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H/5/1990-1-

May 1, 1990, The Chance's, Page 1

The Sandy Spring Horticultural Society had the May meeting on the first of
the month at the well-groomed and productive home of Nancy and Mo
Chance. A stroll though their garden parallelled the sumptuous meal that
followed. Thereafter the meeting got underway with no guests in attendance
and Beth Bullard, Tim Eller, Ted Fletcher, and Buzz Hussman in absence.

The minutes from the previous meeting were read. Harold Earp followed
immediately by tying up the dangling question brought up in the April meeting
about growing water chestnuts. We learned that they are rated #2 on the
difficulty scale, is a bog plant that likes full sun, grows in zones 7-10 and is
available from Lilly Ponds. Apparently it has to be cultivated by groups of
gardeners because water chestnuts grow from corms [read quorums].

What should have followed was the Treasurer's Report but the Treasurer was
unprepared so, clearly nervous and caught off guard, details were fudged,
assurances were blurted that funds had not been misappropriated, and the
general fund was said to be between 5 and 500 dollars. All the same the
rascal was able to weedle the $.50 a year dues (per family) from the
attending members.

The Assigned Reader was John Hartge who had an article from the May 1989
issue of National Gardening entitled "Fatal Attraction". The article described
how to arrange your garden to encourage and take advantage of insect
garden pests' natural enemies. A handout gave an idealized picture of a
garden with 14 preditors each having a prediliction for 4 or more different
insect pests.

Next came the Century-old Minutes were read. Surprisingly enough, they had
also had a mild winter preceding their 1890 gardening season.

The Forethoughtist, Harold Earp, had similar to the treasurer left his notes at
home. The similarity ended there as copious good suggestions were offered
from memory.

Next came the meterorological report. John Hartge mentioned the late snow
of 2 inches on the 7th of April. Daffodils were in 20% bloom on the 8th of
April - 2 weeks early. The low for April was 21 degrees on the 8th and the
13th. The hight was 94 on the 27th. Average low was in the 40's and the
average high was 67. We had 3.2" of raiin and it's reported to be 1" low so
to date.

EXHIBITS

From Lea House came Martha Washington, deep pink, and light pink azaleas,
luminaria, chive flowers, sweet woodruff, blue iris, kale flower, columbine,
daisey, and forget-me-nots.
Probably from Priscilla Allen came johnny jump ups, dogwoods, azaleas, french
lavendar, bleeding hearts, ajuca,and dandelions.
From Rose Hill came dogwood blossoms, horsechestnut blossoms, washington
hawthorne, pawlonia, carolina spice bush, and holly blossoms.