In February, we had our monthly meeting once again at the Extension classroom in Westminster. The hostesses had a Valentine’s Day theme with small table decorations using boxwood, babie’s breath and ruby/garnet glassware, sprinkling the tables with little Hershey’s Kisses and arrangements with red roses on the food tables.
They followed this theme with cute heart shaped sugar cookies with red sprinkles. This month we were treated to typically tasty offerings : soup, salad and varied tea sandwiches with other desserts.
This month we again welcomed Mildred, a friend of Diane’s whom we sincerely hope will join us!
Barb Childs has an amazing green thumb with container plants as well as with her former outdoor gardens which is evident in the Amaryllis she brought in. Can you believe the number of flowers on this particular specimen?!
Our speaker this month was Jackie Coldsmith who we have had before, but on a different subject: Buying Local.
Jackie’s company is Tierra Blooms in Taneytown. She grows flowers for the wholesale market and also makes arrangements for weddings. She gave us a slide show discussing how the American flower market was displaced by flowers flown in from South America to Florida which is our nation’s distribution hub. Many growers were forced out of business as they could not compete on a cost basis.
The problem is that the reliance on this current system bad environmentally. There are few to no restrictions on the harmful chemicals used by growers in South America, questionable labor practices and the reliance on flying in and trucking makes the carbon footprint (increased fuel use–CO2 levels) much higher.
The solution is the buy local or *local flowers* movement which seeks to bring back our own growers and be more environmentally friendly. There has been great success in bringing more growers on board.
Jackie had a slide show which also displayed some of the plants she grows both in a greenhouse and types grown in the field.
Listening to Jackie at the meeting…
