News 2017

In addition to purchasing books for the Hudson library, our club also donates to the Hudson library the annual subscriptions for the following gardening magazines: Country Gardens, Fine Gardening, Garden Gate Ideas Magazine, Ohio Garden Magazine and The Flower Arranger. All but the current month’s issue can be checked out for reading at home. Or, purchase a drink and snack at the library’s Brewster Cafe and spend some time reading a copy there.

The Herb Group is the club’s special interest group. It meets monthly to explore topics in the wide-ranging world of herbs. Meetings are announced in the newsletter. On Monday, November 13 at 10:30am the group will meet at the Hudson Library’s North Room for a workshop on Herbal Broth. Members Amy Squyers and Jan Schrader will lead this tasty and educational meeting. Participants will sample the freshly cooked broth along with herbal cheese and crackers. Everyone will leave with some broth for use at home in soups, vegetables and sauces. It can be frozen to have on hand for holiday cooking, too. Please RSVP to sherrybeam@hotmail.com or (330) 573-6353 by Nov 7.

On Tuesday, December 5 from 6:30pm to 8:30pm there will be a special holiday theme get together for new members who have joined in 2016 and 2017 at the home of Board member Sherry Beam. Sometimes it is hard to connect when you are new to an organization. This is a great way for you to learn more about the Club and make new gardening friends. Some of our Board members will be on hand to welcome you and to get to know you better. This is a fun, relaxing way to hear more about some of our activities and projects and to meet the people who spearhead them. We will have “hearty” appetizers, so skip dinner and enjoy a variety of treats here. Sherry’s address is 2633 Hudson-Aurora Road, directly across from the Hudson Methodist Church; near the intersection of Stow Road. Please park at the church lot. We look forward to seeing you! Please RSVP to Sherry at sherrybeam@hotmail.com or (330) 573-6353 by November 30.

Hudson Garden Club is decorating an entire room for “Deck the Hall” at Stan Hywet Hall and Gardens. The estate is illuminated inside and out with over ONE MILLION lights. The historic Manor House decorations are inspired by the theme Postcards from the Past. “Deck the Hall” will be open select evenings from November 24 to December 30, 2017. Come see our room, the Solarium, decorated by Barb Earnhardt, Nancy Forhan, Jane Harrison and Fern MacMillan! HGC was the only garden club invited to participate. Other rooms in the Manor House are being decorated by professional florists and designers! Several major room renovations have been done in the Manor House so Christmas is sure to be more beautiful than ever. Visit www.stanhywet.org for more information.

HGC is decorating one of the 30 Christmas trees at the Cleveland Botanical Garden winter show, GLOW, this holiday season. The theme for this year is “Woodland Forests and Gardens of Nature and Wonder.” The show is held from November 24 to December 31, 2017. Our tree, “First Snow in the Woods,” has handmade ornaments created by members Connie Chakford, Faye Duber, Barb Earnhardt, Kathy Foley, Nancy Ginsberg, Lois James, Nancy Kolodgy, Jan Lindstrom, Nancy Renner and Tina Schmutz. See our November newsletter for details about a special free GLOW event for club members. Visit www.cbgarden.org for more information about GLOW.

Our September 2017 field trip took us to see the 500 Dahlias of a real Dahlia lover, Ron Miner of Chagrin Falls. Ron is a Dahlia Society of Ohio judge and exhibitor, and a past-president of and currently a trustee of the American Dahlia Society. He spoke to our Club a few years ago and welcomed us to visit his three gardens with 100 different Dahlia cultivars. We learned about growing Dahlias, their watering/fertilizing needs, how to over-winter the tubers, and the virus research Ron is supporting in a project underway at Washington State University. We enjoyed seeing the wide variety of colors and shapes and sizes of this captivating flowering plant that is a member of the same family as the lowly dandelion!

New members and renewing members are encouraged to pay dues before October 15 in order to be included in our printed club membership book. Dues are $20. The membership form can be downloaded here. Grant Applications are due by November 1. Infomation about the HGC Grants and the application form is here.

Our club has a new online photo gallery at Shutterfly! Click this link to view the Tour Flower Arrangements not only from the 2017 Tour, but also from past years. You need not register to view the photos. HGC member Daniela Baloi compiled the images, many of which were her own, and organized the gallery. Members who would like to share their photos in the club gallery should call her at 330-656-0962 for further instruction.

The Hudson Garden Club Fund at Hudson Community Foundation is one of the ways our club funds our community outreach. Donations to the fund can now be made online via Paypal or credit card via a new link on our website’s Join or Donate page. Donations may be made in honor or in memory of someone. Scroll to the bottom of the Hudson Community Foundation donation page for the form. When making your charitable donations, please consider supporting our work.

Sue L’Hommedieu will hold a Gardener-to-Gardener event in her garden at 9am on Tuesday, June 27. The topic will be Transitioning to a Lower Maintenance Garden. Attendees will hear tips from Sue on design, plant selection and care and tour the garden to see examples from the discussion. Click here to download the handout for this casual garden walkabout.

Hudson Garden Club’s 5th annual Garden Gathering was held on June 10, 2017. One hundred guests enjoyed hors d’oeuvres, signature cocktails, wine and beer at the home of Brian and Gina Bishop. Their property, Maplewood Farm, had been recently renovated by Country LIving Magazine and was the perfect setting for the event. The proceeds helped fund scholarships, community grants and the beautification of Hudson.

A long-standing tradition of the Hudson Home and Garden Tour is the Tea Room that serves complimentary iced tea and homemade cookies to ticket holders. Each table in the Tea Room is decorated with a teapot filled with garden flowers from our members’ gardens. This year the event is hosted by member Angela Strach-Gotthardt.

June 15 and 16 are the dates for this year’s Home and Garden Tour. This tour, our 70th, revisits homes that have been featured on tours in past decades. Buy tour tickets Monday through Wednesday this week at Acme Fresh Market or Learned Owl Bookshop to save $5 per ticket. Click here for a video tour of one of this year’s stops. More information about the tour is on our Tour webpage.

Naturalist Stanley Stine led a group of HGC members on a walk through Cooperrider-Kent Bog on the afternoon of June 4. A boardwalk traverses this state nature preserve and allows a close look at a unique ecosystem. This kettle bog was formed by a glacier is now home to Ohio’s largest stand of Tamarack trees. The trees were beautiful to see with their rose-colored cones and soft evergreen-like foliage. We saw high bush and low bush blueberries, cranberries, several species of ferns, mosses, sedges, carex and Pixie Cup lichen. Stanley pointed out interesting plants, identified bird calls and answered our many questions. After the walk, the group enjoyed ice cream together in Kent. Garden Club field trips, one of the benefits of membership, are organized by Barb Earnhardt and are announced in the club newsletter.

The 2017 Spring Plant Exchange was held on a lovely May evening. Members welcomed many new people to the exchange and everyone left with new plants for their garden. The club holds this free event twice a year at Veteran’s Way Park. The next one will be on Saturday, September 23. For details about the exchange and to download labels for the plants you donate visit the Plant Exchange page of this website.

Hudson Garden Club’s Herb Group made arrangements for the club to have a behind the scenes greenhouse tour at Kollman’s Greenhouse in Twinsburg. Beth Kollman, the new owner, showed the group what it takes to start plants from seed and keep them growing and healthy until they are ready for purchase.

Members of the club’s Herb Group gathered for an Herbal Tea Luncheon recently. Recipes were distributed prior to the event and each participant contributed to the assortment of delicious savory and sweet delights. Beth Lawrence hosted the event at her home and made good use of her English background to serve a proper tea in colorful china tea cups. The Herb Group, a special interest group of Hudson Garden Club, meets monthly to learn about and to enjoy using herbs.

May Day has been a Hudson Garden Club tradition for over 35 years. The club delivers a floral surprise to community offices and individuals who have helped the club fulfill our mission during the past year. As an extra treat this year, in addition to our usual list, each of our volunteers took a few additional plants and blank tags and surprised some Hudson residents by paying it forward!

Since the 1980’s, our club has celebrated Arbor Day by presenting a program about trees and tree planting to the fourth graders of Hudson Public Schools. This year, the 13 classes of fourth graders at East Woods School attended the presentation. As has been our club’s tradition, each student received the gift of a young White Pine tree to take home and plant. Members of the club had packaged each of the 400 trees in a manner that allows them to survive a trip home in a bookbag and a delay before planting.

The Gardener-to-Garden Committee and Flower Arranging Committee teamed up to offer a Spring Flower Arranging Workshop on April 13, 2017. Participants each brought a vase or container from home and two items from their garden to use with the flowers provided. Because of this, each arrangement was unique and personal to the designer. Thanks again to Barb Earnhardt and Dorothy Malpass for going the extra mile to plan and execute this fun and informative afternoon and to Nancy Forhan for her helpful assistance.

Books, magazines and videos donated to the Hudson LIbrary and HistoricalSociety in 2016 by the Hudson Garden ClubBooksThe Bold Dry Garden: Lessons from the Ruth Bancroft Garden by Johanna SilverHerterton House and a New Country Garden by Frank Lawley.Garden Design: A Book of Ideas by Heidi HowcroftPlantiful: Start Small, Grow Big with 150 plants that Spread, Self sow, and Overwinter by KristinGreen.The Inspired Landscape: Twenty –One Inspired Leading Landscape Architects Explore the CreativeProcess by Susan Cohen.Fairy Gardening by Julie Bawden-Davis and Beverly Turner.The Invention of Nature :Alexander Von Humboldts New World by Andrea Wulf.Gardening for a Lifetime.

How to Garden Wiser as you grow Older by Sydney Edison.The Perennial Matchmaker:Create Combinations with Your Favorite Perennials by Nancy Ondra.A Botanist’s Vocabulary:1300 terms explained and Illustrated by Susan Bell and Bobbie Angell.The Plant Lovers Guide: Primulas by Jodie Mitchell and Lynne Lawson.The Plant Lovers Guide to Hardy Geraniums by Robin Parer.The Aromatherapy Garden; Growing Fragrant plants for Happiness and Well-Being by Kathi Keville.The Plant Lovers Guide to Clematis by Linda Beutier.What’s Wrong with my House Plant?

Save Your Indoor plants with 100% organic Solutions by DavidDeerdorff and kathryn Wadsworth.Rock Gardening: Reimaging a Classic Style by Joseph Tychonievch.The Year-Round Solar Greenhouse by Lindsey Schiller and Marc Plinke.Flower Evolution: Blooming into Your Full Potential with the Magic of Flowers by Katie Hess. Gardenista: The Definitive Guide to Stylish Outdoor Spaces by Michelle Siatalla.MagazinesOhio Gardening Garden GateCountry GardensThe Flower ArrangerVideos.Grow your own Vegetables.Natural Beekeeping with Ross Conrad.Zen Gardening.Fifty Shades of Green.Youth Books.The Ultimate Guide to Gardening.Edible Gardening.Enchanted Gardening.My First Gardening Book.Creative Gardening.Let’s Garden.

The Hudson Garden Club is pleased to announce its 2016 grants provided to organizations in the greater Akron/Cleveland area. These grants are designed to support the organization’s mission: to encourage the knowledge and love of gardening, the beautification of public property and the support of education in horticultural and related fields. This year’s recipients include:

Hudson Middle School – $2,700 to create a school garden, which will help students understand the complexities of gardening, be excited about gardening, and take an active role in producing food at the school.

Hudson Montessori School – $1,750 to rebuild a greenhouse and use it for micro-economy, scientific learning opportunities and culinary discovery.

Hudson Library and Historical Society – $1,000 to fund speaker Amy Stewart, whose program will educate the community about horticulture and its intersection with history, medicine and science.

City of Hudson – $1,000 toward maintenance of flower plantings along Park Lane and Clinton Street in downtown Hudson.

Cleveland Botanical Garden – $1,000 to support Green Corp.

Urban Gardening Program within Cleveland distressed eighborhoods.

Conservancy for Cuyahoga Valley National Park – $1,000 to provide scholarships for students from local lower-income families to attend All the Rivers Run, an immersive outdoor learning program for 4th – 8th graders

Sunday Afternoon Gardeners – $700 to restore historic gardens at the Jonathan Goldsmith House at Hale Farm.

Trapp Family Farm – $600 to fund solar powered fences to protect garden areas and educate farm visitors on the value of renewable energy.

Carolyn Bouquont – $250 to maintain island at the intersection of Terex and Barlow Road.

Grant applications for 2017 will be available beginning September 1, 2017 and can be found here. Deadline for application will be November 1, 2017.