This meeting was held in the evening at 6:30 pm.  The featured speaker was Jeffrey S. Ward, CT Agricultural Experiment Station.  The topic was:  “Strategies for Reducing Deer Browse Damage”.  His program reviewed a  five step program for preventing and reducing deer damage to landscape plants.  Dr. Ward’s personal garden problems were illustrative of the problems deer cause in the garden.

The native of the month reported on was the Butterfly Weed.  Butterfly Weed is marvelous for attracting butterflies.  The handsome, dark green foliage is topped with bright orange flowers in July & August.  It has a long tap root that makes the plant highly drought-resistant, but also makes mature plants tricky to transplant.

The artistic arrangement were brightly colored flowers or “Hot” arrangements.  Horticulture displays were for Roses, Lilies and Irises.

The May 5th meeting  featureed a presentation on Low Maintenance Gardening by Lorraine Ballato.

Life is too short to spend it deadheading, weeding, staking, and doing so many other things in the garden that come under the heading of “drudgery.”  Until someone invents the gardening equivalent of a self cleaning oven, we need to garden smarter.  This talk will give you some ideas about how to change your garden and gardening techniques so that you will have less maintenance and more time for all those other things in your life.

The native vine of the month was Trumpet honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens)

This is a showy vine with scarlet flowers in summer and autumn. Trumpet honeysuckle is a favorite with hummingbirds. The leaves are dark green on top, and pale blue-green beneath. The vine climbs by twining stems, so it needs a trellis, fence, or large shrub to climb on.

Artistic:  Mother’s Day tea cup arrangement
Class I:   Lily of the valley
Class II : Lilacs or violets
Class III: Branching out – any branch flowering or not

The April meeting  featured a presentation  Beyond Flower Pots with speaker Lorraine Calegari.

Learn interesting ways to alter re-purpose and display old flower pots, watering cans, hoses and other garden paraphernalia. Also discover easy ways to preserve and display souvenirs and collectables. Demonstration includes actual samples of altered items and larger images with a demonstration on how to make the transformation & give new life to just about anything.

The native perennial of the month was presented by Linda Hooper.  It was foamflower (Tiarella cordifolia)

The March 3 meeting was rescheduled to March 10 because of snow (that didn’t happen but we don’t mind that at all).   To ensure members and guests could enjoy our guest speaker, Lorraine Ballato, we moved her presentation to the May 5th meeting.

The revised meeting covered the other events scheduled  – club business and horticulture.  Renee Marsh, a member of the club, gave a presentation “Spring – A Time to Plant, Prune and Whack”  discussing issues around overgrown shrubs, pruning techniques and timing, and tools she recommends.

A pizza luncheon was then shared by all.

The November 5th meeting was our annual Artistic Fall Decoration Workshop where club members try their hands at making artistic floral arrangements.  Claire Norris gave a hands-on demonstration on important concepts for flower arrangements before everyone got started.

The native shrub of the month,  American highbush cranberry (Viburnum trilobum), was presented by Arlene Grey.