Long Island Horticultural Society
January News & Notes
President's Message...
Dear Fellow Gardeners,
I hope everyone enjoyed a beautiful holiday season and that the new year will be a good one for all of us, in our personal lives and in our communal lives as part of LIHort!
I find it very satisfying to look back over the past year and realize how we have grown and evolved as an organization. We have many new members (and thus new friends) who have brought energy, enthusiasm, and a spirit of fun and eagerness to learn. We also have our many long-term members who bring their experience, wisdom, creativity, and dedication to LIHS.
What pleases me most is to see how everyone is coming together as a group dedicated to learning about and applying the latest horticultural information, engaging in our various activities, and finding new and creative ways of moving us forward!
Now I’m looking forward to what we can accomplish in the coming year. Our overall goals continue to be:
Outreach to Long Island communities to heighten awareness of our organization and increase membership;
Increase our funds so we can maintain financial stability while engaging the finest professional speakers, and offering special member activities;
Encouraging member participation in our committees and special activities;
Maintaining the highest level of horticultural education in our own meetings and through involvement with other horticultural organizations and events.
We already have some wonderful projects up and running, and now is the time to get creative as we enter the new year. Please bring your suggestions to our upcoming January meeting.
I’m looking forward to seeing you all and getting the new year off to a great start!
-Ronnie Branczio
January 12 Meeting
Speaker: Susan Dittman
Topic: Propagating Plants and Orchid Culture
Doors open at 12:30pm
Place Horticultural Competition entries by 1pm
Horticultural Judging from 1pm to 1:30 pm
1:30 - 2pm LIHS Business and Announcements
Speaker starts at 2pm
After speaker presentation concludes- Raffles & Refreshments.
Please consider donating
refreshments to the hospitality table.
LIHS KNOWS HOW TO THROW A PARTY!
by Ronnie Brancazio
I want to thank everyone who helped to make our December Holiday Party such a success!
So many of you came, some with guests, and all in a spirit of fun and festivity!
You were invited to “shop ‘til you drop” and I think you really did, because our coffers were well-filled. You bought Holiday Gift Auction tickets, you purchased the beautiful Greenery Boutique creations, and you bought hand-made pottery herb markers, among other things.
Our generous Auction donors supplied us with an impressive array of items, our Elfin Chorus provided great entertainment, and we had fun playing Horticultural Bingo.
Our speaker showed us how to make decorative arrangements with natural material from our own gardens, and we all brought home hand-made votive favors.
So many of you brought delicious treats and baked goods to our overflowing Hospitality Table, to the delight of our “hungry hordes”!
Above all, I am grateful to our incredible group of volunteers who worked so hard to decorate the room, organize all the displays and various work stations, make sure that everything ran smoothly, and even thought to do things I didn’t know needed doing - and then cleaned and packed up at the end! And all was done with cooperation, good cheer, and impressive energy! Thank you!
© Stuart Germain, Kathryn Taborda, Ann Wetzel
From the editor....
This past June I was lucky enough to travel to the Cotswolds in England. The gardens there are fantastic and I will be writing about them in upcoming newsletters. I want to share with you a fantastic exhibit I saw at one of the gardens; Hidcote garden. The garden itself was truly spectacular, but this exhibit that they had inside was so amazing. The artist is Olga Prinku and she is a botanical artist. Her work is called botanical embroidery. It weaves together dried flowers, twigs, foliage, grasses to create stunning works of art. Her exhibit at Hidcote features four series: Flora and Fauna, Graft, About Time and Hidcote. The Hidcote series uses materials foraged from the garden and highlights how its designed structure brings out the patterns of nature in all seasons.
-Ann Wetzel
Please click on the slideshow to open up larger photos.
Also Check out the Gardener Calendar​ and learn how gardeners need to rest too!
Winter Pruning Primer
What is winter pruning? Pruning deciduous plants in the winter promotes fast regrowth in the spring, as most plants are dormant during the winter. It's also easier to see the shape of deciduous plants in the winter, since their foliage is gone.
Best plants to prune in winter are summer blooming plants. It is possible to cut off flowers of spring bloomers (Rhodies, azalea, lilacs) as these plants bloom on last year’s growth or "old wood" these are best pruned after they flower.
1. First prune out dead and diseased branches. Cut back to branch or to the ground.
2. Cut back branches that have grown over where you walk or mow so they don't break off.
3. Where you see two branches crossing, prune off the smaller one.....Continue reading here
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12 New Year’s Resolutions for Gardeners
Resolution #1 Make a change, try something different, Try a new variety for 2024 or an heirloom. Challenge yourself! Watch for the upcoming list of new introductions for 2024!
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Resolution #2 Add a native species to your garden designing with native plants benefits you, the earth and the wildlife. Months of colorful blooms, less water usage, increased wildlife in your garden.....continue reading here
Birth Flowers
The tradition of birth month flowers is thought to have begun in Roman times. Back then, flowers were used as decorations or given as gifts as a way to honor birthdays. As the "language of flowers" evolved in the 18th century and into the 19th century, certain flowers were used to send discreet messages through their various unspoken meanings. Fast-forward to today, and each month still has at least one beautiful bloom to its name.
LIHS International Garden Trip to Portugal
September 3 - 11, 2025
Spots Still Available *Deposits must be paid by January 15, 2025
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7 nights accommodations in Cascais, Portugal
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Hotel taxes, fees & service charges
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Hotel porterage
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All transfers included only with airfare purchase on package arrival & departure dates†
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14 Meals: 7 Buffet Breakfast & 7 Buffet hotel Dinners
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Services of English-speaking Gate 1 tour manager from arrival until departure
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Local Guides for in-depth sightseeing tours at sites or onsite guides
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Sightseeing per itinerary in modern air-conditioned motor coach as outlined in the daily itinerary
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Entrance fees of gardens per itinerary
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Headphones for enhanced touring
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Bottle Water on the coach
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Package price $2899 double Occupancy w/o airfare, Including airfare: $4079, $550 single supplement. For more Information Click here
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Welcome New Members
Veronica Attina
Wendy Lomuscio
Josephine Flores
William Mouzon
Roseanne Trapani
Eleanor Wachovia
Thank you to all of our generous donors!
© Kathryn Taborda
Membership Form
Dues for membership are:
Single $35, Household: $45, Student $5
Please fill out the Membership Form here on the website, when renewing or joining. Just type your information into the form and print it out. Bring it with your dues to a meeting or mail it to the address on the bottom of the form.
Thank you to Maureen Wawrzonek for the Hospitality Table Centerpiece.
Donations to the Hospitality Table: JoAnn Semeraro, Courtney Quinn, Priscilla Bauerschmidt, Jenny Holmes, Toni & Stuart Germain, Fran Andino, Shelly Maines, Rosemarie Papayanopulos, Carol Willkinson, Maureen Wawrzonek, Janet Kielbasa, Francine Reff, Chris Douglas, Shiyama Vijayendran, Joan Insogna, Sharon Rubin, Beth Costello, Bill & Joe, Barbara Thayer, Patricia Martin
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Thank You to Courtney Quinn for making and donating the Festive votive favors.
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Cook's Corner
This month's recipe comes
from Katherine Readinger SHAKSHUKA WITH SPINACH AND FETA
Donation Form
We have a new Donation Form here on the website. LIHS has big, exciting plans for the coming year, but don't have sufficient funds to carry them all out. We will be planning interesting fund-raising activities in the future, and member Donations are one way that members can help out as we expand and innovate.
With the new Donation Form you can make a donation to the LIHS Scholarship Fund, which funds our scholarship award given to a Long Island student studying horticulture or to the LIHS General Fund, which funds all the activities LIHS engages in including our interesting monthly speakers.
You can make a donation in honor of a friend or loved one in celebration or memorial.
Contributors will be acknowledged in the newsletter unless they decline via the form.
Please fill out your information and print out the form and either bring it with you to a meeting or mail it to our treasurer, Maria Hoffman.
This Month's Donor:
​ Christina Andrews​
​honor of Diane Garvey
The North Shore Holiday House thrift shop in Huntington is looking for donations of gardening books and nature books (birds, butterflies, animals, etc) for a spring garden department. We also have a need for cookbooks.
Please bring them to the January 12th or February 9th meeting. If you want to leave them in your car, Janet Tafuro will take them at the end of the meeting (she's a volunteer there).
If you're not familiar with Holiday House, they've been operating for over 100 years, and provide tuition-free summer camp to girls from low income families. Proceeds from the thrift shop support the camp operation.
If you're unable to attend the meeting, please feel free to stop by the shop during business hours, 10-4, Mon-Sat. They're at 74 Huntington Rd in Huntington.
Thank you
LIHS Membership Gift Certificate
Great gift for a friend, a one-year membership to the LI Horticultural Society Gift Certificates will be available for purchase at our monthly meetings. A LIHS membership form needs to be completed for the certificate recipient so come prepared with your friend’s name, address, phone number and email address.
