UF/ IFAS Extension Garden Festival and Plant Sale
FFGC Dist VII Meeting
FFGC District VII held its Fall Meeting at the FFGC headquarters in Winter Park at the end of October. Many of our members attended. The meeting was entertaining and informative!
Florida Federation of Garden Clubs officers attended and shared news about the 100th anniversary celebrations coming up next year. Local clubs reported on their activities.
The “Garden Inspired” hat contest was a big hit! Our member, Ruth Heine, showed off a fun creation along with other clubs. The Winner created a stunning display of fresh greenery and flowers from her garden, Vicki represents the Windermere Garden Club.
Winner
1st, 2nd and 3rd place
Horticulture News
FOUR O’CLOCK PLANTS
Four O’Clock Plants
BONNIE Hansen introduced us to the Four O’Clock plants during our September General Meeting. This plants flowers don’t open until 4 o’clock. It is an Old fashioned plant, highly fragrant, and is pollinated by moths. The Four O’Clock Plant, or Marvel-of-peru, grows easily from seeds. They grow from a tuber and get quite large. The plant is dormant in winter.
(FLOWER BY By Khalid Mahmood at English Wikipedia, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=24588762)
Upcoming October Guest Speaker
BLUEBERRY FARMING – Scott West will be visiting from Tom West Blueberry Farm to speak to the Club about their operation. Many of us have visited their farm and picked blueberries there over the years. TWBF is a multi-generation family-owned business, established in 1954. They produce 4 to 6 million boxes of blueberries a year.
Friday, October 20, 2023 ~ 10:30 am ~ Orlando Garden Club, 710 E Rollins Street
September Guest Speaker Update
September topic presented by Calvin Gardner, By Ann Hoff-fanaian
We had Orange County Urban Residential Horticulture Extension Agent Calvin Gardner visit and give us a presentation on Composting at our first General Meeting in September at The Orlando Garden Club.
To begin he emphasized it is great to practice composting in Florida because our soil is very sandy. Gardner says Florida soil is “super sandy, it’s full of sand, doesn’t really hold on to a lot of stuff like water or nutrients. As opposed to compost, which is really primarily broken down organic matter.”
Composting is recycling naturally. Compost is “primarily broken down organic matter.” One principle of composting is recycling yard waste. Now, “If you want to recycle your yard waste and you don’t want to compost, you can always just mow your grass without a bag on it,” Gardner said. This is a great way to reincorporate organic matter into your soil. By composting our yard waste we can reduce our solid waste by one-third (1/3). This waste can be put back into our soil and, as Gardner puts it, “We can grow happy plants.”