President's Letter - April 2021

Greetings, Garden Friends –

Daylight Savings Time is here, the earliest spring flowers are blooming, buds are visible on shrubs, and the maples are starting to get “fuzzy.” I know that is not a recognized botanical term but that’s what I notice with delight every year. And without delight I notice that the chipmunks or other small critters have been digging up the pansies I planted in a pot and in the ground by our front door, and rabbits have been about, shearing those same pansies, and deer tracks in the flower bed are evidence that they are to blame for the disappearance of my charming dwarf iris. Fortunately, they don’t care for hellebores, so I have featured my earliest ones in the photo.

We are all encouraged by the speed of the vaccine rollout and are looking forward to getting together in person – the end of the tunnel is in sight.  The next two membership meetings will be virtual but we are counting on being able to meet in person for our Annual Meeting on June 29 at Ruth Eppig’s. Her lawn is vast, and the lake will bring breezes. Check this newsletter for information about our April speaker, Betsy Kollman Bresky, a botanist and owner of Kollman’s Greenhouse, who will focus on new varieties of plants. Betsy was a winner of the Grosscup Scholarship, a GCA program with historically close ties to our club. And Leslie Marting is a Vice-Chairman of the National Scholarship Committee, with the Grosscup Award in her portfolio. This will be her sixth year in that role!

In April the GCA will launch a yearlong initiative to celebrate PARKS: Where Nature Meets Community, a salute to Frederick Law Olmsted and his revolutionary influence in raising public awareness of the importance of natural areas in our public spaces. There will be many opportunities for SLGC to examine the current needs of our communities and to plan ways to fulfill them. We can be proud of what we have done in the past through our Charitable Projects awards, so we are well prepared to think ahead.

I want to call your attention to a wonderful story by Beth Boles, accompanied by examples of her beautiful photographs. Go to the GCA website, to Zone Pages, Zone X and you’ll see her there. Thank you, Beth!

Enjoy the advent of spring, and I’ll see you in the Zoom gallery on April 27 –

Leigh