Club Minutes: Horticultural Society, 1880-1891

Rockland Oct 2 1880 H/10/1880 -1-

By consent of the society at a previous meeting, we met on Saturday

The meeting was large every family being represented by two, three or more members and the guests were Caleb Stabler Anna Miller, Elizabeth Smith, Lucy Fitzhugh Debby Brooke, Miss Nesbit, Mrs Jacobsen, Dora Allison, Mary T.Kirk, Sarah Kirk, Eliza Miller and Francis Miller.

Our specimen tables which were placed under the trees in front of the house, were well filled. There were fine flowers from Longwood, Brooke Grove, Hermon, Avalon, Sharon, Fulford, White Hall, Stanmore, & Riverside - The vegetables were from Longwood Sweet potatoes pears & grapes, from Sharon apples and potatoes, from Olney tomatoes & corn, from Norwood pumpkins and beans, from White Hall sweet potatoes & peas: from Riverside grape, tomatoes and from R.R Moore Raspberrries and figs.

Roger Farquhar who was asked for a report of the "Fruit growers Association" in Washington, said the small fruits and grapes were fine, apples ordinary

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and the flowers, as an Exhibition poor.

There was no report from the State Horticul tural Exhibition in Baltimore.

Questions

1st A member making a garden in a new place has made two attempts to get a strawberry bed and failed and feeling rather impatient at the delay, asks if it would pay to set plants in pots and keep them growing in the house, this winter? Two of our members encourage him to make the experiment

2nd A guest has a hundred nicely rooted plants obtained by putting small pots in her strawberry bed and having the runners take root in them, would it be well to set them out where they are to grow now? Answered in the affirmative.

3rd How shall we get rid of myrtle? Give it to your neighbors

4th Has any one tried planting potatoes in the fall? No one has.

5 Who have been successful with tea plants? One member has one plant living

6th Will it be best to cultivate rose bushes and fertilize before protecting for the winter? Best not.

7th How raise foliage plants? In wet sand replant in pot and keep

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int he store room. 8th. How late will it do to top dress grass in our lawns? Any time after Christmas. 9. How deep should a pit be for keeping plants? About eight feet.

Francis Miller proposes that some one not so lazy as himself should try cultivating some of our wild vines and plants for ornamental purposes. It has already been done at some extent. The five-leaved ivy, clematis virginia creeper columbine, spireas hepatica and many of our wild ferns flourishing beautifully with cultivation. And in many of our lawns or gardens may be found the ox-eye daisy and wild carrot!

Our walk in the garden was very enjoyable. There were many plants potted for the greenhouse and the beds were still so full of luxuriant geraniums that they could scarcely be missed the roses and many other plants were blooming, we were shown the poultry which came by hundreds at the call of the feeder and there were yet other hundreds visible in the trees which declined coming down. The two who were appointed to read not being ready were reappointed for the opening meeting

H/4/1881 -1-

Long wood April 5th 1881 noon Temperature 29 degrees

This First meeting for 1881 was held at Longwood on the 5th of April. It was a large meeting not withstanding the very cold day The mercury standing at 29 degrees at some places and a high wind blowing. Only one family failed to attend, that from "White Hall. Our guests were Mr. Nesbit, Mrs. Parkland, Richard and Edith Bently, James and Margaret Hallowell, John M. Smith, Dr. Martin, Mr. and Mrs. Jack Waters and Kate Janney The Specimens were some Ful fond a basket of lettuce, Brooke Grove parsnips, Rockland tomato plants cabbage and lettuce Daniel Gaithers, potatoes and lettuce, Kate Janney lettuce, and a plate of Pansies and fine Geraniums, Alloway Avalon Sharon and Fulford flowers grown in doors and from Riverside a few from the garden.

Our President was very much pleased with the full attendance , and thinks it shows that notwithstandling the number of years our society has existed, our interest in it is still on the increase. His questions as to the results of our winter's experience elicited the facts that the so unusually cold winter, vegetables kept well and

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roses generally stood the winter about as usual. Roger Farquhar found the best way to keep turnips was to cover them slightly in the garden; put them in a ridge and cover with a few inches of earth and they keep sweet and unwilted. Rachel Gilpin had carrots keep sound and good out in the ground, which they will not do in milder winters.

This being the first meeting, it is the proper time to elect new officers, but the Society showing no intention of taking advan -tage of the occasion, the present time-honored officers gracefully accept the situation The list of meetings for the ensuing season includes the following places Riverside, Fulford, Alloway Hermon, Norwood, & Edgewood. The readers were called upon, Margaret Magruder, who had been appointed in place of Hannah Brooke, read a paper on the culture of Fuschia's. She had so often been asked for her method, having the finest blooms in the neighborhood which gave her the idea of writing "All I know about Fuschias." The second reader being absent was reappointed for the next meeting. The readers for next month M.M. Miller and Annie Brooke.

Margaret Magruder gave a recipe from Peter Henderson, which must be a good one for top-dressing pot plants. He sprinkles the earth with bone dust and covers