Calendar and Events

February 17

Mark your calendars for a fine talk on The World of Clematis, presented by Maurice Horn, founder and owner, with Mike Smith, of Joy Creek Nursery in Scappoose, Oregon, eighteen miles north of Portland. Maurice, a founding member of the Pacific Northwest Clematis Society and former council member of the International Clematis Society, will share his in-depth botanical knowledge as well as his extensive garden experience with this astonishingly varied genus.

March 16

Bruce Newhouse, botanist, naturalist, amd community educator, will bring spectacular pictures of butterflies and some of their kin. These are members of the insect world that we want to invite into our gardens. Bruce will offer guidance for creating year-round habitat and tell us which colorful visitors to expect. You might gain a new-found tolerance for chewed leaves, as well as a respect for plants that some people term "weeds."

April 20

Find a place in your garden for “Intimate Space,” a place that oozes the comfort and serenity of a warm fire and a comfy couch. Garden designer and consultant, writer and speaker, Lucy Hardiman will tell you how to do it in her special program, “Every Inch a Garden: Creating Intimate Space.” Lucy’s writings have appeared in Fine Gardening, Pacific Horticulture, Victorian Homes and The Oregonian, as well as numerous other magazines and books. She owns and is the principle designer at Perennial Partners, a Portland garden design firm. In her April 20 talk she will redefine our gardens to include intimate outdoor living spaces in the garden. And, through the designer’s eye, she will explore harmonious gardens that are well-proportioned with comfortable areas for respite and entertainment, all with dynamic planting designs.

May 10

Oregon Plant Fair 2008 at Alton Baker Park in Eugene

May 18

"Gathering Treasurers, Weaving Monets"

As the weather warms, our gardening momentum increases and by the time we get to May, we’ve purchased blooming perennials, shrubs for structure, and even a few of those seductive, tiny conifers—“we just couldn’t resist.” So now these treasures sit, and occasionally we clutch one or two and march around the garden, thinking, “maybe it could go here, or there . . . .” Sure, a couple were easy to plant; they filled bare places, but for many of us, our vision suffers from design astigmatism. Well, Cassandra and Bryan Barrett of Barrett Landscape and Design are coming to our rescue at the May meeting of Avid Gardeners. They will gather us in a circle and share the warp and the weft of weaving flowering vignettes and fluid landscapes. They will help us with our jewels that seem to have a home in our heart but not in our soil. Bring your questions, even a sketch of a problem area. Bring the names of plants that need to find their niche. You will be getting advice from the Design-diva of Eugene along with her better half, and he knows a little about “what goes where” himself.

Avid Gardeners gets together on the third Sunday of the month for speaker presentations, a raffle for gardening-related prizes, and a plant sale that offers a sampling of seasonal or hard-to-find orticultural treasures. Doors open at 6:30 PM at the Garden Club, 1645 High Street. Presentations start at 7:00 PM.

You can bring cuttings of plants from your garden (known and unknown - you'll probably get someone to identify them) that are currently displaying interesting foliage, flowers or fruits. Vases will be provided.

There will be a raffle and refreshments. The meeting is open to the public.

Contact person: Sandra 343-088

June 15

Bus trip to Dancing Oaks

Summer break

September 21

Mark Bloom on Propagation

October 19

Jim Gilbert One Green World

November 16

Sean Hogan Cistus