Saturday, November 20, 2010

November 2010 Newsletter and Christmas Party

We have been very fortunate this year. Here it is the week before Thanksgiving and we have not had any snow accumulation. We are still able to go out and work in our gardens to get small jobs done before the ground freezes. Today I went out and cleaned all the leaves off the lawn and from around the pond again. Once that was finished I planted a specie Paeonia and moved some other plants.

All the dead Hosta leaves were cleaned out of the beds last week and now we have seven bags of yard waste to go out to the garbage for next week’s last yard waste collection. I strongly suggest that all Hosta leaves are thrown out in the garbage instead of putting them in your compost as if any of the plants have Hosta virus “X” or root nematodes it may be able to be transmitted to other plants unless your compost gets hot enough to kill them. Since we have such cold winters I would not want to rely on any compost getting hot enough to kill the virus or nematodes.

I would like to thank all of the members who hosted meetings at their homes this year. We were treated to some beautiful gardens as well as gracious hosts. Also, I want to thank all of the people who donated plants and artwork to our monthly door prize drawings and raffles. Your generosity is very much appreciated. The raffles have been very successful and have been key in raising money used to provide the extra money needed for the bus trip last summer, helping to defray the costs in getting Bob Solberg here last October, and to help pay for our monthly meeting costs. The money is used for you, our members.

Cathy and Mick Hodgson are trying to obtain a 2011 Hosta Stone to bring to the Christmas Party. They have already ordered stones to take to Hosta College in Piqua, OH in March. The dates are March 11th and 12th. Those people planning to attend Hosta College are asked to help Mick and Cathy out at the EMHS Hosta Stone sales table. Please contact Cathy and Mick if you are willing to help at the table and/or transport stones to Ohio. Thank you all 2010 volunteers for your dedication to EMHS and the Hosta Stone Fund Raiser. The stones were going to be dropped as EMHS’s primary fundraiser because it was being left up to Mick and Cathy to transport all of the stones to Piqua, Ohio every March then transport all the stones inside to the sales booth. There was just no way could that amount of work be demanded of any two people. Thank you again for volunteering………...you saved the stones for another year!!!

THE EMHS 2010 Christmas Party will be held on December 9th at the Mayfield Township Hall 1900 N. Saginaw in Lapeer at 6:00PM. This is our regular meeting place for the cold months and is just south of the point of Saginaw and M24 (the building north of the cemetery). For those wishing to help decorate you can arrive as early as 5:00PM. This annual event is always a lot of fun and a great way to end the year for the club. The Club will provide the meat (ham) and table set-ups. We do ask that everybody bring a dish to pass as this is our biggest potluck of the year. We will be doing the gift exchange as we have done in the past. If you are interested in exchanging gifts all you have to do is bring a non-gender-specific gift with a value of $10. All the gifts will be laid at the front of the room and during the party we will call numbers from the sign-up sheet of the people who brought gifts. If your name is called you go pick out a gift. Nobody is requested to bring a gift for the exchange, but if you do not bring one please understand that you will not be able to place your name on the list to pick one out. This way, all people who bring a gift are assured they will receive one.

I hope to see all of you at the Party.

Glen

2011 Calendar of Events
December 9th, 2010- Annual Christmas Party/Potluck
January 2011- No Meeting
February 17th- Jan Everson presenting a slide show of the 2010 Nat'l Convention
March 11-12th- Hosta College in Piqua, OH
March 17th- Clayton Oslund presenting "The Shady Garden" (first time speaker in our area)
April 14th- Grey Gitzen presenting a slide show on Hellebores
May 12th- Mark Hanner presenting a slide show on Japanese Maples
June 9th- Garden Meeting at the home of Jerry and Bernadette Perrou in Clio
July 14th- Garden Meeting at the home of Carolyn Pickard in Millington
August 11th- Garden Meeting at the home of Dyane Moore
September 8th- EMHS Plant Exchange at the home of Pam Walmsley in Grand Blanc
October 2011- No meeting scheduled
November 2011- No meeting scheduled
December 2011- Annual Christmas Party/Potluck, date to be announced

EMHS Officers:
President Glen Pace pacegardens@charter.net 989-244-4029
Vice-President Carolyn Pickard (no email) 989-871-2873
Treasurer Mary Smith brooktrout@tds.net 989-871-9833
Secretary Marlene Daniels gardenfairy50@aol.com 810-664-8317
Past President Mark Hanner mhanner@aol.com 810-631-4292
Fund-Raising  Mick and Cathy Hodgson
cehodgso@hotmail.com 810-664-8985