Gardening | Roswell Garden Club

In Search of Winter Color by RGC Blogger Suzy Crowe

Gardening, Horticulture, Inspiration, Plants

I like to buy plants for my containers that can be planted in the yard at the end of their bloom season. This fall I felt the need for large bursts of color and enticing texture, so I did a little research before heading out and put Brown’s Japanese Yew, Huechera, Floral Berry (St. John’s Wort), Stone Crop, Hens & Chicks, Compact Oregon Grape, and Lime Twist Sedum on my list of plants to look for.

After my first stop, Snow ‘N Summer Asiatic Jasmine, mugo pine, cabbage, and violas were added to the list. I hadn’t bought anything yet, though. At my next stop, Frenzy Juncus, an Autumn Empress Encore Azalea, a few Hazy Dark Pink Asters, and a pack of SnapdDragons jumped the list and hopped into my cart. They called my name, and there weren’t many of them, so I needed to get them right away. Oh, and 5 hot fuscia cyclamen. I love cyclamen…

Creating a Whimsical Container by RGC Blogger Dawn McGee

Education, Gardening

Last month’s speaker, Jeanne Singer, inspired me to put together a container project I had been thinking about for some time. It involves a length of rebar or other sturdy thin rod and various sizes of pots with drain holes in the bottom (I used 4), then stacking them on top of each other and putting in plants. You can even stack them topsy turvy at angles for fun. Rebar can be found in various lengths and is inexpensive.

Steps: Find a fairly level spot in your yard or flower bed and hammer the rebar, pipe, etc. into the ground several inches (be careful not to puncture your sprinkler system, cable or utilities) then place your largest container down …

RGC Goes to Adaptive Summer Camp by RGC Blogger Carolyn Herndon

Adaptive Programs, Education, Gardening

As part of our Adaptive Recreation partnership with Roswell’s ARC, on June 12, several RGC members worked with about 16 children attending the Adaptive Summer Camp at the Waller Park Gym. Three crafts related to gardening and the outdoors were provided: a flower, a rainbow and a butterfly.

Crafts included gluing colorful cupcake liners of varying sizes onto a sheet of paper with grass and leaves creating a flower with leaves.

The second activity was making a rainbow mobile. Beforehand, a rainbow design was cut from paper and lines added to create spaces for colors of the rainbow. The children colored these and glued on cotton balls for the clouds. Blue raindrops were attached with string, and a string was attached to …

National Garden Week – Got Ivy? Get Goats! by RGC Blogger Sherron Lawson

Environment, Gardening, National Garden Week, Plants

In the Spring of 2022 my husband and I realized that we could not tackle the tangled mess that is the rear of our 1+ acre lot. So instead we decided to engage goats to work on the English ivy, wild grapevine, honeysuckle, Virginia creeper, and privet in the under story of our oak, walnut, magnolia, sassafras, mimosa, and sweetgum wooded lot.

Mansell Landscaping (Arnold Mill Road, Woodstock) to the rescue! They have diversified their services to include a herd of goats which they rent out for just this work. We loved the idea of using a local company, especially with an old Roswell family name.

Barry and Joy Mansell showed up with a trailer full of 10 hungry goats ready to munch away. They stayed with us for seven days and nights enjoying a smorgasbord of greenery. Their bleating greeted us each morning as the sun rose to wake them…

National Garden Week: Planning an Heirloom Garden by RGC Blogger Florence Anne Berna

Gardening, Horticulture, National Garden Week, Plants

Ahhh!!! Spring and early summer! The time of year that stirs our mind, spirit and body into venturing outdoors and communing with nature. So you rise up, arm yourself with tools and head out to tackle the weeds, pruning and edging. After all of the ‘grunt’ work is done you head to the stores to buy your beloved summer plants. Buying plants that have been pampered in greenhouses to look their very best to entice you to buy them. At home, you follow all the rules for Southern gardening: Till the clay. Amend your soil with sand and peat moss. Mix in some all-purpose fertilizer. Plant your summer selections and water. Then the heat comes and quite possibly a drought. Or perhaps too much rain. In no time at all those lovely summer plants are not well or worse — not even alive! There is an alternative…

National Garden Week: Autumn Sage-A Perfect Perennial For Georgia by RGC Blogger Dotty Etris

Gardening, Horticulture, National Garden Week, Plants

Autumn Sage is a perennial plant native to North America – specifically native to Texas Hill Country and Mexico. It is named for Josiah Gregg, a naturalist who found it as he traveled throughout the Southwestern United States and Mexico.

It is a sub-shrub that blooms from March – November on previous or current year’s growth, attracting pollinators. It is specifically known as a magnet for Hummingbirds. It thrives in rocky soils but does well in dry to medium well-drained soils. When first planted, water 2 times a week until it is established but then it does well on its own. If it gets to be terribly hot for too many days with no rain at all, I will sometimes water it, but it seems to thrive even when neglected – perhaps that is why I love this plant so much…

Garden Week in Georgia: Friendship is a Garden Club

Garden Week In Georgia, Gardening, Inspiration

JoAnn: We are not always in the garden, our friendship happens all around Roswell. Last week some of us got together at Jeanne’s home and stitched 50 of the cutest “Happy Sacks” to be placed on each meal delivered by Meals on Wheels this spring.

We had many laughs and caught up on our families. Besides Jeanne and myself, JoAnn, Marcia, Carolyn, Stephanie, Donna, and Dawn helped with Happy Sacks. We missed those who were not able to join us.

Amy L: Proust said “Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.”

Garden Week In Georgia: The Many Seasons of my Friend the Amaryllis by RGC Blogger Gretchen Collins

Garden Week In Georgia, Gardening, Plants

If friendship were a garden, Amaryllis would be a friend who is always there for us. In Georgia we have many months of beauty in our landscape. Perhaps March is one of our most beautiful months for blooms. The Amaryllis bulbs that we can save from year to year might have come into bloom in February or March in our homes. When the blooms finish, it will be time to fertilize them and watch the leaves grow more lush.

In May my bulbs will be transferred to the garden where the bulbs will be replenished as the foliage continues to grow…

Garden Week in Georgia: Member Reflections–We Grow Our Gardens Row by Row, One Flower at A Time

Garden Week In Georgia, Gardening, Plants

Friends, plants, gardens, and friendship go and grow hand in hand as you’ll see in these thoughts from RGC members who share how their gardens grew, row by row, with flowers from their friends.

Roz: Most of the plants in my sun room were given to me by friends and family. These photos show plants from hiking, synagogue, and garden club friends and ONE (green pot) from my Mother.

When Mom moved out of her house in Brooklyn, she gifted me with her only houseplant. The plant ‘lived’ with me in New Jersey and then traveled with me to Georgia. I think about my Mom, who passed in 2008, when I care for her plant.

When plants from friends show significant growth and/or bloom, I send photos. During the worst of the Pandemic I spent many hours in the sun room with the plants. Although I live alone, my friends were often with me as I tended their plants.

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