Minutes of Evergreen Meeting
February 20, 2024
Attending: Constance Anderson, Jean Barquin, Julia Bellinger, Winkie Crigler, Jane Dana, Amy Dewey, Doris Dixon, Cathy Farrell, Fossy Fenwick, Molly Fenwick, Betsy Forster, Mary Jane Glass, Kay Glenday, Lynn Keith, Mary Frances Koltes, Betty Langhammer, Helen Large, Diana Luka-Hopson, Sally Marshall, Dolly McKenna, Donna Roberts, Sharon Schall, Pam Selden, Laurene Sherlock, Sharon Stoliaroff, Susan Taylor, Ellen Thrasher, Susan Vanderver, Rosa Wallach, Xenia Wilkinson, Muffin Lynham.
President Winkie Crigler thanked Fossy Fenwick for hosting in her beautiful home, and Susan Vanderver and Molly Fenwick for providing delicious refreshments. Note: There are links to recipes for Susan’s cookies (bake them at your peril!) at the end of these minutes.
Presentation – Michael Gildea, Chevy Chase Club, A Rose is a Rose is a Rose is a Rose.
Winkie asked Doris if she could introduce Michael, as she has served on the Garden and Grounds Committee at the Chevy Chase Club, where Michael has been the Garden and Grounds Manager since 1998. His responsibilities include the management of extensive gardens, trees, forested areas, and greenhouses.
The rose garden is at the principal entrance to the main clubhouse. Michael uses tried and true varieties and practices; the site is too prominent for experimentation. There are 64 varieties and 236 plants: floribundas, bourbons, rugosas, climbing. Honestly, I couldn’t write fast enough; there were more. Peak bloom is from mid-May to June, after which they cut everything back for a second bloom peak in September and October. They do a rough pruning to three feet in early February and then a more exact pruning to knee-high in late February or early March.
Michael plants low natives as a living mulch and many flowers of all different shapes nearby to provide food to beneficials and pollinators. The biggest enemies of the roses are thrips, preyed on by minute pirate bugs. Other pests are spider mites and the rose sawfly. Michael relies largely on predator mites and other beneficials for control, plus limited use of Conserve (an insect spray), as well as the “Five Foot Rule.” (If you can’t see it from five feet away, it isn’t there.) To repel deer he puts Deer Scram in panty-hose sachets tied to sticks every 6-10 feet through the garden. These were disappearing from the parking lot planting areas, with suspicion falling on club members(!), until a criminal fox was caught on camera.
Michael has found that roses grown on their own roots, not grafted, are stronger and healthier. Examples of native roses are Carolina rose and rosa virginiana. Both are scented and can tolerate partial shade.
Michael provided a handout with a couple of resources on roses and a list of mail order rose suppliers, which is attached to these minutes.
Business Meeting:
The minutes of the November and January meetings were approved.
Treasurer’s Report (Susie Taylor): All dues are in and deposited. Our memberships are the following: 42 Active Members, 7 Associate Members, 1 Absentee Member. Our current bank balance is $10,853. This includes expenses through January 2024. We don’t have many anticipated remaining expenses this fiscal year thanks to Doris’s careful program planning. Including website expenses, the estimated administrative expenses come to $650. Remaining program and dues expenses are $660, for a total anticipated remaining expenses of $1,310. That will leave us with approximately $9500 in our account. We budgeted $4500 for philanthropy. We should end the year with our target of $5000 in the bank.
Members present voted to increase philanthropy to $5,000.
Membership applications for new members are due by March 1. We have 42 Active members so we can accept up to three new members. Xenia Wilkinson is our membership chair again this year. Whoever is proposing a new member should find two others to write supporting letters and should coordinate getting all the letters to Xenia by March 1. Xenia’s email is xeniavw@aol.com
All the current officers have agreed to serve for another term. 😊
Doris Dixon announced that our next meeting is at Winkie’s house on March 19 – an ikebana demonstration and workship. The information and sign-up for the March meeting will go out shortly after today’s meeting. The cost will be $20 per person for supplies (bowl, frog, and flowers). We need a firm headcount in terms of ordering supplies so RSVPs will be due by Friday, March 8. You may RSVP either to attend and make an arrangement ($20 supply fee) or to attend and simply watch the demo ($0 fee).
Doris announced future meetings: the April 16 visit to the British embassy garden and the May 21 excursion to Claybrook, a garden in Rectortown, VA, with lunch at Rosa’s beautiful home/garden in Warrenton. The April visit has not yet been confirmed by the embassy.
At our last meeting there was not sufficient interest in using the NCAGC District I meeting in September (a bus trip to the Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden in Henrico, Virginia, on Friday, September 27) as our “soft opening” meeting. However, Evergreen members are still welcome to go on the trip. All NCAGC meetings are open to all. Winkie will circulate information about the trip closer to the time that RSVPs are required to see if there is interest.
Ah, those cookies!
Ina Garten’s Chipotle Cheddar Crackers:
Earthquake Cookies:
Respectfully submitted,
Mary Jane Glass
Recording Secretary