November 2021 Newsletter

After the business meeting, the program speaker will be Carrie Wilcox, who believes that flowers should be invited to every party! After working for years in prestigious special events venues, Carrie started her own company “Carrie Wilcox Floral Design” in 2007. She has provided florals for weddings, milestone birthday parties, in tents, and in barns. Carrie’s work has added that special touch to special events.

For the last two years, she has worked on the First Ladies Luncheon in Washington, D.C., and will chair the event this year. Her work has been featured in publications such as Martha Stewart Weddings, Brides, and Real Simple. She will demonstrate a variety of holiday floral decorations that you can do for your holiday tables using flowers from our local supermarkets. For more information about our speaker, please click here. Don’t miss this fun and creative talk!

Arrangement by Sandy Murray

Arrangement by Gail Hamsher

Horticulture Pam Wright, Chair

Charter Oak Gavel Challenge

Zone II Annual Meeting, June 14-15, 2022

Thank you to those members who are growing Quercus alba!! We are attempting to raise mighty oaks from little acorns in anticipation of the Zone II Gavel Challenge scheduled for June 2022. We will select the best seedling from our club and enter it into the Horticulture Division of the flower show. Find the entire Annual Meeting schedule here. Charter Oak Team members include Susan Alston, Ann Buffum, Deb Dodds, Laura Frommer, Gail Hamsher, Michelle Kutz, Laura Metzger, Alejandra Welch, and Pam Wright. If anyone else would like to join the Challenge, Pam has additional acorns - please contact her at [email protected] or (914) 260-9799.

On October 20th, the Horticulture Committee enjoyed a beautiful morning at the COMO Children’s Garden NOT cleaning up the butterfly garden. OK, we did some clean-up, but we focused on leaving enough seed heads and protected spaces for pollinators. We pruned and deadheaded spent plants, collected milkweed seed pods, and pulled some weeds. We discovered red milkweed beetles (Tetraopes tetrophthalmus) munching away on a seed pod. These bright red beetles only eat milkweed and are harmless to monarch larvae and eggs. A new insect for most of us!

Our next activity is the Amaryllis Workshop on November 3rd, and our next meeting is scheduled for November 17th at 10 am.

Deck the Walls

Laura Metzger and Mary Suter, Co-Chairs

Stonington Historical Society’s (SHS) annual Deck the Walls fundraising event will be Thursday, December 2 through Saturday, December 4. Each year our club decorates live wreaths and boxwood trees and donates them to SHS for their auction.

This year, we will have our decorating workshop on Monday, November 29, between the hours of 11 am and 3 pm, at the Captain Palmer House (or pick up supplies and decorate at home). We have also offered to provide some light appetizers to be passed around during their “Preview Party” on Thursday, December 2, 4-8 pm. 

If you would like to volunteer to help with decorating (space is limited) or making appetizers, please contact Laura Metzger to sign up at (860) 287-6274 or [email protected].

For more information about Deck the Walls and to buy tickets for the Preview Party, click here.

Holiday Fun - Save the Dates!

There are a few holiday-related events in early December that will be covered in more detail in the December newsletter, but in the meantime, please mark your calendar for these festive events!

Saturday, December 11 - SGC Holiday Party at the Stonington COMO - 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm. (Note this is a new date.) We will be gathering in person this year and sharing some holiday cheer! We will be supporting the Pawcatuck Neighborhood Center with canned food or toys. More details will be in the December newsletter.

COMO Children’s Garden

Wanda Sullivan, Chair

Please join us in the Children’s Garden tomorrow (Thursday) morning, November 4th, at 10:00 AM, when the COMO children will plant 400 tulip bulbs in the ten raised beds. It’s a lot of fun to help the kids plant the bulbs - a truly delightful way to spend an hour if you haven’t participated before!

The Children’s Garden Committee would like to create a special new flower garden group that will focus on designing a cutting garden to add more color to the overall Children’s Garden. This group will only be involved with the flower portion of the Children’s Garden, where dahlias, zinnias, and sunflowers are currently planted. The idea is to build a curriculum for the children to plant flower seeds, cut and arrange flowers for containers for their classrooms, and enjoy their color and beauty in the garden. Please get in touch with Wanda Sullivan at [email protected] or 202-438-9870 if you are interested in being in the group. Then we can plan the next steps for moving forward with the idea. Many thanks for your consideration of this exciting enhancement to the Children’s Garden!

Bottom photo by Wanda Sullivan

Anna Bell McLanahan wrote the following about the Arboretum visit on October 14: “Kathryn Williams and Pam Wright (of Willimantic) gave our group of eighteen an enlightening tour of the Native Plant Collection in the Connecticut College Arboretum, followed by a picnic for twelve in the meadow along the water. Many members are already asking for a return trip in the spring to see it all in bloom, especially the native azalea collection.” 

Thank you, Anna, for organizing the visit and lunch for our membership!

Photo by Jill Corr

Photo by Laura Frommer

Photo by Laura Frommer

The Enders Island visit on October 20 was organized by Rita Nason, with support from Carole Nossek. Carole said of the trip: “The Enders trip was simply beautiful. We could not have had a more glorious day. The weather was crisp yet seasonally warm, the dahlias were in full bloom, and the luncheon was delicious. Our smaller group lent itself to shared stories and the enjoyment of each other’s company. Everyone took photos as the flora was stunning. The gardens are tended to by volunteers, which is an incredible feat. The dahlias will soon be dug up and prepped for winter storage. The guide was very knowledgeable, and we all said we could have had much more than an hour tour. So much history and interesting facts right in our own backyards! We should offer this guided tour again next year.”

With thanks to Rita and Carole for providing the Stonington Garden Club with such a lovely visit!

Below photos by Jojo Reindel

Photography Laura Frommer, Chair

Our Photography Bench Show, Celebrating Our Native Plants, will be held at the November 10 membership meeting. We received wonderful feedback from GCA Judge Ann Franzen, who was very impressed with all the entries.   

SGC Members took some beautiful photos of the Connecticut College Arboretum and Enders Island at the recent Visiting Gardens tours (see photos above).

The GCA Zone II Annual Meeting Flower Show Schedule has been posted to the GCA website (click here for PDF). The photography division is juried and open to all GCA members - 4 classes, 16 images each, 6 finalists. Our club will submit photos to Class 5 “Parks and Rec” (color). Registration opens on November 27. It’s VERY important to read the rules - more than once!  The rules contain a lot of information, and we don’t want your photographs to be rejected due to a glitch in understanding the requirements.

This Land is Your Land Focus contest Call To Vote will be announced in the November eNews. This edition will showcase the eight finalist photos from each class and include a link to the Voting Form. Images will also be available on the Focus Photos Gallery on the GA website. Voting will be from November 1 to December 1, 2021.

Photo by Laura Frommer

Membership Update Kirby Williams, Chair

The SGC Board recently approved the transition of three New Members to ACTIVE status. Despite the restrictions created by Covid, these three members participated in various ways, learned from our Master Gardeners or Floral Design experts, taken advantage of FGCCT and GCA resources, volunteered at our community outreach projects, supported our community partnerships with the COMO and the Stonington Historical Society, and connected with other members of the Club. Please congratulate our newest Active Members!

Sandy Murray joined SGC in December 2020 and has been able to complete the New Member program while juggling a new puppy and her grandchildren moving to town because of COVID-19. An avid participant in our Deck the Walls fundraiser in partnership with the Stonington Historical Society, Sandy also coordinated the kit preparation and distribution of arrangements for the 2020 Holiday Greens project. She has traveled with Visiting Gardens on field trips, created Community wreaths for Stonington Borough buildings, attended membership meetings, volunteered at the Village Fair, and worked with the volunteers who designed and planted the new garden for the Quiambaug Fire Station on Old Stonington Road.

Wanda Sullivan joined SGC in December 2021 and has worked tirelessly in the Children’s Garden, learning from the Terra Firma professional gardeners and our own Master Gardeners. She has attended membership meetings, volunteered at our booth at the COMO Village Fair, and has traveled with the Visiting Gardens group on two field trips to the Connecticut College Arboretum and Washington, Connecticut. Wanda is the 2021-2022 Chairperson of the Children’s Garden and the Garden Captain with Annette Born during our Gardens by the Sea Tour in June 2022.

Mary Suter joined SGC in December 2020. In addition to volunteering at the COMO Children’s Garden for cleanup and the Children’s Planting Day, she attended all membership meetings, traveled to the Connecticut College Arboretum with Visiting Gardens, and has furthered her interests in floral design and photography. She has participated in the photography bench show, volunteered as a hostess during this summer’s Garden Party fundraiser, and also was a member of the ad hoc fundraiser idea committee formed after our Gardens by the Sea Tour was postponed for a second time. Mary completed GCA’s 4-hour virtual floral design workshop and has joined SGC’s Floral Design Committee. Mary is the Co-Chair of the 2021 Deck the Walls event and will coordinate the event’s Preview Party on December 2 from 4 pm to 8 pm at the Nathaniel Palmer House.

Current Membership (as of 11-2-21)

Actives                      57

Friends                     26

New Members            1

Secondary Members    2

Lifetime Members       1

Honorary Members    1

    TOTAL                88

Several nominations for New Members will be sent by email to the membership for approval in the next few days. Watch your email for information on these great prospective members!

The 2021-2022 Yearbooks have been mailed or delivered to all members. If you did not receive yours, please contact Kirby Williams at (203) 536-7933.

This newsletter is a publication of the Stonington Garden Club, Inc., Dodie Bump, Editor