Club Participates in Barracks Row Festival

Bill and David potting daffodils.

September 22, 2013:  A number of Club members were right in the heart of this year’s Barracks Row Festival, helping attendees to pot bulbs at the CSX Booth.   This community festival on 8th Street SE had something for everyone, including the DC State Fair. 

Sonia giving bulb planting instructions

 Families, singles, couples and lots of children were drawn to the booth where they potted a tulip or daffodil for planting later in the community and one for themselves to plant at home.  For many festival participants it was their first exposure to bulbs and gardening; for others it renewed desires to garden.   

Mary brings David up to date.

Sporting their Garden Club aprons and armed with Club literature and brochures our volunteers won lots of smiles as they assisted and answered questions about bulbs.  Many thanks to Club members Sonia Conly, Mary Weirich, David Healy, Bill Dean, Faith Brightbill, Mary Ann Sroufe, Sandra Bruce, Gene Smith, and Sharon Calkins-Hubley for lending their expertise and rolling out the welcome mat for those interested in learning more about our Club.     

--Ida May Mantel

Cleaning Up the Arboretum’s Glenn Dale Azalea Site

 

September 20, 2013:  U.S. National Arboretum research horticulturist Scott Aker, walked a group of around 20 volunteers and potential volunteers (two from Capitol Hill Garden Club) through the Glenn Dale Hillside Renewal Project site to show the condition of the area and the work to be undertaken in the hillside renewal. The work focuses on the removal of invasive plants such as English ivy and porcelain berry and sapling trees, the trimming of limbs and branches from remaining trees to provide more light, and pruning dead or leggy branches that struggled to find light from the azaleas. Aker said, “The azaleas will benefit greatly from reduced competition for light, nutrients and water.” 

The collection is the result of B.Y. Morrison’s extraordinary hybridizing, work, which culminated in hybrids with larger flower size, wider range of flower color and bloom time, and hardiness in the Washington, DC, area. Morrison was USDA plant breeder and first director of the National Arboretum.

 

 

Arboretum Director Colien Hefferan addressed the group at the end of the tour.

 The renewal work will be done mostly by a contractor under the supervision of Arboretum staff, the Arboretum staff, and--azalea collection volunteers. That’s where garden club members come in.  The curator of the Arboretum Azalea and Rhododendron Collections, Barbara Bullock, has invited garden club members to join other volunteers on azalea clean up days.  The upcoming work day is scheduled from 10 am to 2-3 pm, December 1.  If you have an interest in participating send an email to barbara.bullock@ars.udsa.gov and details of the clean up will be forwarded to you. 

-- by Doris Celarier (photos by David Healy)

More Small Trees for Capitol Hill Homes

Kevin Conrad, the curator of woody plants at the U.S. National Arboretum, returned for a second year with more suggestions for small trees and shrubs.  Between our video projector and his laptop, Conrad was forced to talk us through his presentation without the accompanying video, which is now reproduced below.

Trees for an Urban Garden (2)

Hill Garden News for September 2012

Hill Garden News September 2012