Horticultural Society

H/9/1990-2-

September 4, 1990, Quailhill, page 2

and were stationed at ground level with their owners to entice the elevated bird to join them. That being largely unsuccessful a young fireman and macaw enthusiast climbed up to the stray bird and when the beast bit the offered finger, the man grabbed the bird's beak, tucked the feathered fiend under his arm and climbed to the ground one-handed.

There were no new committees.

The Redundancy Committee reported that 2 1/2 megabytes of Redundancy Committee data had with no explanation or permission vanished. Fortunately it had all been backed up on floppy discs so nothing was lost except explicit faith in the security of hard drive memories.

New Business

Jim Bullard mentioned that this community dates back 300 years and there will be a celebration sanctioned by the Sandy Spring Museum on October 4th at Norbeck Country Club. It will be an occasion to picnic and gather and all are encouraged to attend.

Exhibits

Lydia Haviland brought a magnificient sunflower referred to as only a volunteer, in addition to some exquisite little yellow and red tomatoes. Riverton offered flocks, corriopsis, ironweed, cardinal flowers, algeratum, and moonbeam corriopsis. There were other samples of the season's abundance but the Secretary misplaced the list and didn't have the courage to conjure up a false representation.

Questions

Dana Tietje has August-September blooming clematis that looks poorly. It was said that if the Chances were here they'd know what the problem was.

Tim Eller wants to know if crepe myrtles do well in this area. Yes but sustained below zero temps will kill the plant back to its roots.

Thea Kappahn has an indoore Eucalypsus plant that is doing poorly. It was said that if the Hanels were here, they'd know what the problem was.

Ari Preuss was on the Shenandoah where 4 bald headed eagles were spotted. 4 are nesting in the Blackwater Refuge and it would appear that their numbers are slowly coming back.

Nancy Preuss recommended a book entitled "Beautiful Food Garden".

Gordy Allen-Wardell commended the society for its bee hives. He said that last year Maryland lost 50% of its domesticated colonies to trachial mites, veroa mites, and bad climate. He said that the importance of bees to agriculture cannot be underemphasized and the bees need all the help they can get to keep their overall numbers up.

H/6/1965-36-1-1965 Page 3.

PeteLigon: To avoid some wormy pests, should he cut his asparagus down or not? A wide variety of answers were given, but most felt that DDT spray after the next-door strawberries were through bearing would give the best results. To prepare for a better bed later, the young roots should be dug and replanted much deeper.

Flora Goff deplores the results of the cutworms on her place. Most people would use paper collars, or milk carton collars, around the plants, and some said chlordane spray would be effective. She also wanted to know why her 9-year-old cherry trees have not borne fruit yet. Possible cold and frost conditions at the wrong time , of the lack of pollinators would be the answer. If she is still concerened about her cats climbing the trees, newspaper collars around the trees would probably stop them.

Dorothy Weske wanted to know the name of the Red Rambler which she brought. Its either Blaze or Red Climber. Is Dreer's Nursery still going? Yes. Dorothy then gave us all an invitation to visit the Weske's garden on Sunday June 20th from 4 to 7, in honor of their 30th wedding anniversary two days hence.

Dick Woodward: What kind of roses are to the left of the driveway? They are just called "Ground Cover".

Edward Iddings asked what to do about getting rid of the poison ivy vines. Use a brush killer or various sprays, but most of us just try to dig it up completely or use heavy clippers on the roots.

Clive Lawrence asked if the stinging nettle plant was growing in the neighborhood. Only rarely, along the river banks or in the marshy places, and Dale Thomas had just seen some along the Shenandoah River at Harpers Ferry.

Sylvia Woodward passed around an onion-like plant for identification. The consensus of opinion was Allium.

Lucy Manning wanted to know if the Artichoke exhibit would be edible when grown. Yes, the buds could be eaten while tender, and some said that a great deal of it was grown for that purpose in Northern New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

The Society was adjourned at 9:25 pm to meet with the Walter Wilsons at Bien Venu in July.

Alan F. Thomas

Alan F. Thomas, Secretary