January 2020 Program Recap
'Houseplants and Containers'
Mickey Gazaway, Garden Club Coordinator for Pike Nurseries, gave a wonderful and informative presentation on Houseplants.
She divided the plants into low light, medium light and high light, and discussed selected plant requirements.
Pilea is the ‘trending plant’ now and the Marimo Moss ball (seaweed ball) is trending among college kids.
Air plants require no soil (having no roots) but you should run under water once a week.
Most houseplants should be fertilized twice from March to October and should be watered only when dry.
Stick your finger about an inch into the dirt and if dirt remains on finger it’s time to water.
Mickey says soil is so important and to always select a quality houseplant soil such as Pike’s Indoor/Outdoor
which is good for everything except succulents. Change soil for houseplants when the soil looks tired.
Horticulture Moments
In October 2019, Sherry Brownlee discussed how lichen feeds insects, small mammals and butterfly larvae,
and is also an indicator of how clear of pollution the air is.
Some lichen grow with moss but are not moss; nor is lichen a plant. Lichen is a symbiotic relationship between algae and fungi.
There are many colors and about 20,000 species. The most common is the green we see growing on tree trunks and branches.
In November, Sherry displayed samples of fall leaf color taken from trees in her garden.
These included Sourwood, Red Maple, Kousa Dogwood, Bottlebrush Buckeye and native Blueberries.
For January 2020, Sherry emphasized 'Structure in the Garden', describing several backbone plants used in her garden.
She said that broadleaf evergreens and conifers make up the spine of a garden.
Inexpensive purchases from Dollar stores, along with garden finds, can make interesting arrangements.
In September 2019, Frances Tidd displayed and described a creative arrangement she made from foraged dried materials which included a bee’s nest. Materials were hot glued to several splatter screens wrapped with fabric; one protruding handle was wrapped in twine and the design was displayed in a placard stand.
During the January 2020 meeting, Frances discussed proper pruning and selection of the right size plant. She showed examples of Forsythia and Loropetalum that had been improperly pruned.
Calendar
September 2019
- September 10: Club Meeting "A Florist's Point of View" . . . Cumming, GA
- September 6-8: Yellow Daisy Flower Show . . . Stone Mountain, GA
October 2019
- October 8: Laurel District Fall Meeting . . . Dahlonega, GA
- October 15: Club Meeting "Live, Laugh, Learn" . . . Cumming, GA
November 2019
- November 12: Club Meeting "It's All Interconnected" . . . Cumming, GA
- November 20-21: NGC Landscape Design School II . . . Rome, GA
December 2019
- December 10: Club Meeting "Holiday Luncheon" . . . Cumming, GA
January 2020
- January 14: Club Meeting "House Plants and Containers" . . . Cumming, GA
- January 16: Native Plant Symposium . . . Athens, GA
February 2020
- February 11: Club Meeting "Change That Old Landscape - Prune" . . . Cumming, GA
- February 12-13: NGC Landscape Design School III . . . Rome, GA
- February 26: Capitol Conservation Day . . . Atlanta, GA
March 2020
- March 10: Club Meeting "Spring Luncheon" . . . Cumming, GA
- March 25-26: The Garden Club of Georgia, Inc. Convention . . . Macon, GA
- March 25: South Georgia Native Plant Symposium . . . Tifton, GA
April 2020
- April 14: Club Field Trip to Scottsdale Farms . . . Milton, GA
- April 13-16: Deep South Region Convention . . . Tampa, FL
- April 19-25: Garden Week in Georgia
- April 24: National Arbor Day
- April 28-29: NGC Landscape Design School IV . . . Rome, GA
May 2020
- May 12: Club Meeting "Plant Exchange" . . . Cumming, GA
- May 11-14: National Garden Club Convention . . . Milwaukee, WI