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H/6/1990-1-

June 5, 1990, The Earp's, page 1

The society's June meeting was convened at the gracious home of the Earps.
Our garden tour among the perfectly kept beds and arbors of our hosts was
inspiring to all, although there was little agreement on the number of years
it would take some of the rest of us to reach such a sublime state. The
meal was equally inspiring; a splendid repast!

The minutes of the previous meeting were read and approved.The evening's
first reader was Ted Fletcher with an April 8th article by Henry Mitchell
about the probable imminent death of our beautiful wild dogwood trees from
infection with anthracnose. From the article we learned the history of the
spread of the disease, that spraying is not recommended at this time, garden
trees are less likely to be affected due to their more open environment, and
that acid rain is implicated as a cause. This last was confirmed by a second
article from Outdoor America (published by the Isak Walton League). The loss
of these beauties is tremendous, not only aestheically, but also to our local
wildlife. The Asian dogwood is thus far resistant.

Susan Canby shared an article from Horticulture on Monet's gardens at
Giverny, and recommended the trip there to any who could make it. Buzz
Hussman then told us about a book we'll want to add to our shelves Flower
Drying in the Microwave: techniques and projects by Titia Joosten, published
by Lark Books in 1988 and available for $8.95. The number to call for
order information is 800 282-8086.

Ted fletcher reported back to us on his fishberry study, and we now know
that it is a vine that is both a climber and twiner and is indigenous to
Southeast Asia where it is used as a snuff to relieve the symptoms of
malaria. Historical uses have included treatment of epilepsy, cholera and as
an antidote for morphine poisoning. Currently it is used as a respiratory
stimulant to counteract overdoses of central nervous system depressants such
as barbiturates. We are grateful to Barbara Oxman of Brookside Gardens and
her friend at the USDA library for the information.

The minutes from one hundred years ago were read and enjoyed.

The reader on forethought had many recommendations to keep us busy in the
coming month including: don't cut asparagus after late June, hand pick Azelea
galls, spray B.T. on bagworms, harvest those things ripe in the garden, plant
gladiolus, dahlias, and chrysanthemums, put out beer or vinegar for slugs,
don't cut back more than 1/3 of the length of your lawn, transplant spring
flowering bulbs immediately after bloom is finished, and do succession
plantings of corn and beans.

The meteorologist reported that the low temperature in May was 41 and the
high was 87. We got 5.01 inches of rain which puts us 1 inch over normal
rainfall. One storm dumped 1.8 inches in 35 minutes.

EXHIBITS
From Riverside came pinks, coreopsis, Dr. Van Fleet rose, love in a mist,
catch fly, spiderwort, coral bells, and orange & salsom poppies.