Welcome to the May-June newsletter of the
Sawtooth Botanical Garden, where we celebrate plants and inspire people! Spring is an especially exciting time for gardeners so we hope you enjoy this issue which features another of our fabulous Board members, a staff spotlight on the gal that makes this place look maaahvelous, and of course, some up and coming exciting and educational happenings!
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Dear Garden Supporters,
Spring is the time of awakening. The first crocus and daffodils in our cultivated landscapes signal good things to come. Paintbrush, buttercups, and lupine are the beauties I always look for on my daily walks along the Warm Springs creek outside of Ketchum. The rivers are full with the promise of float trip memories to last a lifetime... and also a reminder of the powerful force of nature.
We especially appreciate the return of more visitors to the Garden. Whether a local who is "rediscovering the Garden" after a prolonged absence or a traveling tourist from Talkeetna, Tallahassee or Tasmania, we love to see them all and swap stories of winter, troubleshoot an issue with a home garden, or answer questions about the "best trips within an hour of here."
THANK YOU to those who contributed to SBG during Idaho Gives! Your support helps us endure as the region's comprehensive go-to botanical resource!
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And speaking of endurance, we were happy to wrap up another "wildly" successful Bug Zoo! This event is a two-week festival of education and awe for children and big kids alike with educational displays about survival and endurance of species in spite of challenging conditions. This year's theme was indeed "Survival!" and we enjoyed our first big crowds to both BZ Fest on April 27 and BZ Fest II/SBG Arbor Day on May 4.
See you in the Garden! - Jen
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Thanks to our Business sponsor: Lee Gilman Builders!
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Additional thanks to our Bug Zoo! Sponsors and Supporters:
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Board Member Spotlight:
Cherie Kessler
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Anyone ever heard of the Vaurnettes? Our very own Board Officer and Recording Secretary, Cherie Kessler, was also a member of the entertaining (and ofttimes brazen) "camp comedy revue" group! That's her on the right!
Cherie is also an avid gardener with a a self-described eclectic style. Her home garden includes open window frames through which scenes may be seen, vertical planters, and many more creative elements too numerous to mention (who knew you could use a commode as a planter?).
Cherie heads up SBG's Garden Tour Steering Committee and is a keen task master when it comes to fiduciary responsibility. Cherie and her husband Rick own the
Magic Lantern and Screening Room Cinemas (another great supporter of SBG!).
Thanks for your service, Cherie!
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It's Spring Time at SBG!!!
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Join the Garden Gabbers!
Every Thursday morning between 9 and noon, the Garden Gabbers gather to giggle with glee, whack weeds, and plant plants. Interested? Just show up and we'll match you with a Garden Faerie (they are the paid gabbers on staff) and off you go enjoying yourself while contributing to the Garden!
It's time to renew!
May is the time to renew your membership at the Sawtooth Botanical Garden. Read more
here. (Full disclosure: SBG's Board of Directors approved a slight dues increase for 2019.)
SBG Board of Directors Approves Fee for Admission
After 24 years of existence, the Board and staff now feel strongly that "Gosh darn it, we're
worth
it!" The admission fees are the same as the former "suggested donation" as written on our soon-to-be-replaced information sign (it will soon be an "Admission Kiosk").
Fear not!
SBG Members (see above)
always enter free of charge
along with those attending a class or workshop, a private event or an SBG event at the Garden. Donations are always still welcomed and appreciated!
"We noticed that people from outside of our area were always asking, 'What's the admission fee?' So the logical conclusion was to institute a reasonable fee that people are willing to pay to visit our region's only public botanical garden which, in turn, helps to support our efforts," says executive director Jen Smith. Smith adds, "SBG is supported only through the generosity of individual financial contributors, supportive foundations, awarded grants, gifts of stock and estate gifts; we don't receive financial support from any government entity at this time."
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Education (& Events!) Corner:
Here are a few ongoing and upcoming opportunities to learn and grow (and there's a good chance for some fun, too!)...
- May 13-19: National Public Gardens Week! Thanks for celebrating your favorite public botanical garden!
- May 18: NAMI Biking for Mental Wellness event (SBG is a great place to stop, hang out, meditate, spin the prayer wheel, and bask in the Garden's glory). Read Oliver Sack's NYT opinion piece, The Healing Power of Gardens.
- May 23: Wildflower Walk: Botany & Birds at Camas Prairie Centennial Marsh! Meet at SBG at 9:30 and we'll carpool to the phenomenal Camas Prairie with Jeanne Cassell, Ann Christensen, Poo Wright-Pulliam and Kim Chaplin. We'll return to SBG around 2:00. Check the site for deets.
- Memorial Day Weekend: SBG opens for seven days a week through mid-October!
- June 1 & 2: Darcy Williamson is back with two classes. June 1 is Medicinal Native Plants for Making Salves and June 2 is Medicinal Native Plants for Teas. Click it for the deets!
- June 13 through August 1: Thursday Wildflower Walks! Locations TBD, keep an eye on the site.
- CORRECTION: Healing in the Garden with Katherine Pleasants and other wellness practitioners is scheduled for July 28. Check the site as plans unfold...
- Attention Summer Youth Camp Providers of the WRV: SBG would love to provide educational programming for you! Give Kim a call at 208-726-9358 to discuss dates and times. Your camp will only be charged a small fee if you in turn charge your own participants. No SBG fee for free camps!
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SBG is working on a re-design plan for the Serenity Pond area of the Garden of Infinite Compassion. Stay tuned for more information... we are very excited for this new development!
Do you want to memorialize you beloved pet at SBG? Click
here
for more information about the Pet Memory Garden.
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Kathy Noble: the woman behind the beauty...
Kathy is SBG's Gardens & Facilities Manager.
She has designed and maintained gardens from one end of the valley to the other – from native and xeric, to the lush, formal English and Italian inspired gardens. She is passionate about building healthy soils, sustainable irrigation practices and planning the right plant for every space. Kathy is currently working hard on a formal plan for plant collection management which, in part, will offer identification signs for SBG's hundreds of native and cultivated plants. Stay tuned!
Spring means we get our friends back!
Welcome back to our returning Garden Faerie, Kimmie Drummond, and new Garden Faeries, Baltazar Salinas and Krisitin Clement!
We're HIRING!
SBG is ISO one 24 hours per week Garden Faerie to join our already astounding crew. Hit up Kathy for more information at 208-726-9358 or
[email protected]
.
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As with everything we do here at SBG, we couldn't do it without the generous support from many, many hands. In addition to our generous Bug Zoo sponsors and financial supporters listed above, we wish to thank the following volunteers and supporters who so generously gave of their time, talent, critter care and critter loans: Fred Bassett (for hosting Hummingbirds tent), Girl Scouts (
Gentrey Cabitto, Sasha Stahowski, and Sierra Copenbarger for face painting and festival assistance), Environmental Resource Center (beaver pelt and recycling containers), Shawn Schumacher's classroom artists for their beautiful artwork, Carol Mutzell (for hosting IPM tent), Steve Hobbs (indoor bee hive installer), Blaine County 4-H (Chandra, Suzette and others for activity tent), Thunder Paws Pet Shoppe (Flash the tortoise, and the
MADAGASCAR Hissing Cockroach
;)), Larry Barnes (for Boris the Python), Jay Parker (for Aries the Bearded Dragon and 2 cute leopard geckos), Paige DeShields (for critter care and millipedes and Marilyn the tarantula), Ann Christensen (for Hildegarde the tarantula and a black widow spider), Kate Stoddard of
Orchestra Provisions, Blaine County School District (for loaning us space dividers), Wood River Sustainability Center (for serving up the grub and feeding our volunteers), Elizabeth Sandoval (for critter care and festival assistance), Corbin Diges (for critter care and festival assistance), Adam Kind (for critter care and festival assistance), Skylar McCord & friend (for festival assistance), JPK III & crew (for their continued awesomeness), Susan Kranz from USFS Sawtooth National Recreation Area (for awesome critter costumes), Karen Bossick and Michael Hobbs (For Eye on Sun Valley video), Pam Morris and the Idaho Mountain Express (for great BZ coverage and complimentary ad), Brennan Rego and The Weekly Sun (for great BZ coverage), Lori Stroebel (for Boxy Lady the box turtle), Heather Johns (AKA "IT Lite"),
Susan Worst and Don & Alaska Sewell (for Boris transport)
, Eric Wennenger and grad student Tasha Stanzak from the University of Idaho Entomology Department at the Kimberly Research & Extension Center (for the great beneficial vs. pest insects display, and Wood River High School Seniors and WOW program participants (for insect research, translation and milkweed seeding). Go Wolverines!
Also, big thanks to the entire SBG staff (Nancy, Baltazar, Kim D, Kathy, Kim C, and Sharon), Board of Directors and Ambassadors Council for helping out with the event!
Especially thanks to everyone who attended Bug Zoo Festival and Bug Zoo Fest II & SBG Arbor Day, and all of the classroom teachers, parents, and student visitors during the week!
See you NEXT YEAR!!! ~ Kim Chaplin and Jen Smith, Chief BZ Officers
Want to volunteer next year for Bug Zoo? Hit us up! We love reptile holders, critter care peeps, face painters and generally just awesome people to help out!
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