and the year winds down...

A good day at Kingwood today.  There was a light snow cover for the first time this season.  Was wishing for a nice snowfall on the house with the Christmas Wreaths out, but missed my only one shot at it before the season ends tomorrow. 

I have been waiting to use this picture of the urn in some manner.  I have decided to use it as the facebook page icon for the winter months.  Jen had taken some better ones, but since she removed her pictues from the Kingwood Facebook, I am going to have to make due with mine!

Johnny Appleseed Garden Club at a Kingwood Christmas

This was Year One for me with the Johnny Appleseed Garden Club to participate in the Kingwood Christmas Decorating.  Not to be overwhelmed, we decided to only commit to a tree and not dive head first into a room.  Much discussion starting in October and the core committee of Carol O, Mardy B, Darleen M. and myself decided we would go outside the box with a flocked tree.  Trees used for a Kingwood Christmas are fresh cut. We couldn't find anyone in town to flock the tree, so Darleen went to work and located a flocking machine.  She and I were going to take the tree from Kingwood and bring it back flocked in all its fake snow covered glory.  However, the situation occurred that the tree needed to be decorate sooner than anticipated.  Since I was out of town, Darleen manged get the flocking done by herself. What a wonderful job she did.  The air compressor decided not to participate, so she did the entire tree by hand with a sieve.  Delivered by Mardy and her hubby to Kingwood Hall on Friday. A little help from Bill Collins with the stand and every thing's set for decorating the next morning.

These cute polar bears were made by the garden club at the last meeting with stiff glittery felt. We selected some icicle garland and sparkly snowflakes from the Kingwood collection to accent his cuteness. Red pipe cleaner was used in the tree bears and also on the stuffed polar bears at the base of the tree. A fun time decorating and we were all pleased with our finished Artic Tree.

Spring Flower Festival 2011

My first Kingwood Spring Flower Festival and I took home two ribbons.  Day of the show turns out all I had to enter was a hosta leaf and a Mountain Bluet.  But that was enough as both took home a ribbon.  Second place hosta leaf and Honorable Mention Mountain Bluet.

I had high hopes for a herb basket design and also to bring in an iris.  But my chives, for the basket design and my iris were on their last hurrah just the day before.  By show day, they were not show worthy.  The hosta plant was given to me last year by my good friend Kathy M.  The Mountain Bluet came from a plant I got last year, which was an extra from the herb garden.  The show was great fun, hanging out with Elin D and Lynn H.  Next blog I will show some of the other exhibits -

Kingwood Bunny Party / Kingwood Spring Flower Festival

Well today was the Kingwood Spring Flower Festival.  The Kingwood Herb Society was in charge of the Kingwood Bunny Party.  David Wood wrote a book about the year in a life of a Kingwood Bunny and that is how it started.  For more info on his book see my March 4th blog.  His wife Pat L wrote a book on Lasagna Gardening.  She was giving a lecture on Lasagna Gardening and he did a bunny party with his book.  It was a long day with a lot of preparation.  Had to come up with buckeyes, acorns, milkweed pods that included the seed.  It was a tall order for this time of year and one weeks notice.  Bonnie H came up with a brilliant idea to give out peacock feathers.  Day before, we iced many cookies and I baked 48 cupcakes, which turns out to be four dozen.  It has been a long time since I did math!  Others baked some as well.  We also iced the cupcakes.   At the party I handed out goodies and wore a bunny mask.  I took some cute pictures on this project.  For more pictures go to the Kingwood Herb Society on Facebook..  So let's look at a few of them!



Welcome to the Bunny Party





Those Bunnies are Nancy P and Kay Hostetler



Cute kids getting their picture by Lucy.



David Wood handing out milkweed seeds.  Don't let too many get away!



And finally - the kids favorite part.  Everyone gets a peacock feather from Bonnie H!



Tulip Time Lapse Project - Update

For my update - here are my starting and ending pictures.  I am putting them on a disk for John Makley and we will see what he can do to combined them with the shots he took and make an awesome video!

Not much change on the Allee

Some change in the Terrace Garden

Most change in the Sunken Garden

Hi Ohio - Discover Ohio

Bonnie H and I (representing Kingwood) went over to Lorrain County Visitors Center to attend a seminar put on by Ohio Tourism. It was very interesting and there were people there representing Cedar Point and other places of interest.  On the Discover Ohio website, you can create and save your own Ohio travel itinerary.  I am going to spend some time checking this feature out!  Have to come up with some creative package destinations so people will get out to visit Kingwood Center!  I'll keep you informed, just in case you guys ever get out this way!  Go to their website at: Discover Ohio

Narcissus / Daffodils in the Peony Garden

What are the names of these daffodils you ask?  Well, a project I have been working on with Charles Applegate is identifying and mapping the daffodils in the Peony Garden.  It's been a fun task, and a work in progress as now that I have collected the data, I have to match it to pictures and plot it on the maps.  Below are a few basics I have learned along the way and for a more detailed account of daffodils - watch Charles Applegate on Plant Talk by clicking on this link: Kingwood Center Plant Talk 4/28

 

Daffodil Identification: 

The American Daffodil Society divides all Narcissus into 13 horticultural divisions, based partly upon flower form and partly upon genetic background.  For color coding the daffodil is divided into two regions, the perianth (petals) and corona (cup).  For example, a Division 5 Yellow-Yellow and is displayed as:   5 Y-Y.  Charles Applegate suggested I get the book Daffodils to Show and Grow, so I asked my friend Lynn H to check it out of the Kingwood library for me.  She volunteers in the library.  Well, more to follow as I learn about Daffodils.

Happy Arbor Day

Chuck Gleaves, Director at Kingwood Center, finished planting up a grove of birch trees, over by the duck pond, in time for Arbor Day.

Mr. Robin perches to survey just moments after planting and by his song, I can tell he approves of a job well done!

Tulip Time Lapse Project

Mr John Makley sent me an e-mail about a project he had envisioned on taking time lapse pictures of the tulip beds and putting them together for a short film.  He figured eight pictures a day for nine days.  Well, don't have to tell you how fast I signed up for this project!  A schedule was worked out and we marked the tripod spots for each shot.

First shot will be of the Allee

I thought we should add a few additional shots.. so we came up with

View toward the Terrace Garden

View in the Terrace Garden

And added a view of the Sunken Garden

Well folks, Hide and Watch what is to transpire.  Forecast is eight days of rain, so this should be an interesting endeavor!

Happy Days - NEW DUCKS ! ! !

Shawn McClain acquired a few new friends for the duck pond.  I will elaborate on the others later, but today I will focus on my favorite.  Sorry Indian Runners.  The East Indie Duck and Peking friend.  I don't have any beautiful shots yet.  These are just introductory shots.  But I consider this duck to be special, so there are too many pictures to follow!



You want to take pictures of me?



not until



I've done some preening



Come over here and get in the picture!



Tandem Preening



Just a few



more feathers....



Ready for my close up



Get my good side..



Playing Coy



Photo shoot done.  Now I need a drink!

Piebald Robin in Rose Garden

A Piebald robin has been hanging out in the rose garden for a few years now.  There is great discussion on whether it is the same robin or an offspring.  It is a very interesting robin and I enjoy seeing him in the spring. Mona in the greenhouse calls him Oreo.  Don Miller says it nests in one of the pine trees in the rose garden.

John Makley took a video of him.  Here is a link to watch it: Piebald Robin video on Kingwood's Facebook

Rose Garden - 1st pruning of the year

Kathy M and I had a great time giving the roses a good pruning today.  We had to cut the time short due to rain, but got done what we could.  The star of todays show was Kathy's new poka-doted boots!

Here is a picture of Don Miller and Kathy M hard at work showing me how it's done!

My day at Kingwood...Thyme in the Herb Garden

Wednesday was a cold, rainy and miserable weather day.  When hasn't it been lately in Ohio.  Radar said rain was headed out so we headed into the Herb Garden.  I was working on trimming the thyme clock.  Here is a picture of what I was aiming for.  With the on and off rain, we called it a day just after break so it didn't end up looking like this when I quit.  Bonnie H and I went to work on a sign project in the service building instead!