Garden club news includes sweetheart event

An open house presented by the MGM Garden Club will be from 10 a.m. to noon Feb. 13. “Bring Your Sweetheart to the Garden” will be held at the Moody Demonstration Garden on 28th Street, across from the University of Arizona Cooperative Extension office.

There will be guided tours of the garden. Long-stemmed roses and refreshments will be for sale. Entertainment will be provided by the Old Time Fiddlers. A fund-raising raffle to help support the garden will be held, with the winner receiving a Valentine’s emu bush.

Once you’ve finished touring the garden, walk across the street to the Cooperative Extension office and enjoy the Yuma Garden Club’s flower show, “Bring Your Sweetheart to the Flowers,” which opens at 12:15 p.m. Feb. 13. The flower show will have horticultural specimens and floral designs on exhibit.

All amateur gardeners and arrangers are invited to participate. Entries for the flower show will be accepted from 7 to 8 p.m. Feb. 12, and from 8 to 10 a.m. Feb. 13. Entries will be judged and the show will open for viewing from 12:15 to 4 p.m. Feb. 13.

All horticulture specimens entered must be grown by the exhibitor. Containers will be provided for the specimens. The classes for specimens are: Flowering house or patio plants, foliage house or patio plants, herbs, orchids in bloom in containers, and cacti. Consultants will be on hand when specimens are entered to help identify them by genus and species, which will go on the entry tag. Container-grown plants must be in the exhibitor’s possession for at least 90 days. If the container has multiple plants, it must be in the exhibitor’s possession for at least six weeks.

The design portion of the flower show has a romantic Valentine’s Day theme. The titles for the arrangements are: “Love in Bloom” using fresh and/or dried plant material, exhibited on a white tablecloth, “Tiny Treasures … A Gift of Love” using fresh and/or dried plant material, design can be up to eight inches in height, width, and depth, staged on graduated boxes which are draped, “One Love” using fresh and/or dried material, staged inside a frame 36 inches high, 24 inches wide and 12 inches deep, provided by the Yuma Federated Garden Clubs, and “First Kiss” open to novice arrangers who have never won a blue ribbon in a standard flower show. Any blue ribbons won at the Yuma County Fair do not count, allowing exhibitors to enter an arrangement in “First Kiss.” Fresh and/or dried materials can be used.

Plant materials used in each arrangement will be listed on a 3x5 card to provide plant identification information to the public. No artificial materials are allowed in the floral designs.

If you would like to create a flower arrangement for any of these titles, call Mary Lou Milstead at 783-3145 and reserve a spot. Arrangements not reserved are still welcome, it just makes it easier to know how many tables are needed for each design if the public calls and requests to create a particular arrangement. The show is for everyone who enjoys gardening, so why not give it a try and enter both plant specimens and an arrangement?

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Pecan Grove Garden Club was awarded a community challenge grant for its school education tree project. Val Colvin stated that the grant includes planting trees at all elementary and junior high schools in Yuma School District 1 and Crane Elementary School District 13. Twenty-seven schools and more than 17,000 students will be involved in this project.

The first tree from the grant was planted Jan. 25 at Ron Watson Middle School. Attending and helping plant the tree were certified arborists Frank Saldana and Frank Vasquez. Also attending were Donna Franklin, Ron Watson School principal; Willene Calvert, Pecan Grove president; Val Colvin, grant writer for the project and member of Pecan Grove Garden Club; Barbara Bensel, team leader for the Ron Watson School planting; and Renee McGarvie, project chairman. Special guest was Louise Wakem, urban and community forester, Arizona State Forestry Division.

Special thanks go to Pat Fox, Yuma Nursery manager, for supporting the project with sissoo trees, and Greg Hyland, city of Yuma community and public affairs coordinator, for taping the tree planting process done at Ron Watson School. Mr. Hyland’s tape will be available at every school so that students in individual classrooms can view the correct method of planting a tree.

Along with donating a tree to each school, Pecan Grove Garden Club is giving each elementary school child a coloring book featuring Yuma trees and information about each tree. The sissoo tree, which is being planted at each school, is highlighted in the coloring book. Junior high schools will receive seven urban forestry and tree information books to be added to their school libraries.

One of the goals of garden clubs is community service, and this project definitely is helping our entire community.

If you are looking for a great group of men and women who enjoy socializing and gardening, come and check out a garden club meeting:

• Pecan Grove Garden Club meets at 6:30 p.m. the third Tuesday of each month at the Main Library, Room A, 2951 S. 21st Drive. For information, call 782-7342. February program: To turf or not to turf, speaker Joel Whitted from All Play Synthetic Lawn.

• Yuma Garden Club meets at 1 p.m. the second Monday of each month at Sun Leisure Estates Club House, 14125 Mark Drive. For information, call 851-3981. February program: Birding in El Golfo, speaker Dr. Dave Sussman, Audubon Society and Arizona Western College professor.

• MGM Garden Club meets every Tuesday morning to work in the Moody Demonstration Garden, 28th Street across from the Cooperative Extension office. Volunteers are welcome. Their business meeting is the last Tuesday of each month at 9 a.m. For information, call 1-908-612-3539.

• The Yuma Orchid Society meets at 10 a.m. the second Monday of each month in the Foothills at Fortuna de Oro, North Frontage Road. For information, call 246-1259.

The Desert Masters Junior Garden Club is a group of 25 to 30 students from Desert Mesa Elementary School who enjoy gardening. The group is sponsored by Yuma Garden Club and meets 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. Tuesdays under the direction of art teacher Mrs. Jenna Watson,  students maintain a school garden, volunteers interested in helping with this gardening project can contact Mrs. Watson at Desert Mesa Elementary School, 341-9700.

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Karen Bowen is a Master Gardener and member of Yuma Garden Club. She can be reached at bowenkaren@ymail.com. Members of the Federated Garden Clubs of Yuma write articles for this column.