Flowers On Leaves

 Sandra Flowers presented a program entitled "The Leaf Alone" to the regular monthly meeting of the Capitol Hill Garden Club.

Pot with calathea

She explained in her introduction:  “This presentation is about making plant choices based on the contribution of texture, color, size or shape of the plant’s leaf alone.  If the plant has a lovely flower also, that is just icing on the cake!

“All plant leaves have a job to do – making carbohydrate for the use of the plant to grow and thrive. Within that very utilitarian job description, nature has given us an amazing variety of leaves that often rival the beauty of their flowers and since the leaves last longer than the flowers, they have an important impact on garden structure and interest.

“It is all too easy to become enamored of the beauty of flowers and neglect to think that flowers are usually at their peak for 1-3 weeks.  What does that plant contribute to the garden for the rest of the

Hakonechloa with Frances William hosta.

year?  A case in point is a rose, which has lovely flowers and even lovely foliage if you live in England or New England or the Pacific Northwest…which we don’t.  We live in hot, humid Washington DC – which results in Black Spot fungus, eventual defoliation and bare stems for much of the summer.”

Gold Heart Dicentra spectabilis

This was her list of "Some foliage that warrants inclusion in our DC gardens and garden pots":

Gold Heart Dicentra spectabilis

Begonia grandis

Hakonechloa grass

Carex ‘Evergold’

Autumn fern (dryopteris erythrosora)

Japanese Holly Fern (cyrtomium falcatum)

Japanese Painted fern (athyrium niponicum)

Caladiums - White Christmas & Fannie Munson

Arisaema ringens- Cobra lily

Soloman’s Seal (polygonatum multiflorum)

Helleborus orientalis (Lenten Rose)

Helleborus niger( Christmas rose)

Hostas - Sieboldiana elegans, Lemon lime, Frances Williams (& many others)

Rohdea japonica – Japanese Sacred lily

Ligularia dentata ‘Desdemona’

Brunnera macrophylla ‘Jack Frost’

Asarum splendens -Japanese ginger

Saxifraga stolonifera  Strawberry begonia

Schizophrama hydrangeoides ‘Moonlight’

Caryopteris divaricata ‘Snow Fairy’

Heuchera ‘Silver Scrolls’

Heuchera ‘Caramel’ 

Alternanthera dentata - ‘Brazilian Red Hot’ & ‘Party time’

Coleus - Saturn

Angel Wing Begonias

Fuschia gartenmeister

Calathea lancifolia

November 2012 Hill Garden News

CHGC November Newsletter 2012

October 2012 Hill Garden News

CHGC October 2012 Newsletter

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