On Thursday April 25th, we will visit Filoli in Woodside. We are each buying our own tickets on line at https://filoli.org/visit. and meeting in the entrance building at 10:00 am. Let Eugenia know if you plan to attend so that she can look out for you.

Tuesday, April 23rd from 1:30 to 3:30 pm at Brenna Stein’s home . We’ll prepare plants folks have grown for the plant sale. We will label, price, trim, mulch and generally spiff up plants for the plant sale to make them sale-worthy. If you have some last-minute plants to pot up, please bring those. Bring gloves, clippers, trowel, any plants you have to make ready for the plant sale. We will provide soil, BGC plant labels, price dots; and we’ll have a few decorative 4-inch planters as well as plastic 4-inch, six-packs and gallon pots. People should hold on to the plants they propagated to care for them until the day of the plant sale. All are welcome. Please RSVP to Mollie Boero.

BGC Board Meeting via Zoom

On Thursday, April 18th the Succulent Group will tour the Ruth Bancroft Garden at 1552 Bancroft Road, Walnut Creek. We will meet at the garden at 10:00 am and will have a Docent-led tour starting at 10:30 am. Please let Barbara O’Hay know if you want to carpool at 9:30 am her house. Our Tour cost including admission is $20 or $18 for Seniors 65 plus. (Bancroft Garden members are $3.00 less). Please RSVP to Barbara by April 5th as she must pay in advance for the Tour and organize the carpool.

Get ready for our Spring Tea Party on Tuesday, April 16th. In addition to a lovely tea, we are inviting you to participate in ‘Bouquets to Art’. We did this several years ago and it was great fun! Have you ever been to the ‘Bouquets to Art’ at the deYoung Museum? It will be the same format. Choose a piece of art that you would like to represent (not replicate) through a floral design. You can bring a picture of the artwork, or the actual artwork: we will have acrylic holders and book stands to prop up the artwork. You can then set up your bouquet next to it. Come early: 11:45 am to set up your display—and when the tea is over we will have a silent auction for the ‘bouquets’ to benefit the club. Have questions or need encouragement? Ask Patricia St. John.

11:45 am: Members set up their displays

12:00 Noon: Doors open for socializing, refreshments, tea, and coffee

12:00 to 3:00: Garden Exchange Table: Please be sure to take any unsold items back home with you at the end of the meeting.

1:00 pm:

Regular Business Meeting

Plant Notes

Drawing

2:00 pm: Bouquets to Art Presentations

Tuesday, April 9th March 12th, from 11:30 am to 2:00 pm at the home of Barbara O’Hay. An event announcement will be sent out earlier. Our subject will be the food of Persia. Please RSVP to the thread.

On Thursday, March 28th, Floriculture will tour Katherine Greenberg's native plant garden in Lafayette at 1:30 pm. All spots on the tour are currently taken because Katherine has requested a group of no more than 18 participants. However, please contact Eugenia Hirsch in case there is an opening.

Tuesday, March 26th from 1:30 to 3:30 pm in Tanya Edgar's garage in El Cerrito. We'll make fairy garden gift planters for the May 11th plant sale. The day after the plant sale is Mothers’ Day, so we are making planter gifts people could pick up for Mom at the plant sale. Make a planter for yourself or for the sale, or both. Check your stash and donate interesting bowls/pots/containers, round glass bowls and little decorative objects (drift wood, shells, decorative rocks, pieces of glass, small ceramic creatures, leftover tiny stuff—fairies, mushrooms, birds, etc.) and small plants and succulents that would fit in a small-scale planter. We can also glue succulents and air plants to wood or decorative objects. Bring donations of materials and plants for the fairy garden cause to the Propagation meeting or bring donations to the March BGC general meeting. Or just drop them off by Tanya's front door. All are welcome. Please RSVP to Mollie Boero

BGC Board Meeting via Zoom

Our next nursery tour will be at Annie’s Annuals: https://www.anniesannuals.com/, on Saturday, March 23rd at 10:00 am. The tour will be lead by Cindy, a nurserywoman at Annie’s for several years. As an extra bonus, Patricia St. John will be giving a talk on Edible Landscaping at 11:00 am that morning. You will have time to shop between the tour and the talk! Hope to see you there.

Thursday, March 21st at 10:00 am at David Boniske's amazing garden. He will discuss Elements of Design using large and small succulents. Please RSVP to Barbara O'Hay. In April. we will visit the Ruth Bancroft Garden in Walnut Creek.

12:00 Noon:

Doors open for meeting setup and socializing.

12:00 to 3:00:

Garden Exchange Table: Please be sure to take any unsold items back home with you at the end of the meeting. Display Table: Please bring interesting garden plants, blooms and items to display at our March meeting.

1:00 pm:

Regular Business Meeting

Plant Notes

Drawing 2:00 pm:

Program – “Geraniaceae 101” – Robin Parer, Owner, Geraniaceae.

MARCH SPEAKER

Robin Parer, owner of Geraniaceae Nursery in Marin, will talk on scented leaf pelargoniums. Scented leaf pelargoniums, or scented leaf "geraniums" as they are known by gardeners, are a group of fascinating plants in the Geranium Family. The scent of the leaves, when pressed, mimic scents we are all familiar with such as lemon, rose, lime, ginger, peppermint, apricot, cinnamon and many more. How do they do this? We are going to find out and learn how to grow these strange plants. They are actually easy and fun, and have been circulating around in the gardening community for some hundreds of years. Best of all they are disease and pest free. Do join us in learning about them. She will also bring plants to sell!

Tuesday, March 12th, from 11:30 am to 2:00 pm at the home of Barbara Guletz in Albany. This month we are studying Afghanistan in our trip through the Silk Road. Please RSVP to Mary Shisler.

Tuesday, February 27th at 10:00 am. (Note this is not the regular Propagation or Succulents meeting day or time.) We will talk about propagating succulents at David Boniske’s wonderful succulent-filled garden. No need to bring anything, but you might leave with some succulent starts. All are welcome. Please RSVP to Mollie Boero

BGC Board Meeting via Zoom

On Thursday, February 22nd at 1:45, Floriculture will be taking a guided tour by Lewis Feldman of the trees on the UC Berkeley campus. In addition to being a Professor in Plant and Microbial Biology, Lew Feldman is the Director of the University of California Botanical Garden.  We will be meeting Dr. Feldman at the north facing entrance of the Valley Life Sciences Building on campus. 

Parking is our biggest hurdle for this trip. Here's the information Lewis Feldman gave for the tour: Historically, the Berkeley campus was planted with many unique and individual trees, so that Landscape Architecture students could see what the mature tree looked like. But the Eucalyptus grove has its own history. Over time many of the originally planted trees have died or been cut down, reducing the tree variety here on campus. But some unique trees still remain, including (did you know?) a Macadamia nut tree (which makes nuts).

We will tour some of these trees, including visiting remnants of the original olive grove and a few trees remaining from the original 1890-established botanical garden. Walk will be about an hour and maybe a mile or so in length. Contact Eugenia if you plan to attend. Any ideas on parking will be appreciated.

Albany Community Center, 1249 Marin Avenue, Albany.

Masks at meetings are optional. However, now that cold and flu season is here, you may want to bring and wear a mask at our Tuesday meetings.

12:00 Noon: Doors open for socializing

12:00 to 3:00:

Garden Exchange Table: Please be sure to take any unsold items back home with you at the end of the meeting. Display Table: Dee Plunkett says, “Please bring interesting garden items to display at our February meeting. Suggestion: Camellia blossoms! They're entering their blooming season (late winter into spring).” Questions? Email Dee Plunkett at deependable@gmail.com

The garden club has received donations of plants and books from Ken Berniker, in honor of his wife Barbara. She served as club president in 2003-2004. They will be offered in exchange for donations at upcoming meetings.

1:00 pm:

Regular Business Meeting

Plant Notes

Drawing

2:00 pm: Program – “Propagation from Seeds” – Pam Pierce, Author of Golden Gate Gardening.

Pam Peirce is our February speaker and she will talk about propagating from seeds. Growing plants from seed greatly expands your choices of timing, crops, and varieties. Pam will tell us what we need to know about starting seeds indoors, including how to evaluate a home as a place to grow seedlings and how to inexpensively adapt it to produce them more successfully. She will cover which crops to start from seed, when and why to do it, how to grow the best seedlings (avoiding common pitfalls), which ones can/should be moved to larger pots, and how to prepare them for their move to the great outdoors. She will bring copies of the new, updated, Fourth Edition, of her book Golden Gate Gardening for sale. (Cash or checks appreciated.)

Tuesday, February 13th from 11:30 am to 2:00 pm at Mollie Boero’s home. We are following the Silk Road and in February we are in India.

BGC Board Meeting via Zoom

Sat, January 13, 10:00am – 11:30am

CIVIC BEAUTIFICATION

There will be a work party at Berkeley Arts Magnet School on Saturday, January 13th from 10:00 to 11:30 am to prepare the beds, which will include plants for pollinators, natural dyes and sensory awareness. These will be incorporated into lesson plans. The raised beds are on Lincoln Street, just down the block from ACCI. We will work compost into the soil and plant the beds. Please join us! Let one of the following know you are coming: Ben Liaw, Adrienne Leder-Schriner, or Patricia St. John

Propagation Meeting

Tuesday, January 23rd from 1:30 to 3:30 pm at Mollie Boero's home. We plan to plant some winter seeds (greens, sweet peas, leeks, etc.) and share any interesting cuttings you might have. Bring clippers, any cuttings to share and six-pack or 4-inch pots if you have them. We will provide soil and seeds. All BGC members are welcome. Please RSVP to Mollie Boero.

Conservation Committee Meeting via Zoom

When: Thu, January 18, 1:00pm – 2:30pm

Description: All are invited to be part of making our Conservation Awards selections to local non-profits that are engaged in the healing and preservation of our native/natural environments. We will meet via Zoom on Thursday, January 18th at 1:00 pm. Please let me know if you want to attend, and I will send out Zoom link and preliminary materials. Thank you, Patricia St. John

Succulents Group Meeting

When: Thu, January 18, 10am – 12pm

Description: Thursday, January 18th at 10 am at David Boniske's house in Albany. We will be using "found" objects as containers for succulent arrangements. Bring your succulents and containers to David's. We will be working outside so rain will cancel our meeting. RSVP to Barbara O'Hay

When: Tue, January 16, 12pm – 3pm

Where: Albany Recreation & Community Services, 1249 Marin Ave, Albany, CA 94706, USA (map)

Description:

12:00 pm: Doors open for socializing

12:00 to 3:00:

Garden Exchange Table: We will have our annual White Elephant Sale before the meeting, during the break, and after the speaker. Donations of gently-used items of any kind are welcome. Please bring your pre-priced items to the table by 11:45 so everyone can check them out both before the meeting and at the break. Please be sure to take any unsold items back home with you at the end of the meeting.

Display Table: Members are invited to bring something from their gardens to show-and-tell. Some suggestions: blooms from our otherwise quiet January gardens; a plant that's looking handsome or is otherwise a success; a tool or other garden gadget that's working for you; etc. Questions? Email Dee Plunkett at deependable@gmail.com.

The garden club has received donations of plants and books from Ken Berniker, in honor of his wife Barbara. She served as club president in 2003-2004. They will be offered in exchange for donations at upcoming meetings

1:00 pm: Regular Business Meeting

2:00 pm:

Program – “Local Schools and Communities Take Steps to Address Climate Change!” – Susan Schwartz, President of Five Creeks & Mandi Billinge, Executive Director/Founder KIDS for the BAY

Friends of Five Creeks. Founded in 1996, they are an all-volunteer citizens group operating under the fiscal sponsorship of Berkeley Partners for Parks, a 501(c)3 nonprofit corporation. They believe that the health of creeks and watersheds supports the health of urban environments. They mobilize volunteers of all ages to restore, maintain, understand, and enjoy the creeks and watersheds of the East Bay from North Berkeley to Richmond. In year-round hands-on volunteering, they help revitalize creeks, improve habitat and water quality, eliminate invasive plant species, and increase public access, knowledge, understanding, and stewardship.

In their efforts, they prune, weed, dig, plant, remove trash, and build and maintain paths from creek sites and their watersheds. They assist and advocate for projects that restore and revitalize urban nature. They also carry out a wide variety of programs and events to increase stewardship and public under-standing of environmental processes. These include publishing and posting information, designing and installing interpretive signs and displays, leading walks, hosting speakers and participatory events ranging from art-making to citizen science, and training interns. KIDS for the BAY collaborates with teachers to inspire environmental consciousness in children and cultivate a love of learning. They are committed to equal access to environmental education and to restoring a healthy environment for all communities. They believe that everyone is an environment-