A Terrific Effort by all!

Lots of fun!

Great plants.

And we made $5,100.00!!

Special thanks to Laurie M, and Laurie McA for co-chairing,

to Gail Anderson for once again doing such a wonderful job with the antique plants,

and to Joyce Kippin for her amazing contributions of 800 organic, greenhouse grown, vegetables and flowers.

Fantastic!
Janet

The 2011 World Flower Show Takes place June 15-19

WORLD ASSOCIATION OF FLOWER ARRANGING...IN BOSTON @ THE WORLD TRADE CENTER...IT IS PUT ON BY THE MASS HORT SOCIETY & GARDEN CLUB FEDERATION OF MASS...I KNOW THERE IS THE BOAT EVENT THE WEEK BEFORE JUNE 11TH... JUST WANTED TO SHARE THIS ALTHOUGH  MANY OF YOU MAY ALREADY KNOW...I KNOW I PLAN TO ATTEND SOME SESSIONS.

THANKS,
JANI GUNSAULUS
See you all this Saturday.

 Boston, Mass – Floral design enthusiasts, art lovers, competitors, conservationists and connoisseurs of international culture should all mark their calendars to attend the 2011 World Flower Show taking place in Boston, Mass. at the Seaport World Trade Center June 15-19, 2011. Members of floral art societies from the 30 countries that comprise the World Association of Flower Arrangers (WAFA) will convene by the tens of thousands for the week-long event, which caps the United States’ first-ever three-year tenure as host country for WAFA.

“We chose our show theme, ‘This Glorious Earth,’ because it embraces both the worldwide scope and the celebratory nature of this event,” says Liza Weihman, Director of Publicity & Public Relations for WAFA USA. “This is the first time that the United States has hosted the show, which probably won’t return to the States in this generation.”

The World Association of Flower Arrangers (WAFA) is a not-for-profit, non-partisan organization of floral art societies representing 30 member countries. WAFA was founded in 1981 and moves from country to country every three years. During its tenure, the host country organizes an International Seminar, stages a World Flower Show, convenes a General Assembly, produces a book portraying national floral designs and plans various other educational events. 

(from WAFA website)

For more information, visit www.wafausa.org.

Post requested by Jani Gunsaulus

IGC helps Town-Wide Clean Up on Saturday, May 21st- Call for Volunteers

The Ipswich Shade Tree and Beautification Committee is holding a TOWN-WIDE SPRING CLEAN-UP.

Ann Wright and I have volunteered our Ipswich Garden Cub members to clean up the Railroad Station on Saturday morning 8:30-11am May 21st.
We will meet at TDBank for coffee and garbage bags and then head to the RR station.

It is the week after the Plant Sale - hopefully you will have some energy left to help make give our town a nice Spring Cleaning.
With many hands we can make short work of it.
Thank you for your help.
Janet

The Annual Plant Sale Is Almost Here!

Look for the Club's Annual Plant Sale Banner on 1A snd Market Street.

Used books, Anyone?

The Book Table will be selling used gardening books and magazines at the
Plant Sale 2011.
If you want to donate books on gardens or other plant and earth related subjects, please
deliver them to 10 Dornell Rd
or
call Therese 978 312 1990 for pickup

These three are in the box already!

Now the whole Library knows!

Check out our Plant Sale desk at the Library And tell your friends!

Gail Anderson's Answer to Barbara O's Question

Barbara's question was how to rid your garden of garlic mustard and wild garlic?

Garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata), wild garlic (Allium vineale), and wild onion (Allium canadense) are very difficult to eradicate. At Long Hill, we have tried many things without great success.

Garlic mustard is a biennial. It forms basal leaves the first year, winters over, then blooms and sets seed the second year. The only way I know to control is by mechanical means. Scuffle hoe the very small first-year seedlings. Larger plants have long tap roots and must be pulled by hand. It's CRUCIAL to pull before the plants set seed. A single plant can produce thousands of seeds that can remain viable in the soil for up to five years!

Wild garlic and wild onion both have "stringy" chive-like leaves which smell like onions if crushed. The wild garlic leaf is round and hollow. The wild onion leaf is flat. Both produce underground bulblets. Wild garlic also produces aerial bulblets. At Long Hill, we have researched how to eradicate. We have tried hand digging, baking under clear plastic, and Roundup. Internet research reveals that there is a very brief window during the season to use herbicides on wild garlic and that the only herbicides that are effective are now banned in Massachusetts. At Long Hill we are talking about removing the soil, small plot by small plot, and trying to shift the soil to remove the bulblets. Although we haven't discussed this, we may even have to replace some soil entirely. So....the short answer, keep digging bulblets by hand, being sure you dig deep enough, probably 12 inches or more.

--Gail Anderson

Arbor Day Celebration at Winthrop School

Janet Craft addresses the first and second grade students at the annual Arbor Day Assembly at Winthrop School. Janet gave each of the students some homework- -Find a favorite tree in town and watch it grow as the years go by.

Students read poetry and sang songs.

Deb Trevarrow of the IGC spearheads the assembly.  Lina Lopez Ryan, a second grade teacher works with the students who MC the assembly. Each of the first and second grade classes presents a poems and/ or song.
Read more about the history of this charming educational tradition in the upcoming IGC June '11 newsletter.

A Spring Recipe from Landi VanAlen

For those of you who were at the Winthrop School last Thursday for the Arbor Day assembly, you will remember Sheila McAdams, the principal telling the wonderful story about wild leeks. As a child, Sheila gathered them in the wooded areas on the boundaries of her family's farm. In the Spring, the bare trees allowed the sun to filter to the ground and made it possible for tender leeks to grow. Sheila collected the leeks and was able to sell them to neighbors who liked to use them in recipes.

Wild leeks or "ramps" have become rarer today but should you find your own spring leeks in a forest or supermarket, Landi VanAlen shares her very own recipe for wild leek vichyssoise with us.

Landi VanAlen's Wild Leek Vichyssoise

6 peeled diced potatoes
21/2 cups clean chopped wild leeks
1/4 cup chopped fresh chives
2 tsps. chopped fresh dill
5 tbsp. butter
4 cups chicken stock
1 cup heavy cream
salt & pepper to taste

1. Boil potatoes until tender and set aside.
2. Saute (lightly) wild leeks, chives and dill in butter in large pot.
3. Add chicken broth to leek mixture and bring to a boil.
4. Remove from heat; season with salt and pepper.
5. Drain potatoes and add to leek broth.
6. In a blender, puree on low for one minute or until smooth.
7. Chill. Then stir in cream.
8. Serve garnished with fresh chives.

Bring the Trees Inside for Arbor Day!

Trees grace Westminster Abbey today!

For Arbor Day from Alicia

You may have Arbor Day in your pocket!...If you have the 2004 State Quarter coin for Iowa celebrating native son artist Grant Wood (1891-1942) and his 1932 painting of a tree planting at a rural Iowa school.



Wood's famous painting now hangs in the new American Wing of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.



 by Alicia Moore

Meet us at the Library!

Dorcas Rice  has discovered and ordered a wonderful PBS documentary about the importance of Trees and the Urban Forest. It in titled "Return to the Forest Where We Live". It is perfectly timed with our current concern about the trees on Washington Street.

The Ross Committee - Dorcas and Paige - have made arrangements for the documentary to be shown at the Ipswich Library's Collins Room:

Wednesday, April 27 at 7pm and again on Wednesday, May 4th at 4pm.

Please plan to attend one of the viewings and help pass the word to other Ipswich residents.

This documentary makes a very compelling case for saving and preserving shade trees in an urban setting.You can find a short movie clip from the program as well as the original transcript at the program's website:
Click Here for Website

Happy Arbor Day- this Friday, April 29th.

Arbor Day Celebration - Winthrop School

Please attend Winthrop School's Annual Arbor Day Assembly. It will be held THIS Friday, April 29th, at 9:15 am. Join the first and second grade classes in song and poetry as they celebrate the observance of Arbor Day.

The Arbor Day Assembly teaches students to be stewards of their environment and to learn to protect trees by learning about their importance. Over the last two decades, the Ipswich Garden Club has been supportive in the very generous gifting of plant material.

Support this effort with your attendance at the Assembly -- it lasts about a half hour. Considering the recent controversial town projects related to protecting trees, this sweet assembly is uplifting, praises the attributes of trees and supports the educational mission of our garden club.

Thanks, Maureen

HORT TIP -Late April

by Gail Anderson
IGC Horticulturist

The forsythia is blooming and the Red Sox have played their first home game. It's time to prune your roses and any gray leaf plants/shrubs. (Try to avoid cutting back any gray leaf plants in the fall.)

Prune now--roses, butterfly bush, blue mist shrub (Caryopteris), lavender (cut 1/3 to 1/2), pinks (Dianthus), etc.

It's also time to prune Clematis. There are three "pruning groups" depending on the type of clematis. Each group is pruned differently. It helps if you know your clematis variety. Completely Clematis Nursery in Ipswich has a great guide on their Web site http://clematisnursery.com/Pruning.aspx  If you know your clematis variety, you can reference that variety, and the  Web site will indicate its pruning group. Even if you don't know you variety, the general pruning guide (link above) will give you clues.

Large flowered purple clematis in a water feature, Newbury, Mass.

IGC Plant Fliers -- Let's get the word out about the ... Annual Plant Sale!

Look for these fliers in local stores, businesses and schools.  Don't forget to pass the word about the Annual Plant Sale. Laurie Matson has post cards you can send to friends too. Join in and help make this year's plant sale one of our best ever!