Fall 2023 – Spring 2024
Note:
All January and February meetings will be held via Zoom with links sent to the membership in advance of meeting dates. All other meeting locations are at 9:00 am at St. Gabriel’s unless otherwise noted below.
Guest Policy:
Guests are welcome to all of the meetings with a fee of $5.00/per, with a limit of 3 guest meetings per individual each year, and with the exception of the Annual Luncheon in June. Please reach out to Suzy for more details on attending.
CALLING ALL MEMBERS: Sign up for volunteering and workshops in the Members section of the website under the tab “Sign-up Genius”
February 4, 2025
Perennially Yours
Author Kerry Ann Mendez ZOOM
Expert garden designer and author, Kerry Ann Mendez will share her passion for perennials and her program entitled “Power Up Garden Beauty; Power Down Garden Maintenance.” She’ll show us how to get more bang for our buck, and less backbreaking maintenance with some amazing perennials and flowering shrubs that provide much more color than commonly planted varieties. Plus, these underused beauties (many of which are natives or nativars) are pollinator friendly, and often require less water.
March 4, 2025
Beyond Blooms
Warren Leach, Tranquil Gardens
Talented garden designer and owner of Tranquil Lake Nursery in Rehoboth, Warren Leach will recommend a diverse selection of superlative plants with exceptional foliage characteristics in his talk “Beyond Blooms: Creative Design with Color, Structure and Seasonal Senescence”. Warren will highlight woody and herbaceous plants with good garden foliage color, architectural structure, multi-season interest and stunning shape and texture characteristics that can be used in a diversity of ways to complement flowers, provide structure and offer seasonal succession in the mixed border. Warren will also suggest plant combinations that you can translate into your own garden, echoing leaf colors and texture to brighten the garden through the seasons.
Hostesses: Kitsie Howard (Head), Wendy Bidstrup, Marcia Browne, Kim Swift
April 1, 2025
Planting and Refreshing the Container Garden
Susan Nock, Thistle Garden Design
Susan Nock has a specialty, and she will share her knowledge of container gardening for our homes, yards, and businesses. Come and learn how to make remarkably beautiful and abundant container gardens using not only flowers, but also vegetables, fragrant herbs, and succulents. This program will be just what we need to motivate us with new ideas for our spring and summer window boxes and planters.
Hostesses: Dot McCarthy (Head), Nancy Corkery, Lisa Larkin, Christy Mach Dubé
May 6, 2025
Plants under Glass Workshop
Paul Split
Something from the past and still a lot of fun. Nationally recognized designer and presenter, Paul Split, using color slides, will first explore the history of this gardening art form with all its different types of containers and growing medium. Following the lecture, he will run a workshop and we will assemble our own glass container. Hurricane, pear, or apple shaped glass containers will be provided along with the growing medium, stones, moss, plants and decorations.
Hostesses: Cathryn MacLean (Head), Anne Perry, Amy Seroussi, Suzy Taylor
May 20, 2025
Field Trip to Blithewold
Bristol, RI
When walking the grounds of Blithewold today, you notice a combination of historic and contemporary gardening. The 10-acre Great Lawn, Enclosed Garden, Orchard, and Cutting and Vegetable Gardens were laid out in the late 1890s. The mistress of the house ordered the construction of the Lord and Burnham Greenhouses in 1901 to further her botanical collection. The Bosquet, Rose, and Water Gardens were created in the early 1900s, followed by the North Garden in 1911, and the Rock Garden in the 1920s. Lots to take in and savor, we will have a customized tour to focus on the gardens and grounds, with a short-guided tour of the Manor. After the tour we will have a plated lunch.
** Members only workshops