February Meeting, this Thursday (February 12th), 7:00 p.m.

Hello Grandview Gardeners, 

Please join us this Thursday (February 12th) at the Hall at 1739 Venables (formerly known as Astorino's).

The speaker for this month's meeting will be Christine Allen on Growing Up: Climbing Plants for Every Garden, a look at the wide variety of climbers that can grace your garden month by month throughout the year, their advantages and drawbacks, and some of the creative ways to use them. Christine is a Master Gardener and author of several books, including A Year at Killara Farm, Roses for the Pacific Northwest, and Growing Up: Climbing Plants for the Pacific Northwest. Bring your questions about climbers!

We'd also love you to bring a sample of whatever is looking particularly good in your garden right now. Please name each sample (botanical name or common name, preferably both).

And, if possible, bring your own mug for tea. (Unlike our last meeting, there will be ample CHAIRS at this one!)

_______________________


Upcoming Events

Feb 28, 10:00–4:00 Seedy Saturday at VanDusen Floral Hall.  Specialty seed and plant sale. Admission by donation.
Derry Walsh, who spoke to us last year about fruit trees, will be there selling her young apple trees.
More information at  http://www.mgabc.org/content/seedy-saturday-vancouver-feb-28th-2015

Also Feb 28, 10:00–3:00 Soil and Manure Sale in VanDusen's parking lot, 37th and Oak.  You can pre-order for pick-up on Feb 25, 26, or 27.
More information at http://www.heavyethics.com/VanDusen/Description.html

Our next GGC meeting: March 12, 7:00 p.m. Mike Nassichuk will be speaking on Growing Vegetables. 
Mike is a UBC graduate in Biology and a Master Gardener. He has grown vegetables for over 20 years and has given numerous presentations, seminars, and clinics on growing vegetables and on other gardening topics to garden clubs and other groups. He also teaches the “Growing Vegetables” course within the Master Gardener program. He received the VanDusen Garden "Award of Distinction" in 2001. Mike recently retired from the federal government where he was the Regional Director of the Environmental Protection Branch at Environment Canada.

Upcoming meetings!

Just to give you a heads-up: The speaker for February (Feb. 12th) is Christine Allen (our club president and master gardener) talking about climbing plants.
For March (March 12th), it will be another master gardener, Mike Nassichuk, talking about vegetable gardening and mason bees.
We meet the second Tuesday of the month at the hall previously known as Astorino's (Venables at Commercial!)

Notes from our January meeting on Pruning...

At our Grandview Garden Club meeting last week, Mary Dunn, a member of the South Surrey Garden Club and Master Gardener, was our special speaker, and her topic was Pruning!

I took a few notes and thought I’d share some of her tips with you.

Cheers,

Penny

4 Reasons to Prune (and in this order):

• for the health of the plant — you improve air circulation and keep the plant open
• to improve the beauty of the plant
• to stimulate vigorous growth
• to control the plant’s size

There are two kinds of pruning cuts:

• Heading cuts
• Thinning cuts

Heading cuts:

Heading cuts remove the apical bud (growth tip), which is a source of auxins. This stimulates lots of growth of lateral shoots.

You can do heading cuts, like with a hedge trimmer, on plants that have many close-together branches like lavender, thyme, rosemary, boxwood; they can all be sheared off.

Thinning cuts:

With thinning cuts, either remove an entire branch or stem or cut down to one that’s at least a third of the diameter of the one you’re taking off.

What do you take off?

The three Ds

• Dead material
• Damaged or dying material
• Diseased

The two Cs

• Crossing branches
• Competing branches

She advocates the maxim: “Wander, Ponder, then Prune”

Spend a lot of time thinking about what you want to take off before you go to work.

Never leave stubs!

When to prune what:

• Early spring bloomers, prune after they bloom.
• Summer bloomers, prune when dormant (like now!)

Remember that the buds are on the new growth.

Keep your pruning equipment (loppers, secateurs) clean and sharp and well-oiled. Lee Valley has a good little hand sharpener; just 4 or 5 strokes should sharpen your secateurs. Sharpen between uses; sterilize (with bleach or Lysol®) between cuts, especially if you’re working on diseased or problem plants.

Remember: Pruning Stimulates Growth!

Mary recommended a few pruning reference books (see next posting). She says the Sunset Pruning Book is especially good (but is now out of print). Pruning and Training, published by the Royal Horticultural Society, is her favourite. She calls that one “the bible”.

Mary also teaches classes in pruning and she has sent along dates and registration info:

Langley Continuing Education

• Pruning the Right Way H127 $49.99 + $5 entry to Darts Hill.  Saturday, January 31, 9:30am-3:30pm. Afternoon field trip to Darts Hill Garden in South Surrey.

Historic Stewart Farm (South Surrey) — Classes at the Historic Stewart Farm can be accessed on the City of Surrey website, the Langley Class on the Langley Continuing Education website.

• Pruning Essentials  4386921  $40.  Saturday, March 7, 9:30am-3:30pm.  Afternoon field trip to Darts Hill Garden in South Surrey.
• Fruit Tree Pruning  4386962  $40.  Saturday, February 14, 9:30am- 3:30pm.  Morning in the classroom, afternoon hands-on in the Heritage Orchard.

Mary Dunn's List of Pruning References

Mary Dunn, who spoke at our January meeting, sent along this list of useful references for pruning.

Books:

Pruning - Sunset Books Inc. 1998 ISBN 0-376-03606-0 (out of print, but you may find it) 

Sunset Western Garden Book - Sunset Publishing Corp. 2012 

The Royal Horticultural Society Pruning and Training – Dorling Kindersley Ltd. 

ISBN 0 7513 0207 4 

The Flowering Shrub Expert - Dr. D.G. Hessayon, - Expert Books ISBN 0 903505 39 B 

The Tree and Shrub Expert - Dr D.G. Hessayon – Expert Books ISBN 0 903505 17 7 

The Pruning of Trees Shrubs and Conifers - George E. Brown. Revised and expanded by Tony Kirkham Timber Press 2009 ISBN-13: 978-1-60469-002-6 

Trees and Shrubs for Coastal British Columbia J.A. and C.L. Grant Whitecap Books 

1990 ISBN 0 921061 83 8 

Pruning and Training of Plants – David Joyce – Firefly Books ISBN 1-55297-534-7 

A Practical Guide to Pruning – Peter McHoy – Select Editions ISBN 1-894722-00-0 

Cass Turnbull’s Guide to Pruning – 3rd Revised Edition - Sasquatch Books 2012

Websites: 

www.felcostore.com 

www.felco.com 

www.gardeninglaunchpad.com/pruning 

www.plantamnesty.org 

www.greatplantpicks.org 

These will provide links to many other websites of interest. 

Also see University Extension Department websites (U. of Washington, Oregon, UBC) 

Not about pruning, but excellent references for the home gardener: 

Home and Garden Pest Management Guide for British Columbia 2009 Edition 

Website: www.agf.gov.bc.ca (The guide can be ordered on the website) 

(There is lots of useful information on this website.) 

West Coast Gardening: Natural Insect, Weed & Disease Control – 2nd edition 2013 - 

Linda A. Gilkeson ISBN 978-0-9917335-0-7 www.lindagilkeson.ca 

Revised February 2014

First meeting of the New Year, January 8th, Thursday!

Our first meeting of the new year is quite early in the month, January 8th. We now meet on the second Thursday of every month, 7:00 p.m., at the hall formerly known as Astorino's, 1739 Venables St.

Featured speaker this month is Master Gardener and expert pruner, Mary Dunn, on Spring Pruning of Trees and Shrubs!

 

Next meeting, Wednesday, November 19th, 7:00, Astorino's Hall...

This is a reminder that we will be having a GGC meeting on Wednesday.

Our speaker will be one of our Garden Club members, Dana Cromie. His presentation is entitled "High Maintenance: The Training, the Joy, and the Lessons of a Plantaholic"...

Dana is a lifelong artist and gardener. He is currently a Friend of the UBC Botanical Garden, where he is head of the volunteer garden guides and assists in the buying of plants for the Shop in the Garden. He was Artist-in-Residence at the UBC Botanical Garden for 2012–2014, and during that time had a 3-month solo exhibit at the Beaty Biodiversity Museum. Dana's botanical drawings and watercolours were included in the group show Growing in Sight at Emily Carr University in July 2014.

Also, this will be our last meeting for 2014. We won't have a December meeting (too close to Xmas).

So we would really like folks to renew their membership for the 2015 year at our November meeting, if at all possible. Your $20 yearly membership fee helps us to pay for excellent speakers and gets you entry to all our GGC meetings and events through the year and a discount at Figaro's, Magnet, and other garden supply stores in town.

Meetings for 2015! Second Thursdays!

The hall at Astorino's isn't available for us on our proposed days for 2015 ... 

So please note that, starting in January, meetings will be on the second Thursday of each month! (Not Wednesdays as before...) 

You could write the 2015 GGC meetings into your calendar right now!

If you are a Garden Club member, we will remind you by e-mail as well, and let you know about topics and speakers, but here are the dates:

January 8

February 12

March 12

April 9

May 14

June 11

And note that the East Vancouver Garden Tour is on June 21!

July 9

August 13

Sept 10

Oct 8

Nov 12

Dec 10 (if we do decide to have a December meeting next year...)