Horticultural Society

H/7/1989-1-

Rose Hill, 11 July 1989

A sweltering summer evening turned into a time of pleasurable refreshment at Rose Hill, with its impressive sweep of gardens and vineyard and the cool, high celinged rooms of the old farmhouse.

President Caroline Hussman gaveled order, and the Rogers introduced their guests, Jack and Francie Shaffer of Potomac and Elie's son Joel and his friend Lisa Schopler.

Reader Iduna Hanel drew on an article in Horiculture magazine to describe the beneficial role enzymes can play in gardening and agriculture. Described as a soil conditioner that is neither a fertilizer nor a nutrient, enzymes possess the capability of loosening hardpan soils, detoxifying land that has been overtreated with chemicals, and unlocking needed minerals and trace elements. A user of one enzyme product, Nitron, described overtreating a cucumber plant that took over the entire patch and produced 229 cucumbers in a week. Concluded Iduna: "It seems too good to be true."

Susan Fifer Canby read the minutes of 100 years ago, recording a meeting at Longwood. Vegetables were "fine and abundant, but flowers were reduced by excessive rains-an observation that drew murmurs of sympathy. One member described a method of propagating cuttings by burying both ends of the slip. Several of the questions involved the familiar topic of aspargus. One asked how often a year to pluck geese: twice.

Exhibits were few in number but elicited great interest. They included mixed samplings of flowers from the Earps and Chances and a bountiful basketful of vegetables, berries, and flowers from Riverside.

There was no comment on birds, perhaps reflecting the absence of the Bullards.

Elen Hartge's forethought exhorted us to pick beans and squash to stimulate production, harvest garlic and onions as the tops fall, put boards under melons to protect from insects, plant seeds for fall crops, and cut back raspberries and blackberries when they stop bearing.

There was no report from the Redundancy Committee.