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H/8/1953 -1-

"The Porches" - August 3, 1953

The welcoming committee of the four Hill grandchildren
and the breathtaking glimpse of the masses of
lycoris as one walked up to the terrace at "The Porches",
was just the right beginning for our friendly meeting of
the Horticultural Society this cool August evening.

After the deliciou supper and a tour of the garden,
the meeting was called to order by the president and the
July minutes were read and approved.

Rebecca Small, under the title "Desoltory Bits of
My Trip to Europe, mostly Horticultural", told us of the
greeness of England, with its clipped hedges and clean
fence rows, the wild forget-me-nots, the pink and white
hawthorn, of the little railroad stations decorated with
hanging baskets and window boxes of flowers; of the fields
of poppies and daisies and the dell of blue bells that
were so beautiful they brought tear to her eyes. She
then told us of Italy and of a special wine made from
grapes grown on Mt. Vesuvius; of the little farms in
Italy and France, which grew hemp, rye, wheat and barley -
separated in plots, so different from our American ones;
and she told of the rows of plane trees in Paris, started
by Napoleon to shade his troops and of the wild pansies
and scabiosa in Switzerland. The story of her trip brought
pleasant memories to those who had been abroad recently
and a longing to see for oneself to the rest of us.

We were taken in another direction by Mary Moore
Miller and Molly's trip to Bermuda, that ideal vacation
spot with its hibiscus hedges, oleanders and poinsianna
trees. Mary mentioned the golden shower trees, much like
our locusts; the many kinds of palms and the match-me-if-you-can
hedge, called that because of the sixty different
leaves flowers which bloomed on it. Molly had visited a perfume
factory where perfume is made of passion flowers. Layers
of animal fat are spread on frames and the petal of the
flowers are laid on this. It takes six years for this
perfume to season so needless to say it is quite expensive.
We were sorry that Molly had not brought back any so that
we could have had a whiff!

Mrs. Hill asked for help in ridding "The Porches" of
a ground hog, which brought on many suggestions and stories
the best one being Dean Acheson's telling about a colored
man who worked for him, lying out in the field day after
day "getting the ground hog used to him".

There was no "Forethought" report, as Rebecca said
she was so engrossed writing her trip to tell us, she
forgot it.