Garden Club of Virginia Membership News

May 2018

Greetings!

The joy that follows a hugely successful Historic Garden Week replaces any thoughts of exhaustion we felt in the weeks prior. Virginia's historic gardens and state parks shine more brightly because of our success. What a great feeling!

My best to all,

GCV Member Art

Hope Porter

Warrenton Garden Club

Water Color "Hometown Warrenton"

I appreciate the misunderstanding I have had with Nature over my perennial border. I think it is a flower garden; she thinks it is a meadow lacking grass, and tries to correct the error.

~Sara Stein, My Weeds , 1988

Mark Your Calendar

Monday, April 30

Flower Shows Committee, KVH 10:30

Tuesday, May 1

Centennial Time Capsule, KVH 10:30

Monday, May 7

New Honorary Member Luncheon, KVH 12:00

Thursday, May 10

Historic Garden Week Committee, KVH 10:00

Tuesday, May 15

GCV Board of Directors, Martinsville

Wed-Thu, May 16-17

GCV Annual Meeting, Garden Study Club Martinsville

Thursday, May 24

Orientation for GCV Board of Directors and Chairmen, KVH 10:30

Friday, June 1

Nomination Deadlines,

Conservation Educator and Dugdale Awards

Fairfax

Katie McGovern

Fauquier and Loudoun

Louise Crane

Gloucester

Gail Claydon

Leslie Belvin

Hampton Roads

Stacy Queensbury

Huntington

Cinda Hoege

Warrenton

Candace Faulk

Horticulture News - Dahlias

Dahlias are beautiful, versatile, and produce a shocking number of blooms to any garden scheme. Though most dahlias are excellent border plants by flowering from mid-June until the frosts knock them down, if you have limited space; dahlias will thrive in pots. Since dahlias do not usually survive our winters, you may treat these tubers as annuals or lift them and store them during the winters.

Some suggestions for dahlias to plant from Fine Gardening, based upon abundance of bloom, quality of color, and reliable performance year after year include 'Bodacious' (shown left),

'Bashful', ‘Myrtle’s Folly’, ‘Honka’, ‘Pooh’, ‘Hissy Fitz’, ‘David Howard’, ‘Gallery Art Deco’, ‘Zorro’ and ‘Bed Head’. Many of these are award winners in horticulture shows.

For larger blooms, disbud dahlias by removing most of the buds and leaving just one or two per stalk. This directs the plant’s energy into fewer flowers resulting in bigger blooms. So, plant dahlias to enjoy in your garden during the summer and to enter in the horticulture show at the GCV Symposium in September.

Submitted by Fran Carden of the Albemarle Garden Club in Charlottesville and member of the GCV Horticulture Committee.

Conservation and Beautification

Rivanna Garden Club has completed work which began in 2015, establishing a small, native-plant garden on the historic Rivanna River, our namesake. The new garden, called The Freebridge Garden , improves bank stabilization and creates a beautiful site at the Freebridge entrance to the Rivanna Trail, a popular footpath encircling the City of Charlottesville and generally following the Rivanna River and its tributaries. The Rivanna River, an abbreviation for “River Anna” was named after the Queen of England, and, as one of Virginia’s prettiest small rivers, was the State’s first governmentally designated Scenic River . In recognition of our club’s sponsorship of this project, a plaque was recently installed by the County of Albemarle.

Submitted by Tara Little and Becky Schmitz of Rivanna Garden Club.