HELLO, GARDEN FRIENDS! ROCK SPRING GARDEN CLUB HAS A NEW WEBSITE!
PLEASE VISIT US AT WWW.ROCKSPRINGGARDENCLUB.COM FOR ALL OUR LATEST
NEWS AND ACTIVITIES. THANKS!
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
SEPTEMBER 15, 2011 - Meeting and Announcement of our GARDEN OF THE YEAR AWARD!
September 2011 Meeting
YES! WE ARE ANNOUNCING OUR GARDEN OF THE YEAR WINNER FOR 2011!
Come see what the Rock Spring Garden Club is all about. Meet new and interesting people and learn something new! Whether you are a rookie gardener or an old hand, there's always something to learn. Our speaker lineup for the year provide our members and guests with valuable information and great ideas about gardening, floral design, horticulture, conservation, garden tours and so much more.
Our next meeting will be held on Thursday, September 15, 2011 at 10:00 AM at Little Falls Presbyterian Church, 6025 Little Falls Road, Arlington, VA 22207. All meetings are held on the third Thursday of the month and are open to the public (unless otherwise noted) so please RSVP to rockspringgardenclub@gmail.com .
At our September 15 meeting, announcing our Garden of the Year Winner for 2011 followed by a garden tour of nominee gardens. Refreshments will be served. Please RSVP!
COMING UP IN NOVEMBER: Rock Spring Garden Club will host a Floral Design Event - learn how to make your own flower arrangements - it's easy once we show you how - for the upcoming holidays, weddings, showers or family events! We have several designers to guide you and our GUEST DESIGNER this year is Sarah Von Pollaro of Urban Petals. Her designs have graced the White House and many other signature events in the Capital Region. Save the Date! Tuesday, November 13, 2011 7-9 PM at the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association Building, 4301 Wilson Blvd, Arlington, Virginia. Admission is $20. Free Underground Parking. Door prizes, raffles, delicious freshments, floral supplies available, and we will auction all of the evening floral designs! For more information, please contact rockspringgardenclub@gmail.com
YES! WE ARE ANNOUNCING OUR GARDEN OF THE YEAR WINNER FOR 2011!
Come see what the Rock Spring Garden Club is all about. Meet new and interesting people and learn something new! Whether you are a rookie gardener or an old hand, there's always something to learn. Our speaker lineup for the year provide our members and guests with valuable information and great ideas about gardening, floral design, horticulture, conservation, garden tours and so much more.
Our next meeting will be held on Thursday, September 15, 2011 at 10:00 AM at Little Falls Presbyterian Church, 6025 Little Falls Road, Arlington, VA 22207. All meetings are held on the third Thursday of the month and are open to the public (unless otherwise noted) so please RSVP to rockspringgardenclub@gmail.com .
At our September 15 meeting, announcing our Garden of the Year Winner for 2011 followed by a garden tour of nominee gardens. Refreshments will be served. Please RSVP!
COMING UP IN NOVEMBER: Rock Spring Garden Club will host a Floral Design Event - learn how to make your own flower arrangements - it's easy once we show you how - for the upcoming holidays, weddings, showers or family events! We have several designers to guide you and our GUEST DESIGNER this year is Sarah Von Pollaro of Urban Petals. Her designs have graced the White House and many other signature events in the Capital Region. Save the Date! Tuesday, November 13, 2011 7-9 PM at the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association Building, 4301 Wilson Blvd, Arlington, Virginia. Admission is $20. Free Underground Parking. Door prizes, raffles, delicious freshments, floral supplies available, and we will auction all of the evening floral designs! For more information, please contact rockspringgardenclub@gmail.com
Saturday, February 26, 2011
September 2011 Meeting
Come see what the Rock Spring Garden Club is all about. Meet new and interesting people and learn something new!
Our next meeting is Thursday, September 15, 2011 at the Little Falls Presbyterian Church, 6025 Little Falls Rd, Arlington, Virginia. Guests are always welcome and our program is free and open to the public. The business portion of our meeting begins at 10:00AM; our program begins at about 10:45AM. Come see what our Garden Club is all about! Feel free to drop by or RSVP at rockspringgardenclub@gmail.com or call 607-425-4176.
WE ARE ANNOUNCING ARE 2011 WINNER OF OUR GARDEN OF THE YEAR!!
WE ARE ANNOUNCING ARE 2011 WINNER OF OUR GARDEN OF THE YEAR!!
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Our Calendar
Rock Spring Garden Club Programs and Designs of the Month
All meetings are at Little Falls Presbyterian Church
6025 Little Falls Road, Arlington, VA 22207 703-538-5230 unless otherwise noted.
_______________________________________________
March 17, 2011, at 10 AM
“Promote Biodiversity and a Healthy Bay – Grow Natives”
Laura Beaty, horticulturist and native plant enthusiast
Design of the Month: “Matchmaker, Matchmaker, Make Me a Match”
Create a parallel design of all fresh plant material, plus other components as desired.
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April 21, 2011, at 10 AM
“Fruits of Victory, The Women’s Land Army of America in the Great War”
Elaine F. Weiss, author and journalist
Design of the Month: “A Tisket, a Tasket”
Using a wicker basket, evoke the bounty of the Victory Garden with a design with fruits and/or vegetables. Greens and a few flowers may be used.
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May 19, 2011 at 9:30 AM
Carpool to Merrifield Garden Center, 6895 Wellington Road, Gainesville, Va.
Garden Jewels: “Container Gardens”, Renatta Holt, landscape designer
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June 9, 2011 at 10 AM
Spring Luncheon & Tour - private garden of Peg Bier,
Merrifield Gardens plant specialist and manager
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Monday, November 29, 2010
Holiday Floral Design Event! Click on above photos!
On Tuesday, November 16, the Rock Spring Garden Club held its first Holiday Floral Design Demonstration event at the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association building in Ballston, Arlington, Virginia as a fundraiser. Four garden club members and one special guest demonstrated five holiday designs. Susan Foulke demonstrated a Traditional Mass Design for any holiday using greens from her yard, roses, carnations, lilies, and other readily available flowers from the markets. Sheila Moore demonstrated a Harvest Design using greens, herbs, flowers, and miniature fresh pumpkins for a wreath and Thanksgiving tableau. Barnett Norris showed how to make a Boxwood Christmas Tree with decorations added for great interest. Dorinda Burroughs showed how to use fresh cranberries and super market flowers to create a long lasting Thanksgiving or Christmas centerpiece. Our special guest, Debbie Brookes of Beachcomber Arts, Ocean Ridge Florida, showed how to celebrate New Year's with a top hat design of white hydrangeas, dendrobium orchids and local greens. She ended the design demonstration with a funky fun purple top hat design utilizing blue hydrangeas, purple dendrobiums, and bells of Ireland.
We had a wonderful Ways and Means table and tasty light refreshments. Guests could bid on the arrangements and all of them were sold! The event raised approximately $1700 and it is hope that it will become an annual affair!
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Impressions from a New Member
Not Your Grandmother's Garden Club
By Carole Owen
I went to a garden club meeting recently. And I was in for a surprise.
I had never been to a garden club meeting. But new friends in the neighborhood asked me to go, including Cathy, the neighborhood garden guru, so I said yes. Cathy has fashioned a garden paradise with a gem of a fish pond in her back yard (it has a waterfall!). But more on that later.
I am so glad I went. Because I discovered that my old stereotype of white gloves, silver tea service sets and a social hour involving little talk about gardening was outdated. Plus, people can't be stereotyped. Then there was the issue of common interest. Suddenly, with no real effort on my part, I was in a room filled with people who love gardening and conservation, people just like me.
But I barely had time to consider this epiphany because the day's entertainment, I mean speaker, started firing so much information at us I could barely keep up. Writer/gardener David Roos said, for one thing, gardeners should "lighten up on the Latin. If you are a gardener, this is not really important. It doesn't make you a better gardener. It will just make you annoying to others."
He then turned serious and said gardeners are vitally important in the effort to solve some of the world's worst problems and to just look around to see why, especially at the children. Autism, behavioral problems and allergies are increasing at alarming rates, in Roos' opinion, "all because we are transforming from a gardening world to a chemical world."
There were 80 people at the meeting that day and Roos brought only 25 handouts. He commended the unexpected crowd and said organizers were to be praised for that. Although only women were in evidence at the Rock Spring Garden Club in Arlington, VA, Roos said that in Britain, especially, men are active in garden clubs and bring wives and children to meetings. That is because they are at the vanguard of a back-to-the-garden movement in Europe.
Roos, who wrote "22 Things Your Mother Never Told You About Gardening," said pesticides are not the only problem he sees today, citing fertilizers as bad for the environment and particularly for the Chesapeake Bay in this area. He said people should deploy organic preparations if they need to, but also should loosen their standards about what constitutes the "perfect" lawn. He said it makes no sense to use hazardous materials on our grass, then send the children out to play on top of the chemical mess.
"Don't try to grow plants; grow dirt and then stand back," is one of his standards. Gypsum and organic peat will break up hard-packed soil and clay. Put compost on top of the soil and mothball the rotary tiller and other power tools. "Your goal .... is to make your garden the happiest garden in the world for earthworms," signs of fertile, organic and most of all safe soil. That in turn saves the birds, the bees, the water, the atmosphere, our plants and food and therefore, us.
To start doing that, spend lots of time in the growing spaces. This is first on his list and every gardener knows why: "Observe and listen: the best manure for a plant is the gardener's shadow."
Finally, he left us feeling like stars at the October garden club meeting, saying we were in the "worst place in the continental United States to garden." He cited Virginia's nasty clay combined with the Middle Atlantic region's heat and tea rose-slaughtering humidity in summer followed by the cold winter's snow and ice. The area can only "grow corn and horses" with ease.
So while all gardeners are important, it is in the Mid-Atlantic that growers deserve real praise for optimism and persistence. "You are gardening gods," he said.
To start doing that, he suggested that we spend lots of time in the growing spaces. This is first on his list and every gardener knows why: "Observe and listen: the best manure for a plant is the gardener's shadow."
Finally, he left us feeling like stars at the October garden club meeting, saying we were in the "worst place in the continental United States to garden." He cited Virginia's nasty clay combined with the Middle Atlantic region's heat and tea rose-slaughtering humidity in summer, followed by the cold winter's snow and ice. The area can only "grow corn and horses" with ease.
So while all gardeners are important, it is in the Mid-Atlantic that growers deserve real praise for optimism and persistence. "You are gardening gods," he said.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Garden of the Year Photos!
Please click on any of the photos above to view Rock Spring Garden Club's photo albums. Check out the Garden of the Year album to see our winners' garden!
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Great Kick-off Meeting!
After a very short business meeting, we all enjoyed an outstanding program by Janet Draper, horticulturist at the Smithsonian's Ripley Garden. Following that presentation, the announcement of the winning Garden of the Year was made. A fabulous lunch was served to over 80 members and guests. Don't forget to click on any of the photos above to see our entire photo albums, including today's designs.
Sunday, August 29, 2010
President's Message
Giving 100%
Our 2010-2011 Rock Spring Garden Club year will be a busy one, filled with new ideas and ensuing new directions along with an appraisal of our current policies and programs to make sure our club is the best it can be.
The strong and inviting club we have today is the result of the hard work and dedication of many of our members over the years. My personal goal for the club this year is “Giving 100%” and we can reach this goal with each member contributing to all of our club activities through suggestions and ideas and through personal participation in our many creative and worthwhile projects. I look forward to working with you.
Let’s have a great year!
Anita Brown, President
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Rock Spring Garden Club on FACEBOOK!
Follow us on Facebook!! Just search for Rock Spring Garden Club on your Facebook page.
Signing up for Facebook is easy - just follow the directions at Facebook.com!
Signing up for Facebook is easy - just follow the directions at Facebook.com!
Friday, April 2, 2010
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Information about Rock Spring Garden Club
History and Purpose:
Rock Spring Garden Club was organized in 1953 when a group of friends in Arlington banded together to try to save several oak trees from a developer’s ax. While unsuccessful in saving the trees, this small group of citizens continued their joint efforts and organized a garden club to pursue their common interests and concerns. Rock Spring Garden Club was established for the purpose of furthering an interest in gardening, horticulture, and floral designing; conserving and protecting natural resources; and serving the community through garden therapy programs, youth activities, and civic beautification.
Since 1958, Rock Spring Garden Club has presented a garden therapy program for special needs children in a local elementary school. In addition, a Junior Garden Club was established in 2000 to foster young children’s interests in gardening, conservation, and floral design, also at the elementary school level. Both of these Club outreach activities are part of the Partnership in Education Program of the Arlington County Public School system.
Begun in 1970 as a continuing Club project, the maintenance and landscaping of Arlington’s Rock Spring Park has been an ongoing, year-round effort of the Club’s Civic Development Committee, in cooperation with Arlington County Parks and Recreation Department and, more recently, with the students of nearby Marymount University.
Affiliated with:
National Garden Clubs, Inc.
Central Atlantic Region
National Capital Area Garden Clubs, Inc.
Member of:
Chesapeake Bay Foundation
Friends of National Arboretum
The Nature Conservancy
Potomac Lily Society
Virginia Native Plant Society
What we do:
EDUCATE club members and community members about horticulture, gardening techniques, artistic floral design, landscaping, and conservation through programs, school activities, and flower shows.
EXTEND the knowledge and beauty of flowers and plants to youth groups and other community members.
WORK within the community to bring civic beautification, historic preservation, and environmental awareness to all in the area
Rock Spring Garden Club was organized in 1953 when a group of friends in Arlington banded together to try to save several oak trees from a developer’s ax. While unsuccessful in saving the trees, this small group of citizens continued their joint efforts and organized a garden club to pursue their common interests and concerns. Rock Spring Garden Club was established for the purpose of furthering an interest in gardening, horticulture, and floral designing; conserving and protecting natural resources; and serving the community through garden therapy programs, youth activities, and civic beautification.
Since 1958, Rock Spring Garden Club has presented a garden therapy program for special needs children in a local elementary school. In addition, a Junior Garden Club was established in 2000 to foster young children’s interests in gardening, conservation, and floral design, also at the elementary school level. Both of these Club outreach activities are part of the Partnership in Education Program of the Arlington County Public School system.
Begun in 1970 as a continuing Club project, the maintenance and landscaping of Arlington’s Rock Spring Park has been an ongoing, year-round effort of the Club’s Civic Development Committee, in cooperation with Arlington County Parks and Recreation Department and, more recently, with the students of nearby Marymount University.
Affiliated with:
National Garden Clubs, Inc.
Central Atlantic Region
National Capital Area Garden Clubs, Inc.
Member of:
Chesapeake Bay Foundation
Friends of National Arboretum
The Nature Conservancy
Potomac Lily Society
Virginia Native Plant Society
What we do:
EDUCATE club members and community members about horticulture, gardening techniques, artistic floral design, landscaping, and conservation through programs, school activities, and flower shows.
EXTEND the knowledge and beauty of flowers and plants to youth groups and other community members.
WORK within the community to bring civic beautification, historic preservation, and environmental awareness to all in the area
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