Long Island Horticultural Society
March News & Notes
March 2024
President's Message...
I was delighted to see so many LIHS Members and Guests at our February Meeting - attendance was estimated at over 70 people! I guess I am not alone in craving garden news and inspiration to help me get through the winter months.
The theme of the meeting was two-fold: educating ourselves about Native Plants, Re-Wilding, and other environmental movements; and also re-thinking our own properties in terms of why we garden and how we can satisfy our love of gardening while joining with the larger ecological movements.
Now that Spring is not so far off, our next meetings will focus more on the practical aspects of gardening. We will learn from the experts, share our own plans, experiences, and ideas, and discuss ways that we can come together as gardeners. This might include seed swaps, trips to local gardens, plant sales, sharing plant "babies" on the Raffle Table, and bringing Spring-y entries to the Competition.
So far, no flowers have appeared in my garden, but I do see lots of daffodil and tulip leaves emerging. Even more exciting, the seeds I started under lights just a week ago are ALL germinating! As many times as I've done this, I never get over the thrill of those tiny specks of green!
I hope we are all approaching spring with a feeling of eager anticipation and the thrill of those first buds, leaves, and blooms!
-Ronnie Brancazio
Success with Alliums
Onions do best when they are started very early indoors. In most northern zones, now is a great time, but anytime from now until mid-March works well, in our experience. (We've had good luck direct sowing our New York Early variety, in early April, as it's a moderately-sized bulb and a quick grower.)
Chives, Garlic Chives, Leeks, and Scallions (Allium fistulosum types) are not particularly day-length sensitive and can be grown, harvested, and enjoyed at any time within the growing season as long as sufficient days remain before hard freeze. Starting now is great! But so is starting in March or April....continue reading here
The North Shore Holiday House thrift shop in Huntington is looking for donations of garden books and nature books (birds, butterflies, animals, etc) for a spring garden department.
Please bring them to the March 17th 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
Membership Form
Take Note: The dues for membership are changing for 2024: 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.
March 17 Meeting
Speaker: Lucille Forgione Hoell
Topic: 4 Season Gardening for more info go to the Meeting page
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.
Herb Gardening
by Toni Cabat,
Photos by Stuart Germain
My first recollection of herb gardening was that of my immigrant grandmother, who planted loads of basil in the small patch of earth amidst concrete in her Brooklyn backyard. Once I had my own home, I planted plenty of basil, but never thought of other herbs until a few years ago when we could no longer fill planters with tomatoes and flowers, too much bending and weeding. Now I grow parsley, thyme and oregano which survive our recent warmer winters. I pick fresh herbs all year long. In summer I add dill, but plan to add more varieties this summer.
In search of new ideas of how to add to my herb garden, I read The Herb Gardening Handbook by Andrew Perry. Available through your local library. It is a British publication with beautiful pictures and great ideas on how to expand my herb garden without bending and weeding. I have included photos of two projects I have in mind- "Window Sill Garden" so I have herbs all winter and "Balcony Garden/Salad Farm".
See the pictures and read the very short description of each project and borrow the book from your local library. Enjoy your fresh herbs!
Horticultural Competition
Horticultural
1st Place Maureen Wawrzonek
L32 Oncidium Orchid Wildcot- Golden Red Star
2nd Place Andrea Gibson
H23 Kalanchoe fedtschenkoi "Lavender Scallops"
3rd Place Connie Knies
P42a Saintpaulia sp. African Violet
Botanical Arts
2nd Place Mary Wagner
Q45 Watercolor
1st Place Ann Wetzel
Q46 Pumpkin Teapot
L32 Oncidium Orchid Wildcot- Golden Red Star
Botanical Arts Q46 Pumpkin Teapot
P42a Saintpaulia sp. African Violet
L32 Oncidium Orchid Wildcot- Golden Red Star
Thank you to Maureen Wawrzonek for the Hospitality Table Centerpiece.
Donations to the Hospitality Table: Leonard Aberman, Patty Jarrett, Roberta Roberts, Dale & Suzan Goldstein, Laura Weill, JoAnn Semeraro, Judith Dunn, Maureen Wawrzonek, Phyllis Richards, Toni & Stuart Germain, Shelly Maines, Ann Wetzel, Janet Kielbasa, Eileen Anders, Muriel Drew, Rosemarie Papayanopulos, , Marge Duryea, Joan Insogna, Cordyn P. Hyatt, Chris Douglas, Cynthia Hopping
Donations to the Raffle Table:
Laura Weill, JoAnn Semeraro, Toni & Stuart Germain, Shelly Maines, David & Rosemarie Papayanopulos, Andrea Gibson, Jeanelle Murphy, Kathryn Taborda
More Photos from the Connecticut Flower Show
From the editor....
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Saturday February 24 we went north to my new favorite flower show, the Connecticut Flower Show, in the Hartford Convention Center. They had fantastic display that you can get right up to to appreciate the plants and flowers, they were all very well lit so you can appreciate the colors, form and texture. The whole layout is well thought out, there are seating areas throughout the venue, so people can sit relax and converse. It's a much more laid back and relaxed flower show experience.
They do have the fantastically grand displays as well; mature specimens of trees and shrubs, an excavator used as a water feature and a giant-sized watering can fountain. I had 2 favorite exhibits, the flowers as apparel and the beautifully done fairy garden villages, presented by Ladd's Garden Center, South Windham, CT. It was a large display and showed off many ideas both with both the different varieties of dwarf conifers that can be used in a fairy garden and different ideas for "hardscape" like the family of dragons, the fairy house complete with greenhouse and they even had a trailer park with a teardrop trailer that we got to see in real life as we were driving up to Hartford. Vendors of all types are intermingled with the floral displays and not sequestered to one side of the venue. All this for $17 a ticket. That is less than half the price of the "other" flower show that is over-crowded, poorly lit and no place to sit-down. Go north for your flower shows, not south!
We even found a marketplace that was reminiscent of the Reading Terminal Market. It was all decked out with picnic tables inside and about 20 or so small restaurants stalls. We had a fantastic meal at Flor Do Mar, Brazilian food that was 100% gluten-free and absolutely delicious! Janet & I enjoyed Brazilian Paella with shrimp, kielbasa, cauliflower saffron rice a peas, it was as beautiful to look at as it was to eat. Maureen got a lobster roll and sweet potato fries that were the fluffiest I had ever had. We had a fantastic day!*
-Ann Wetzel
Also Check out the Gardener Calendar for all the garden to-dos for the month of March.
* I took over 200 hundred photos on Saturday, they had displays of the Connecticut Horticultural Competitions as well as the local bonsai society these will be featured in upcoming newsletters!
Check out more photos below
Chartreuse Foliage
Give your garden a pop of chartreuse foliage and it can brighten up the darkest of days. Chartreuse is a color named after a drink. It is a electric color blend of yellow & green and is named after the Chartreuse liqueur made by monks and contains 130 plants. A garden with shade is the perfect place to highlight the uniqueness of chartreuse; it will brighten up any area....continue reading here
Ronnie's Recap
The February LIHS meeting was devoted to the very important and timely subject of how we can better integrate our personal gardens within the larger ecological environment.
Our speaker, Kimberly Simmen, is a Landscape Professional and the founder of KMS Native Plants LLC in Lake Grove. She is the Director of Sustainable Horticulture with ReWild Long Island. and teaches and consults widely to educate the public about native plants and the importance of biodiversity....Continue reading here
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 Donors:
Priscilla Baurschmidt
