OVER THE FENCE

The Garden Club of New Haven's Newsletter

May News

Submissions for the newsletter should be sent to Ann Hoefer (violacgda@gmail.com) by the weekend after the general meeting.

May 18, 2012

President's Letter May


Dear Garden Club Members,
Although I hope I’ll  have the chance to thank you in person at our Annual Meeting, I’d like take this opportunity now  to express my appreciation to each and every garden club member for her/his enthusiasm, generosity, and participation in what has truly been a spectacular year for our club.  I hope you are as proud as I am of what we’ve accomplished and look forward to celebrating with you at Debby Moore’s beautiful garden on June 4th. 
If you didn’t have a chance to attend the fabulous premiere of The New Haven Green: Heart of a City, take heart! Order forms for the film ($15.00, including postage and tax) are available on our website: www.gardenclubofnewhaven.org.  Also on our website, in the members only section (password:  Pardee1935), is a wonderful slide show of the premiere night put together by our photography chair extraordinaire, Mikey Hirschoff.  Take a look- it’s lots of fun.  If you missed the excellent article by Randy Beach in the New Haven Register about the film and its director/producer, our own Karyl Evans, please click: www.nhregister.com/articles/2012/04/28/news/doc4f9cb5c4817e9878968486.txt?viewmode=fullstory.
I have yet to see a hummingbird in my garden, but I have my feeders, from The Fat Robin, http://www.fatrobin.com/ up at the ready  and  a chokeberry bush, to encourage birds,  from Broken Arrow, /www.brokenarrownursery.com/, all purchased at our April 30th meeting with Birdscaping speaker, Judy Richardson.  I am delighted to say that I do I have a fat, little grey dove who watches me very carefully from her nest in my rose arbor and an excitable robin in a bird house my son Nick built in middle school.   Next year, who knows whom I’ll have residing at 25 Killdeer Road?
Speaking of which, please come to a party at 25 Killdeer Road this coming Thursday (May 10th) from 6-8 p.m.  Bring a bottle of wine- or whatever you like to drink- plus an appetizer to share, along with a spouse, partner or friend.  It will be a very casual, relaxed spring evening, so join us!
A few must-not-forgets:  
Please pay your dues as soon as possible.  All dues should be in by May 20th.  Rosita Murphy, our corresponding secretary, very thoughtfully included an addressed envelope to make it as easy as possible.  
Sign-up with Jeanne Bjorkman for our Visiting Gardens trip to Page Dickey’s gardens on Thursday, June 14th.  Page (http://pagedickey.com/) is very kindly opening her garden up to us for free. We’ll be having lunch at a local restaurant and the cost for that is $30.00 per person.  Also, please let Jeanne know if you would like to have members visit your garden this summer.  
On Saturday May 19th and Monday May 21, there will be a pruning workshop at Phelps Triangle, beginning at 10:00 a.m.   Please be in touch with Cordalie Benoit if you have questions.  
Many thanks to Vicki Arkins for conducting and Lisa Lovejoy for organizing an Underwater Design Workshop.  Although I wasn’t able to attend, I saw several of the complete arrangements; they were fantastic.  Thanks also to Mikey Hirschoff for putting together an extraordinarily helpful Photography Workshop – I learned quite a bit from photography Isabel Chenoweth and if we’re lucky she’ll conduct another one next year.  
In the meantime, I hope you’re able to spend lots of time in your garden and I look forward to seeing you very soon.
Warmest regards,
Susan
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Some Photos from the Birdscaping event, thanks to Mikey Hirschoff













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GCA Centennial Minute



#1 GCA Centennial Minute – May 1, 2012
GCA Historian~ Anne Myers
Garden Club of Irvington-on Hudson, Zone I 
Tel: 914-591-6402
On May 1, 2013 the Garden Club of America will meet in Philadelphia, one hundred years to the day of the First Annual Meeting held at Stenton, the home of James Logan, Secretary of State to William Penn, located just outside Philadelphia in Germantown, Pennsylvania.  Stenton had been restored by the Pennsylvania Society of Colonial Dames and was selected for this momentous occasion to emphasize the Colonial or pioneering past and the contributions of the Fathers of American Gardening.  In attendance were the newly elected Executive Committee, presidents of the twelve Founding clubs and four new member clubs and invited guests.  This small group had proven to be “pioneers” and “visionaries” in their own writ, laying the framework on May 1, 1913 for an organization that has truly changed the face of America.
The “objects”, or the GCA “credo”, drafted that day in a few short hours by Ernestine Goodman, GCA’s first Secretary and Treasurer, were broad but sufficiently focused to inspire club activities for decades to come.  The objects of association---To stimulate the knowledge and love of gardening among amateurs, to share the advantages of association through conference and correspondence, in this country and abroad, to aid in the protection of native plants and birds, and to encourage civic planting---appeared in every issue of the Bulletin and were left unchanged until the nineteen seventies.  They were revised only then to reflect GCA’s more extensive commitment to environmental concerns.
Other decisions made that day have also proven beneficial to the organization.  Motions were passed to admit professional individuals, but not professional clubs, to allow clubs containing men and to spread the membership geographically through new admissions.  A committee was established to develop the Constitution and By-Laws that were voted on at the Second Annual Meeting.
GCA Annual Meetings from that day on have played an essential role in facilitating the communication and coordination between the clubs and the GCA.  Although the First Annual Meeting included only one luncheon and garden tour, in addition to the business of the day, it established a wonderful tradition that in the following year, as noted by Ernestine Goodman, began “that giddy list of annual meeting festivities which are unique among parties.”   The Centennial Annual Meeting and associated activities and festivities will celebrate this inspired beginning and one hundred years of achievement.     
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