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Clermont
May 1949
The month of May is like a teenager,- neither child now man yet partaking of the characteristics of both periods. May is not just spring nor it it summer,- yet the sporadic hot days and the blossoming of the tree, shrub and flower make us feel the summer season is really here. Flowering driveway and sunken garden at Clermont were very pretty on the day of May when the Horticultural met there.
President McReynolds called us in from the balmy outside and we sat down decorously for the meeting. The minutes were read and amended.
A moment of silence was observed in memory of our former, loved member, Albert Stabler.
It is not necessary to admit (!) the omission or appointed readers because of the volunteer articles Isabel Wesley read about how bluish flowers, shrubs and trees lend distance to any garden,- shrubs like the caryopteris or blue spirea, and trees like the smoke tree (Rhus cotinus) and the Lilac chaste-tree (Vitex agnus castus).
And Ulric Hutton read an interesting description of the use of sawdust as a mulch is getting a good second crop from everbearing strawberry plants. Either hardwood or softwood sawdust may be used. Hoeing and weedkilling are minimized. This system is written up is a Farm and Home Bulletin.
Many helpful Forethought Notes were then given by Rebecca Small. It is time to pinch side buds of chrysanthemums and peonies; to feed rhubarb with a generous hand. Tall, bearded iris should be given lots of bonemeal. Plant daphne of a sunny, shaley slope. Strawberry beds may be made now. If the new plants are well watered, they will produce fruit this year.
The list of exhibits read by Elizabeth Ligon was creditable. Eight places were represented. Flowers came from Edgewood & Hickory Ridge, consisting of gigantic scyllas, roses and tulips. Lovely branches of viburnum tomitosum were from Millwood; translucent white azalea from Ercildoun, Scotch Broom from Tanglewood; and a charming arrangement of four varieties of lilacs, was brought from Homestone. The unusual marica was Catherine Adamses. Vegetables from Homestone, Tanglewood and the Highlands ranged from 1948 parseley and a beautiful