We are grateful for the many talented members in our garden club. Parliamentarian and past president Betty Lahiri, an incredibly gifted floral designer, creates a new decor for each meeting. The centerpiece was a stunning rose arrangement in a pumpkin to celebrate this year’s club theme: “Stop and Smell the Roses.”
With Betty’s guidance the hostesses made quick work of the set up and the participants were greeted with a gorgeous room decor.
President Bitsey Crismon, an art teacher, started the meeting with a fun activity for the holidays: making mini gift boxes from greeting cards. They are the perfect size for stocking stuffers, gift cards, handcrafted soaps, etc.
Here’s the step by step:
- Cut the card in half
- Find the center on each half; draw a small square around the center of the top half
- Fold the sides to the center on the bottom half and to the square on the top half
- Cut along the long sides of each half
- Fold the cuts to create a box. You can tape or glue the lip to make it sturdier.
- Assemble the box
Plant Study: Edie Apiscopa presented Duranta, a flowering shrub in the verbena family. It’s a hardy plant that will come back after a freeze AND tolerates our hot summers, and it attracts hummingbirds and bees. The cascading blooms are beautiful but the berries are toxic to humans and pets. Edie donated the plant to the drawing.
Horticulture: members bring plants from their gardens that are added to the drawing
- Detlev Simonis: snake plant, aloe, and mother of thousands
- Diane Wedgeworth: Mexican honeysuckle (that one came home with me!) and Jewels of Opar (of Tarzan fame?)
- Viviane Tondeur: crown of thorns and red cone ginger
- Sabrina Crooke: purple oxalis
Thanks to Mitch Fruitstone for sharing his bumper crop of crab apples. This jelly recipe has cinnamon. You can also make wine and Bob Dailey suggested adding vodka to make it more potent. Cheers!
Master Gardener and co-Founder of the Native Plants Society of Texas Pines and Prairies Chapter, Bob Dailey, presented an educational program on drip irrigation from new installation to converting an existing sprinkler system.
We enjoyed our luncheon and desserts and we had a wonderful time socializing and talking about fall gardening, holiday plans, and the member garden tour in May ’23.
The Brief: important dates below. Check the meeting agenda for all pertinent information and tons of gardening and holiday events in our area.
- Hospice Floral Group meets on Tuesday, November 15th at Sharon’s home.
- Details for field trip to Chappell Hill Christmas Home Tour on Saturday, December 10th will be emailed.
- TWGC Christmas Luncheon is on Tuesday, December 13th at Black Walnut Cafe.
- Houston Federation of Garden Clubs Christmas Gala is on Friday, December 9th
Have questions or suggestions? Email thewoodlandsgardenclub@gmail.com or contact us.
Thanks to Detlev and Viviane for the photos.
The Woodlands Garden Club 