeting.

One fundraising activity that is being set up will be a table at our regular meetings which will sell plants from our gardens. I would like to encourage those members who are now starting seeds to sow a few more and donate those seedlings to our From Our Gardens Sale Table. I would, also, like to encourage members who are digging up some choice plants in their gardens to set aside a pot or two for this sale table. Not only will the club generate some necessary funds, but it will provide an opportunity for club members to buy a new plant. There will be more information provided at our next meeting.

Our guest speaker this coming Tue. is Tom Baumann speaking on Berries. Unfortunately I don't believe that the speaker is bringing plants to sell. Next month Conway Lum will be back to speak to us on Container Vegetable Gardening.

On Thursday, March 14, at 6:00pm, Plant a Row, Grow a Row will be back again this year at St. Thomas More Collegiate, 7450 12th Avenue, Burnaby. This event is our way of helping food banks in our communities supply fresh surplus garden produce to those who can't afford to buy sufficient nutritious food for themselves and their families. There will be a number of inspirational gardening speakers as well as some fabulous give-aways to participants. The admission is a donation of a non-perishable food item(s).

The Seed Exchange will have seed packets ready. If you wish, have a look at the seed list. If you wish to have seeds set aside for you, email Karen at seeds@newwesthortsociety.org.

The Executive Committee is working on ideas for some club outings. One idea is a plant buying visit to HarkAway Nursery in Queensborough, perhaps on the May 4 weekend. More definite information will be provided as we finalize the details. We are also tentatively planning a return visit to Dart's Hill Garden. Again, more information will be available when our plans are finalized.

Finally, Molly Stone's funeral was held yesterday. It was a beautiful, spring-like day. St. Peter's Church was filled with Molly's family, neighbours and friends, including a good number of Molly's friends and fellow gardeners from our club. We all will miss Molly's smile and gentle personality.

- Julia Goulden

Happy New Year to all. Our next meeting will be held at the Queens Park Centennial Lodge at 7:30pm on February 12. Bert Garbuio will be speaking on the growing and care of figs and grapes. Bert will be bringing both fig and grape plants for those members who may be interested in buying plants.

Your Executive Committee has been actively working in January. We have been working on preparing a 2013 draft club budget. This budget will be presented to the membership at the February regular meeting for final approval. As well Ellen Berg has finalized the speakers list for 2013.

Our membership fee is due in February. The fee is now $15.00. Ellen Berg, our treasurer, has asked that the exact payment be made either by cash or cheque. Again this year the club is offering an incentive for renewing your membership early. We are offering 2 free memberships if you renew in February or at the March meeting. Club members who renew at the February meeting will have two chances in the draw and those who renew at the March meeting will have one chance at the draw. At the time of payment if there are any changes to your home or email address, please make that information available to us. Also, the Executive Committee passed a motion at its January meeting to raise the guest fee from $2.00 to $5.00. If the guest chooses to join our garden club within the next month the $5.00 guest fee will be applied to the regular club membership fee. For those members who have inadvertently taken their name tags home with them, could you please try to remember to bring them back.

As you all know we are no longer going to have a giant plant sale. This sale in the past raised more than enough money to pay for all our club expenses for the year. This year and last year the Executive Committee has been going through our annual budget with a fine toothed comb looking for possible areas of savings. We are looking at a possible $3600 deficit for the current year. Although we have savings to help cover these current budgetary expenses, we can't continue to support such hefty deficits in future years. We need to find mechanisms to fundraise at least to the extent of supporting a balanced budget. The Executive Committee is seeking some members to sit on an ad hoc fundraising committee. The committee's mandate will be to generate possible fundraising ideas by which the club can work towards having a balanced budget and still enjoy excellent speakers, be able to pay the rent on our meeting facilities, enjoy various workshops and outings and have a holiday celebration in December. A sign-up sheet will be sent around at the February meeting; we need 8 to 12 members to step up and take on this task. After we have a list of names the President will convene the meeting of those who are willing to work on this task.

The BC Council of Garden Clubs is having its annual general meeting on Saturday, March 23 at Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Church, 555 Slocan St., Vancouver. There will be a short (hopefully) business meeting, followed by a morning speaker, Gary Lewis from Phoenix Perennials, speaking on "Hot New Plants". A buffet lunch will be served followed by a second yet to be announced speaker in the afternoon. There are vendors at the meeting selling plants and other garden wares, as well as a fabulous draw featuring many beautiful garden related offerings. The NWHS offers to subsidize $5.00 of the $25.00 registration fee for those members who are interested in attending. The buffet lunch is included in the fee. Ellen will be collecting registration money at the February and March meetings.

One last item: Ellen Berg and I had the pleasure to present a cheque for $600.00 (money collected from the Christmas decorations draw at our holiday event in December) to the New Westminster Victims Assistance Society. The money was gratefully accepted and a photo was taken at the time of presentation and was placed on the Victims Assistance website.

Hope to see a good turnout at our meeting in February.

- Julia Goulden

Parlour Show - see show schedule for details

Speaker: Angela Drake from BC Greenhouse Builders will be speaking on different types of greenhouses and how to extend your growing time.

July Garden Tour and Picnic - July 14, 2012

Shopping outing at It's About Thyme Nursery on 7509 Meadow Avenue in South Burnaby. This nursery features a wide range of plants. The shopping trip is on Thursday, June 21 from 1pm to 3pm. The owner, Ingrid, has also agreed that NWHS members with a valid membership card can also come in on Saturday, June 23 to shop. Upon showing your membership card you will receive a 20% discount on your entire purchase.

Port Moody Arts Centre Society Art in the Garden tour - Sunday, July 15. Featuring 10 gardens in Port Moody, Anmore and Belcarra. Fundraiser for the Port Moody Arts Centre.

New Westminster Pier Park official opening - June 16 11am to 3pm. There will be live music, juggling, stilt walking, bubble blowing, kite making and much more.

February 14 Moulds, Plant Blight and Genetic Engineering with Zamir Punja, Professor, Department of Biological Sciences, SFU

March 13 Heritage Seed with Marilyn Holt

April 10 Apples with Laurelle Oldford-Down. Presentation will include grafting. Some plants will be available for sale.

May 8 Chrysanthemums with Elmer Orgryzlo

June 12 Solar Greenhouses with Angela Drake

July 10 Poppies from the Roof of the World with Bill Terry

August 14 Art of Drying Flowers with Margaret Nakahara

September 11 Zero Wast Challenge with Peter Cech

October Silent Auction with proceeds to charity. No speaker.

November 13 Green Over Grey with Mike Weinmaster

December Annual holiday party. No speaker.

February 2011

March 2011

April 2011

May 2011

Jun 2011

July 2011 - No newsletter