February 2018 Newsletter

UPCOMING EVENTS

Victorian Tea

Wednesday

February 7, 2018

11:30 am - 2:00 pm

Waveny House

May Program

What Do I Do Now? Revitalizing a Mature Landscape with Nancy King

Wednesday

May 2, 2018

9:30 am - 11:30 am

NC Nature Center

Azalea Festival

Sunday

May 20, 2018

1:00 pm - 4:00 pm

Lee Memorial Garden

89 Chichester Road

PRESIDENT'S LETTER

Do you find yourself checking out the construction of the stone walls you are passing? After the entertaining and informative January program, we are looking at our New England stone walls in a new light! Thanks again to Gerda Smith, Carol Seldin and Jolly Frank of the Program Committee.

With only six more weeks of winter (according to the calendar), we can begin to look forward to signs of spring and planning our gardens. We would like to start a column in the newsletter where members can share gardening tips. If you have any ideas or suggestions, please send it to our newsletter editor Betsy Sammarco.

During this dormant time of year many of our members have been busy -- the hanging baskets are beginning to sprout, and thanks to Peggy Danneman, we hope to have work begin soon on the remodeling of Lee House. The Annual Appeal Committee, comprised of Rose Bauersfeld, Tonya Gwynn and Dody Whitehurst will be sending out our appeal letter in early March. Remind your friends and contacts to look for the letters, and please bring your addressed letters to the Victorian Tea.

We look forward to seeing you at the Victorian Tea at Waveny on Wednesday, February 7.

Barbara and Karen

Vine heart as seen on Lee Memorial Garden shed.

CURRENT NEWS

Join us in welcoming our new members!

Ashley Kenney

Fanny Moran

Martha and Arthur Zinn

Our March Program:

Wednesday, March 7, 2018

9:30 am coffee

10:00 am program

New Canaan Nature Center

From the most momentous events in our nation's history to our fleeting cultural obsessions, the White House grounds have been a mirror of America.

All The Presidents' Gardens tells the untold history of the White House grounds. With wit and insight, garden historian Marta McDowell traces the fascinating story of how our presidents and their families have left their imprint upon the eighteen acres surrounding the executive mansion.

Marta McDowell lives, gardens, and writes in Chatham, New Jersey. She writes and lectures on gardening topics and teaches landscape history and horticulture at the New York Botanical Garden, where she studied landscape design. She also consults for public gardens and private clients. Some of the books she's authored include Beatrix Potter's Gardening Life, The World of Laura Ingalls Wilder, Emily Dickinson's Gardens, and All the Presidents' Gardens.

Books by Marta McDowell will be available for purchase after the program.

To learn more about Marta McDowell see her website HERE.

Download a flier for this program HERE.

Wednesday, February 7, 2018

11:30 am - 2:00 pm

WAVENY HOUSE

Are you coming?! GREAT!

You can bring your food when you arrive for the event.

Please bring your food in an attractive container with serving utensils.

Thank you and see you then!

NEEDED!

Do you have a cylindrical vase around 16-20 inches high and about 5 inches wide? We'd love to borrow it for the Victorian Tea. Call Bianca Romano if you can help out!

203-570-9048

Save the Date!

We are excited to announce that Charlotte Moss will be our speaker for our April Program, sponsored in partnership with the NC Garden Club.

More information will be coming soon.

Wednesday, April 4, 2018

9:30 am coffee / 10:00 am program

New Canaan Public Library

Read more about Charlotte Moss HERE.

Update:

Thank you to all who have helped with our 2018 Annual Appeal. The envelope addressing is so appreciated and really makes a difference to our fundraising. Thank you for helping keep New Canaan beautiful!

Completed envelope bags can be brought to the Victorian Tea.

If you are not attending the Tea, you can drop them off at Liz Orteig's house on Tuesday February 13 or Wednesday February 14,

108 Bayberry Road.

Rose Bauersfeld

Tonya Gwynn

Dody Whitehurst

NEW BOOK DONATIONS

TO THE NCBL LIBRARY

The following books have been donated to our library by Sarah Seelert.

Simply Flowers , B.M. Ohrbach

Peonies , Fearnley-Whittingstall

The Garden Design Book , C. Merser

The Unsung Season: Gardens in Winter , Sydney Eddison, photos by Karen Bussolini

Guide to Hellebores , Rice &Strangman

Rosa Rugosa , S. Verrier

Diary of a Rose Lover , H. Delbard

Glorious Gardens , London Book

Great winter reading! Thank you Sarah! If anyone is interested in borrowing a book, please contact Faith Kerchoff.

JANUARY HAPPENINGS

Our January Program with Sylvia Reiss

Our Stone Walls -

What They Are and Where They Are Going.

Sylvia Reiss spoke to a standing room only crowd on the subject of New England stone walls. Would you ever imagine that the subject of stone walls could be funny? Not only was Ms. Reiss very knowledgeable on the subject, she kept us laughing through the entire program!

Coffee time is always a fun time at an NCBL program.

Speaker Silvia Reiss and Programs Chair, Gerda Smith

We learned how stone walls came to be, the names of different types of stone walls, what makes a great stone wall, and more. Ms. Reiss spoke with admiration about a particular stone wall right here in New Canaan, built by Antonio Vitti. You can visit this stone wall at the Land Trust property on the corner of Smith Ridge and Canoe Hill Roads:

If you didn't have a chance to attend the presentation, don't worry!

You can see the entire presentation, courtesy of NCTV 79 on Vimeo by clicking this link HERE.

Ms. Reiss handed out six inspirational sheets of poems, documents, and information on the subject of rocks and rock walls. We've gathered all six together into one PDF and you can download them by clicking HERE .

We thank our wonderful Programs Chairs, and especially Gerda Smith, for organizing this program for us!

Bianca Romano created the arrangements for our January Program. In keeping with the "stone wall" theme, she filled clear vases with river rocks, and topped the vases with hydrangea blossoms. The yellow roses and decorative twigs were then placed to tower above the container.

Thank you again, to our hospitality team, Barbara Dennis, Jill Ernst, and Barbara Mechanic for organizing the refreshments for our coffee.

The Rocks at Lee Memorial Garden

Sylvia Reiss spoke about the rock formations that were created from glacier movement across New England. Did you know that our own Lee Memorial Garden has a grouping of rocks left from glacier movement? The rocks are beautiful any time of the year, but in the winter, they lie more exposed showing off the lichen and moss that grace their surfaces.