CGC November Meeting 2016

We met at Union Bridge for our November meeting on a very sunny day. Our hostesses had prepared very festively decorated tables for the luncheon and for the pleasure of those seated. The tea luncheon choices were a feast for the eyes too!

Our horticulture show ‘n’ tell was centered around a request to bring in mums. Several people complied and we had a selection of mini mums that progressed to the larger “football” sizes. The winner of the prize was our Nancy Heiberg who brought a basket display of her home grown Korean mums.

Of course, Joan Epler could not resist bringing in one of her huge late blooming roses to share!

Then Marjorie showed how she had made a couple of arrangements with succulents in a square dish and using a squash (or pumpkin)!

A few members who had designed standing luminaries also displayed their work after a round of judging. We all agreed that Barb and Kelly’s arrangement met all the best criteria if entered in a show.

We have covered orchids in some capacity in several meetings, but this time our speaker, Sarah Hurdell, was the “real deal”. She grows orchids of the most complicated species, not just the sort we typically hear about in a Growing Orchids for Beginners talk. She competes in the Big Leagues and wins blue ribbons AND she knows details about orchids in a scientific sense ad infinitum. So we learned a lot about the more unusual orchids that most of us will never see except in a horticultural display . A true botanist. We enjoyed her talk which was punctuated with many slides, a few are shown here to remind us of what she taught. (click to enlarge)