Chester Garden Club

News and Views

Straw-bale Greenhouses

Guest speaker John Pece will give a short overview of some of the considerations and implications of using this efficient, effective, and environmentally friendly technique to create a warmer environment and extend the district's growing season.

John working at his own straw-bale drafting table

Broccoli or ???

Judging by the huge TV ratings reported in the nation's press, viewers of the recent Olympic Games held in Vancouver must have included all of Canada's gardeners as well as all of its jocks!
But one of the most puzzling questions for gardeners was the story behind those green bouquets handed to the winners during the Games. What were the bouquets composed of and where did they come from? For the answers to those questions, we were referred to canadianfloristmag.com, a website that provided both a botanical and a humanitarian background.

One of the criteria used by the Olympic authorities in selecting the design of the bouquets was that the plants be native to Canada. The plants used for the bouquets in Vancouver included green hypericum berries, green spider mums, ferns and grasses. Although these plants do grow naturally in British Columbia in the summer months, they had to be imported from environmentally friendly farms in Ecuador for the February games. But the provenance of these bouquets also includes a larger and more compelling, human-interest story.

According to the website hosted by Canadian Florist, the designers who won the contest stated that " All of the flowers and greens will be carefully hand selected and shaped into the bouquets by marginalized women, who may be recovering from addiction, leaving prison, exiting the sex trade, or who have been victims of violence, as well as by other women they train with who are changing careers to become florists. " That program is the outgrowth of an earlier project begun by one of the designers over 20 years ago. For the 2010 Winter Olympics, 27 people were employed in producing 1800 bouquets under the direction of the designers. Such an achievement seems to call for a medal of its own.

To read the full story, click on the following website : http://www.canadianfloristmag.com/content/view/2886/57/

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In a February Garden

Bravely pushing up through a blanket of white, a patch of reddish heather (Calluna vulgaris 'darkness') adds colour to an otherwise snowy landscape.

Native holly berries (Ilex verticillata) brighten up another area of this Chester garden. Both these photos, as well as the winter sunrise shot (following below), were submitted by Sandy Dumaresq, a member of Chester Garden Club.

The Club's first meeting of 2010 took place on February 15th when guest speaker, Iris Burke, who runs a very hands-on nursery (Not Just Irises), gave a knowledgeable talk about getting one's garden to produce more flowers. Her helpful hints about encouraging plants to bloom were a welcome diversion from a general preoccupation with winter weather, and members are once again looking forward to another gardening season.

The Club's next meeting will be held on March 15th, which also happens to be Bloom Day so we hope that some members will send in garden photos taken that day (or near that day) and we will post them on the blog.

This sunrise photo was taken in early February, looking across the water from Chester's peninsula to Quaker Island.

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Florida florals

While unable to be present at the Chester Garden Club's February meeting, your blogger was not negligent in touring floral displays at venues to the south. The two decorative arrangements below were spotted in an entryway at the Naples Botanical Gardens in Florida.



The Naples gardens, with the tagline "Gardens with Latitude", include such specialty areas as Brazilian and Caribbean gardens, a Florida uplands preserve, and even a Children's Garden.

The special children's garden (designed after consultation with children themselves) includes educational aspects of gardening and many playing spaces. In the butterfly house, we came across a number of Monarch butterflies. Anyone visiting the area and interested in knowing more about the garden can get it from the website: naplesgarden.org.



The Marie Selby Garden, in Sarasota, is a centre of horticultural and educational expertise, especially in the cultivation of orchids. Many gorgeous specimens are for sale in the garden shop.

Soon it will be farewell to palm trees and (and the silk flowers that are a feature of so many rental condos!) and a return to the snowy landscapes of Chester. It's been a grand adventure but it is also always good to arrive home.

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Winter Wonderland

Following a fiercely windy, snowy storm on January 20th, Chester residents woke the next day to a fabulous environment of pristine snow and bright blue skies. We are posting these shots to remind ourselves what beauty we can find in a winter scene and to show those snow-birds in the warmer climes what they are missing!


News for Members: The CGC board met this week to plan some of the Club's activities for 2010, and confirmed that the first meeting of the year will take place on Monday, February 15. It will be held at St. Stephen's Parish Community Centre in Chester. The subject will be Forcing Blooms. Details re the speaker will be circulated shortly. A provisional schedule of all the events for 2010 will soon be posted in the sidebar on the right-hand side of this blog. Click on "Program of Events".


While surfing the net recently, two more blogs caught our attention. Blotanical.ca (not a misprint!) is a compendium of all sorts of topics that appeal to both gardeners and bloggers. It carries sections devoted to blogs in all parts of the world. The Canadian section states that 144 sites are now "planted " and that the number continues to grow. You can click on any one of the sites for personal observations, stories and tips on things horticultural. Other menu features include News, Reviews, and Picks (registered members can vote on their favourite blogs and a list of 200 favourite blogs are identified). Another site we checked is http://gardening.about.com/ which includes a wide range of information from planning to planting to caring for plants of all kinds.


As the end of January approaches, we may start noticing the days getting longer and we will want to begin the annual rite of bringing nature indoors once again. The February 15th meeting will focus on forcing blooms on spring-flowering shrubs. Don't miss it.
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