Sunday, December 13, 2009

Greens Party 2009

December 9, 2009: For as long as there are memories and records, the club has devoted its December meeting to a holiday greens workshop. Members make wreaths, swags and table arrangements for themselves or others while enjoying a savory and sweet finger-food potluck.

Click on arrow to repeat slide show or click on photos for a larger view in another window.


Thursday, November 19, 2009

DC's RiverSmart Homes and Roofs

November 10, 2009: Rebecca Stack from the District Department of the Environment (DDOE) spoke about the city's RiverSmart Homes program to lessen storm water runoff from residential properties. Residents make online applications to initiate a property audit to determine suitability for subsidized runoff abatement programs. The abatement programs include the following:

* Shade Trees -- resident pays $50 per tree
* Rain Barrels -- resident pays $30 per rain barrel
* Rain Gardens -- resident pays $75 for a rain garden
* BayScaping -- resident pays $100 for native plant landscaping
* Pervious Pavers -- DC pays difference between concrete and pervious pavers.

Greg Woods invited members to drop by the William Penn House at 515 East Capitol Street SE to see their Backyard Rainscape, which received a grant from DDOE and would be appropriate for many Capitol Hill yards.

Stack also discussed the RiverSmart Rooftops program in which the city pays $3 to $5 for each square foot of green roof installed by residents on qualified properties.

Vira opened the meeting, Ruth introduced the speaker and EJ discussed five-minute member presentations to open coming meetings:











Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Brooklyn Botanic Garden

Brooklyn, NY, October 30, 2009: Click here for photographs of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Flower Arranging by Marianne Raub

October 13, 2009: Floral designer Marianne Raub demonstrated flower arranging while discussing the conditioning of flowers, design elements and the flower trade.
Following a career in ballet, Marianne studied at the Parsons School of Design and began flower arranging for Bloom in New York City. She and her husband opened Helen Olivia in Old Town Alexandria and named it after their maternal grandmothers.













Helen Olivia's "signature" design is a tight, full arrangement of many types of flowers in a close range of color with a variety of textures. She groups flowers of the same type to give them more presence and interest.
Raub made two signature designs, one in purple tones in a clear glass cube vase and another in fall tones in oasis in a smaller glass cube vase. Raub starts with Pittosporum tobira "Variegata" to make a base and provide the structure for the arrangement. She then places roses in groups of 3 or 5, followed by flowers of decreasing presence and strength, saving the most delicate for the end. She ends by wrapping the glass containers with a polyester ribbon in a complementary color to hide the stems or oasis and give the arrangement a finished look.









Raub said the signature design departs from the triangle design used in many flower arrangements by rounding off the points. She said another standard design for vertical arrangements was an "S" shape. Her third arrangement was a crescent shape, in a low rectangular ceramic vase.









Following the demonstration, the arrangements were raffled as door prizes. Jane Terry won the purple signature design. To a base of pittosporum were added Sahara roses, brassica, mini green hydrangea, purple stock, To a base of pittosporum , globe thistle, and lisianthus.












Marie Hertzberg won the smaller fall color signature design. To a base of pittosporum were added roses, dahlias, brazilia berry, fresia, and chrysanthemums. To take the arrangement "over the top," Raub added one Charlie Brown orchid.












Mary Lischer won the crescent arrangement. The base was Aspidistra elatior folded over and stapled into place. The flowers included macara orchids, amaranthus, mini cymbidium orchids, and mango calla lilies. Curly willow and kangaroo grass were added to give it height and line. The exposed oasis was then filled with short pieces of pittosporum.












Friday, September 25, 2009

Favorite Plants and a Mystery Melon

September 8, 2009. Horticulturist Sandra Flowers discussed her favorite annuals and perennials for beds and borders with suggestions for both sun and shade.













Donna Brandes shared a volunteer from her garden--what is it? She was thinking a cucumber but others thought a melon. They're close relatives. Both are from the family Cucurbitaceae which includes cucumbers, melons, squashes and gourds!


Sunday, August 30, 2009

Hill Garden News, September 2009

Click on pages to open in another window for easier reading.

Saturday, August 29, 2009

Program Schedule for 2009-2010

To read the club's program schedule for 2009-2010, click on the following photo to open in another window:
Unless otherwise indicated, the club meets at 7 p.m. at the Church of the Brethren on the corner of North Carolina Avenue and 4th Street SE. Please enter via the 4th Street side door.

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Baltimore's Victorian Conservatory

Only 41 miles away is a conservatory and botanic garden with a wide variety of well-labeled plants, plenty of parking and relatively few visitors.
For more pictures and information go here.

Saturday, June 13, 2009

National Recognition of School Project


At the national convention in May, National Garden Clubs, Inc. awarded a Certificate of Achievement to Capitol Hill Garden Club for the development and installation of a Discovery Garden on the 4th Street side of the Peabody School grounds. Club member Mary Blakeslee led the project through all its phases, including obtaining a $25,000 grant from the Lowe's Foundation. Three other club members, many Peabody parents and other volunteers worked with Mary on this project.

Vickie Godwin, National Capital Area Garden Club 1st Vice President, delivered the certificate to club president Vira Sisolak at the District 1 President's Meeting, June 11, 2009.

Friday, June 5, 2009

Garden Conservancy Open Day

Anne Arundel County, May 30: Two fabulous private gardens were open to the public as part of the Open Days Program that helps support The Garden Conservancy.

Along the way we came upon this rowboat and a "shore bird" among the rose campion:












The Garden of Nancy and Pierre Moitrier was featured in the WaPo. The Moitrier's run a landscape design and gardening business so their third-of-an-acre garden in southwest Annapolis has berms, walls, water features, a treehouse and is filled with all sorts of plants. The swale is landscaped as a brook:












Salvia, allium and iris:










Pierre uses Eastern red cedar to fashion fences, railings, trellises and benches. An almost Chippendale deer fence surrounds the potager:



























The treehouse:
Musa basjoo (the Japanese banana that is hardy to Maine) offsets the patio:


















The Mewshaw Lindstrom Garden, in the heart of an old tobacco farm near Mitchellville, features five-acres of gardens with room for much more than a pony. There are numerous perennial borders--sun or shade. One stretching 100 by 15 feet has a rose trellis on the north side of its 100-foot length. There were kitchen gardens, a cutting garden. espalliered fruit trees and 2 active bee hives. A large waterlily pond was surrounded by a flagstone patio. We spied a cat, two dogs, doves, a golden pheasant, a rooster and 2 peacocks which acted as if they owned the place.





















Japanese iris (Kakitsubata) and dragonfly:










The 100-foot perennial bed:









A Bigleaf magnolia:









Catalpa:












Peacock:














Busy beehive with peacock cries:


Orpington rooster and a Golden pheasant:












The cat:
The dogs: