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Newsletter of the Sugar Land Garden Club (Established 1932)

Greenleaf

Volume 14 Issue 7 March, 2012

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PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

Harbingers of spring: sweet perfume from the Mexican plum, dainty pink lacy blooms of the Texas redbud, and the first buds in bloom on the Peggy Martin rose. These beauties call us to go outside and get in the gardening mood again.

Just like the fresh flowers in the garden, there are exciting garden club events that are planned for this month. Our March 20 general meeting will feature Anu Rao, a designer extraordinaire who will show us how we can take recycled household items and create pretty spring floral arrangements.

Our March field trip will be a busy day and I am so looking forward to it. On Tuesday, March 27, we will carpool to the Matagorda Bay Nature Preserve. The preserve’s unspoiled landscape makes it a perfect spot for one of the nation’s most popular hobby: bird watching. It sits right in the middle of the central flyway, which is the route that a large number of migratory birds take on their commutes north and south. It’s also part of the Great Texas Coastal Birding Trail, with a bird sightings list of over 300 species of birds, including many on the endangered species list. Matagorda County is one of the top spots in the nation to see birds and has been a repeat winner of the Audubon Society’s prestigious Christmas Bird Count during the past 15 years. More information on this field trip is available inside the Greenleaf. Don’t forget to sign up at the March general meeting.

Our Spring Garden Tour committee is in full force planning a wonderful day for the gardening community on May 12. All the gardens are located in the Sugar Creek subdivision so getting from one garden to the next will be very easy. Lots of volunteers are needed for this event and you can sign up at our March and April general meetings.

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Continued from column 1: Now let’s get serious and down to brass tacks. Gardeners, your board needs YOU to volunteer for a committee. We have something for all ages, and it doesn't matter how busy your schedule is because we can work around it. Without your support, events such as field trips, workshops and the tour will not be offered in the 2012 – 2013 club year. Our members have many talents and skills that are needed for the successful operations of the club.

More information will be forth coming about our volunteer needs for next year, and I ask each of you to step up and do your fair share.

Happy gardening! Terri

‘Forest Frost Phlox’ in spring bloom

VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE 2012 – 2013 CLUB YEAR!

By Terri Hurley

NEW FIELD TRIP CHAIR NEEDED! Do you like our great field trips? Then we need your help to keep this activity going. One new field trips chair or two co-chairs are needed for next year. If no one steps forward, then we will not be able to offer the field trips.

NEW BUTTERFLY GARDEN CHAIR NEEDED! This is a great and fun way to get started on a committee. We have several regulars who help out for one or two hours on a monthly basis at the butterfly garden at the Sugar Land Branch Library on Eldridge, but now a new chair is needed. This person will simply need to make sure that the Butterfly Garden is maintained.

PHOTOGRAPHER NEEDED! We need a photographer to take photos of our new members for our pictorial directory. You will need to be able to attend the general meetings.

If you are interested in one of these positions, please contact Terri Hurley at thurley001@comcast.net or 281-491-9336.

OFFICERS ELECTED FOR 2012 – 2013

Officers for the 2011 – 2012 club year, elected at the January, 17 general meeting, are:

President: Terri Hurley First Vice President: Kathy Hradecky Second Vice Presidents: Elisabeth Jones, Carrie

Sample, Emilie Wilson Recording Secretary: Sherrie Strickland Treasurer: Margie Raley Parliamentarian: Mary Ellen Twiss

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Dues for SLGC are payable each spring, $30 for the following year. New members joining June 1 - December 31 shall pay $30 for the current year. New members joining January 1 - March 31 shall pay $20 for the current year. For new members joining in April, dues are $30 and apply to the following garden club year. Each member receives a monthly newsletter and copy of the club yearbook.

The Sugar Land Garden Club of Sugar Land, Texas, publishes the Greenleaf Newsletter monthly except June, July, & December.

Editors Lan Shen

Jennifer Washam

DEADLINE IS THE SECOND TUESDAY OF PUBLICATION MONTH

Contact for articles and contributions:

Shen.gcmn@gmail.com or 713-771-1415

2011-2012 Club Officers

President Terri Hurley 1

st vice president Kathy Hradecky

Programs 2

nd vice president Elisabeth Jones

Membership Carrie Sample Emilie Wilson Recording Secretary Sherrie Strickland Treasurer Deborah Birge Parliamentarian Mary Ellen Twiss

MARCH 20 - ANU RAO On Floral Splendor From Your

Everyday Things By Kathy Hradecky

On March 20, Anu Rao will demonstrate how we can recycle and transform ordinary household objects and containers into beautiful spring floral creations.

Anu is an award winning floral designer who currently works for Village Greenery and Flowers in the Rice Village area. Anu was born and raised in India where she received a Masters in the History of Fine Arts. She came to the US in 1977 and shortly thereafter participated in some floral design workshops. In her first flower show with the Houston Federation, she won in seven out of nine categories. She has won the "People's Choice Best of the Show" award at the Texas Home and Garden Show at the George Brown Convention Center. Her own personal garden has been featured on the Texas Garden Clubs State Convention's "Secret Garden Tour." She has studied the work of Bob Thomas and Jim Johnson and is a frequent winner of Houston Federation flower shows.

April 17 - Dining Diva, Molly Fowler On Preserving the Harvest

Houston’s own “Dining Diva,” Molly Fowler, speaking on Preserving the Harvest, will show us easy ways to enjoy our fresh harvest throughout the year. Canning, freezing, infusions, and more will be demonstrated in this fun and informative presentation. Molly is a travelling culinary instructor, television personality, recipe developer, and cookbook

author. She has been featured on Great Day Houston, in her own television cooking show (All the Right Ingredients), as well as in other radio and television shows throughout the state. Be sure to come hungry because we will get to sample Molly’s recipes!

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Any Suggestions for Next Year’s Speakers?

The SLGC is known for the expertise and variety of the speakers at our general meetings. If you have a suggestion for next year's speakers for the meetings, please contact Kathy Hradecky at kathy-fh@comcast.net. We appreciate your input!

MEMBERSHIP RENEWAL

Now is membership renewal time. You may pay your renewal fee of $30.00 at the meeting. Please submit your Membership Form with your check/cash. The Membership Form may be downloaded and printed from our website, www.sugarlandgardenclub.org, membership section or may be picked at the Membership table when you sign in. If you are unable to come to the next two meetings, please mail your Membership Form with your $30 check to Elisabeth Jones.

More than 15 members, wearing SLGC aprons, attended the taping of Deborah Duncan's Great Day Houston Show on March 13. The show will air later and will have a short promotion of garden tour. Photo sent by Tricia Tompson. See her photos also.

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HORTICULTURE By Paula Goodwin

Our fieldtrip in February showed us that Moody Gardens has become even better after hurricane Ike. Then we went to Tom Thumbs’ Nursery in Galveston where the staff was very accommodating and welcoming and where the plant selection was extraordinary. One unusual plant caught the eye of several of us garden club members. So many of us asked about it, the staff generously gave us cuttings of it, since it was only available in two large pots.

I brought home my cutting of Rhipsalis baccifera, which is growing lots of roots in a little vase of water on my kitchen countertop. It is similar to the pencil cactus with succulent stems, but is pendulant, meaning that you need to plant it in

a hanging or tall container where it will cascade down. And this plant was so apropos to the fieldtrip, since it is a rainforest plant just like the ones we had just observed at Moody Gardens. This plant is an epiphytic cactus. Epiphytic means it lives on moist tropical air and upon another plant, although it is not parasitic. Bromeliads and orchids are also epiphytic.

One employee, while taking me to find a red mandevilla, walked down an aisle lined with hanging Boston ferns with both of her arms extended—brushing her hands against their lush leaves. I said “You love your job, don’t you?” And she answered with an emphatic YES, she did.

I put my first red mandevilla vine in a hanging basket lined with a disposable baby diaper and it lived for years until left outside during a freeze. It is tropical and needs protection maybe just a few times during the winter. But the large, glossy leaves and brilliant flowers are well worth the time and effort. The vines are available in lots of colors—various shades of pink, white, yellow, and red. Yes, non-fragranced baby diapers contain water-absorbing crystals you can easily use. I occasionally take a couple or so from my granddaughter’s stash.

Another red-flowered vine I once had was a Passiflora. It did not attract butterflies, but the flowers were stunning. It trailed all over my compost bins for a few years, but it was neglected and died. Same old story for lots of plants I’ve killed.

Some of my container plants need to be re-potted this spring and my thoughts are to recycle some of my old books to use as pot fillers. Why not place books in the bottom of the pot where they will absorb and retain water while also acting as drainage, I wonder? Most of the books were rescued from my primary school when it was abandoned. And most were printed more than a century ago and are now falling apart and worthless. You can download the same books for free on a computer or an e-reader. Stacked up to be future plant food are these—Napoleon Bonaparte for my old “Sheffy” (I started this schefflera from a cutting some 40 years ago); Great Expectations for a red hibiscus; and Shakespeare’s plays for my Jacaranda tree. Somehow I feel the need to match the prose to the plant.

Mulch! Use upended pots to surround emerging

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perennials and bulbs so they will not be covered up in the process. Now is the time to get with it in your garden. Enjoy the warmth and promise of spring by spending time outside and digging in the dirt.

SPRING GARDEN TOUR By Cheryl Swanson

Spring Garden Tour is looking for volunteers to help on Tour Day, May 12. Please, visit our table at the monthly

meeting on Tuesday, March 20 to sign up to help with our 13th Annual Spring Garden Tour. In return for volunteering, you will be able to see all the gardens on the tour for free.

Spring is Blooming in Sugar Creek!

Mark your calendar! Sugar Land Garden Club will be holding its 13th Annual Garden Tour, which is open to the public, in Sugar Creek, on Saturday, May 12, from 9

a.m. to 4 p.m. (rain or shine). Tickets with a map are $12.00 and can be purchased the day of the tour at any of

the nine gardens listed below.

Flowers are popping out all over the Sugar Creek Subdivision. There is something for everyone. So, come spend the day with us and stroll through these delightful gardens and enjoy the vibrant flowers, fascinating plants,

citrus, vegetable gardens, flowing water features, sparkling pools, a sandy beach, outdoor kitchens, unique garden art

& great curb appeal. You will definately walk away with some great ideas for you own garden.

For advance tickets contact: Cheryl Swanson 281-242-1773

Close to tour date, for more information, please visit: www.sugarlandgardenclub.org

2327 Country Club Blvd. 39 Charleston North

6 Bendwood 711 Longview Dr.

3114 Groveshire Ct. 802 Merrick Dr.

2815 Fairway Dr. 2807 Fairway Dr. 906 Teague Circle

One of the gardens on the tour.

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GARDEN CLUB PERSONALITY By Joan Prichard

Hi. I am Joan Pritchard and I grew up in Canada. My mother and grandmother were both avid gardeners. Both had a bountiful vegetable garden and plenty of colorful flowers. It was only natural that I follow in their footsteps. My husband’s career led to many moves, so I have had gardens in Edmonton, Calgary, Halifax, southern Ontario, and the San Francisco Bay area. I had plenty of practice learning to adjust to different climates before landing in this Texas steam bath. Calgary is my hometown and you could not pick two more unlike places to garden. In Calgary, there was the rich, black prairie soil and the long, cool but sunny summer days to put plants into overdrive and a ridiculously frustratingly short 90 day growing season and the extended periods of bitter cold alternating with lengthy mid-winter thaws. All these factors led to a brief, but absolutely glorious explosion in the garden. It was a challenging, but rewarding place to garden. So is Sugar Land, but in different ways.

We moved to Sugar Land 19 years ago and it feels good to be settled at long last. I have traded a place where the winter temperature can shift from –20 to 60 in eight hours, for one where some years the shift is only slightly less drastic, but starts in the 20s and can reach 80. Probably just as hard on the plants, but easier on me. My gardening personality hasn’t changed with the move. Where I used to grow roses in a climate that killed them without massive effort at winter protection, I now do the same thing to hibiscus and plumeria. Some people are just never satisfied. But in truth, hibiscuses in Sugar Land are much easier than roses in Calgary. I do miss my Calgary garden: sweet green peas to pop into my mouth straight from the vine; asparagus picked minutes before dinner; quarts and quarts of red raspberries; Pacific Giant delphiniums eight feet tall and as big around as your leg; lilacs, peonies and the colorful excess of a garden where almost everything blooms at once – (out of necessity). I do not miss picking baskets of green tomatoes and armloads of cut flowers to enjoy indoors for just a few more days, because a hard freeze is forecast before Labor Day. Now we have surrounded ourselves with palms, bananas, jasmine, and gingers and harvest bushels of grapefruit. Year round gardening also beats spending nine months flipping wistfully though seed and plant catalogs, looking at all the things that would not grow in zone 2.

I gave up career options to move to the US. Rob had a work permit, but I did not. Instead, I focused on raising my boys, volunteering in the schools, and working with the Boy Scouts. In my spare time, I learned to garden here. Except vegetables. Even after 19 years, I still cannot get the beds organized or the timing right. As the kids grew and the number of schools I was involved with dwindled, I found myself looking for new activities and joined the Garden Club 11 years ago. I served as First Vice President for two years, Horticultural Chair for two years, and was on the Field Trip

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Committee for three. I have also been involved with GAPS every year. Our place was on the Garden Tour twice and Rob and I both enjoyed sharing the little oasis we have created with visitors. My other interests are bird watching, photography, and cooking. We also enjoy road trips to see as much as we can of this beautiful and varied continent.

FIELD TRIP By Mary Bates

Come with us to the Matagorda Nature Preserve, a 1600 acre park, and discover the diverse flora and fauna within the ecosystem of Matagorda Bay. Observe the benefits of many plants that provide habitats for many organisms. View the shore birds, water fowl, and migrating birds heading north through the coastal prairie. We hope to see roseate spoonbills, brown and white pelicans, and magnificent sandhill cranes. Optional is a visit to Matagorda County Birding and Nature Park in Bay City.

Please sign up at the General Meeting. The trip is on Tuesday, March 27. Meet at the Knights of Columbus Hall parking lot at 7:45 a.m. and leave at 8:00 a.m. Dress for hiking. Bring your binoculars, sunscreen and mosquito spray.

Costs include $10 for tour, $8.50 lunch buffet and optional $5 per carload for birding center. Any questions, please contact Elizabeth Russell at 281-494-6080 or Elizabethrussell90@yahoo.com

CRAFT WORKSHOP

Members were collecting wine corks all year to make these Winecork birdhouses, at the March 6 Craft Workshop. Photo by Terri Hurley.

The March 20, April 3 Craft Workshop is sadly full.

LIBRARY

This is your last chance to suggest books (adult or children) for Sugar Land Garden Club’s 2011-2012 donations to the Sugar Land Branch Library. Purchases of books in the area of gardening, birding, and nature will be made in the next few weeks, so please send your suggestions to Kathy Hradecky (kathy-fh@comcast.net) or Lan Shen (shen.gcmn@gmail.com) as soon as possible.

Thanks to Ludie Mae Vaughn for donating $25 to be used for the purchase of gardening related children’s books for the Sugar Land Branch Library.

Thanks to Joel Chavez for asking for the list of books donated last year (2010-2011) by SLGC. Click the preceding link for that list.

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FEINSTEIN CHALLENGE IS HERE!

By Debe Fannin

Every year Allan Feinstein donates a million dollars to hunger fighting organizations across the USA. The Fort Bend Human Needs Ministry has been chosen to participate. The more money FBHNM raises during the months of March and April, the more money that FBHNM will receive from the challenge. The Sugar Land Garden Club matches every member's donation dollar for dollar up to $750.

You can donate at the March and April general meetings. If you are paying by check, be sure to write Feinstein on memo line. There will be receipts for tax deductions at the community service table. The deadline for donations is the SLGC general meeting on April 17.

If you are not able to make either of these meetings, you may mail your checks to Deborah Birge (address in year book). Your check must get to Deborah no later than April 16.

FORT BEND MASTER GARDENER By Leslie Niemand

The next Fort Bend Master Gardener meeting on Thursday, April 19, will feature Mike Frismanis presenting Bamboo Varieties and How to Grow Them in Our Area. Mike is a Fort Bend Master Gardener and also a bamboo grower. Social time begins at 6:30 p.m. and the presentation will be from 7:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. The meeting is held at the Bud O'Shieles Community Center, 1330 Band Rd., Rosenberg.

MAY INSTALLATION BRUNCH By Donna Romaine

It’s time to welcome spring with our New Officer Installation Brunch on May 15, 2012. The brunch is our last major event of the year. It is a time to thank our current officers for their time and talents and a time to install our new officers for the 2012 – 2013 year.

We invite you to join us for Brunch at the River Bend County Club (1214 Dulles Ave., Sugar Land, 77478) from 9:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. Registration will be at the March and April meetings, or contact Donna Romaine at 281-494-2416 or email dkromaine@hotmail.com.

Hope to see you all there!

HOSPITALITY By Jean Waleke

We want to thank Debe Fannin for volunteering to be Host Chair for this month. She is responsible for arranging for our refreshments and meeting setup. We also want to thank all the members who signed up to co-host this month.

PHOTO ENTRIES REQUIREMENTS FOR SLGC YEARBOOK COVER

By Marsha Smith

Photo submissions for the cover of our our 2012-2013 Yearbook will be accepted between now and July 1. The photo can be of a flower, butterfly, dragonfly, hummingbird or bird. Requirements for photo entries for the yearbook cover are listed here:

1. Vertical orientation only (see yearbook cover). 2. Good composition. 3. Sharp focus on the details of the flower or other

subject, such as butterflies or birds. 4. Background that doesn’t draw the eye away from

the subject but enhances it. 5. Good contrast between background and subject. 6. Submit CD with picture on it, and submit a 4 x 6

print. 7. If you email the picture, please also submit a 4 x 6

print. 8. Put your name, address, and phone number on a

sticker and place on the back of the print and put the same information on the CD.

9. Be prepared to provide the yearbook chair with a common and botanical name for the plant if it’s a flower; or the name, if it’s a bird or butterfly, if your picture is chosen for the cover.

10. Submit only your very best choices. 11. Your pictures will be returned to you, if you wish. 12. Submit your photos no later than July 1.

CALADIUMS

The caladium bulbs ordered from Quail Valley Garden Club will be delivered at our meeting. Be sure to get your bulbs, if you ordered them.

SUGAR LAND EVENTS

FARMERS MARKET AT IMPERIAL, Saturdays, see page 7.

SUGAR LAND HERITAGE HIKE. The Sugar Land Heritage Foundation presents a monthly Heritage Hike the second Saturday of the month; rain date is the following Saturday. Meet in front of the Char House (the tall red brick building just north of Highway 90 near Brooks Street) at 9:45 a.m. The walk begins at 10:00 a.m., is about 1-1/2 miles and takes one and one-half hours. Costs are $10 for adults, $5 for teens, and free for children under 12. The Heritage Foundation is a 501(c)3 organization.

URBAN HARVEST FARMERS’ MARKET at Sugar Land Town Square. Thursdays, 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.

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WELCOME NEW MEMBERS

Joined, January, 2012 Patricia Davenport

Joan Rodriguez Limerick Winda Rodriguez

Re-joined, February, 2012 Baerbel O'Hara, who had been a member of club, rejoined.

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Don’s Bug Corner Sugar Land Garden Club member Don Johnson,

contributor to the Greenleaf writing on garden insects, is a member of the Fort Bend County Master Gardeners' Entomology Group and gives talks on insects. He is also

a member of the local Coastal Prairie Chapter of the Texas Master Naturalists.

STRANGE PLANTS BEHAVIORS

Two thousand years ago a Roman named Varro noticed that some plants growing near black walnut trees did not do well. Others have observed various plant behaviors through the centuries. Are there behaviors going on in the plant kingdom that we don’t notice? What is it that allows a plant to know when and how to protect itself from insect damage?

An email from Lan Shen that told about the circadian rhythms in plants sent me researching about plant behaviors. The article is about research being done by scientists at Rice University studying how plants prepare for the attack of herbivore insects. Some herbivore insects attack the plants at a particular time of day – only at night or only in the day time. The scientists observed that the plants produced a chemical prior to the time that the caterpillars were active. This chemical made the plant more resistant. They then artificially changed the light and dark hours of the plants to see what would happen. The insects were on their same schedule, but since the target plants were on an altered schedule, they did not anticipate the invasion of the insects, and therefore did not produce the necessary chemical, and thus were eaten. You can learn more about the study by going to this link.

A similar study was done in Florida by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Researchers were interested in the pest damage being done to maize and cotton plants. In this study, they found that the plants sent out a chemical that attracted wasps, which in turn killed the attacking pest.

According to an article in the March issue of “Plant Physiology,” scientists have noticed that an increase of chemicals is produced when caterpillars are eating the leaves of certain plants. These chemicals attract parasitic and predatory insects that prey on the caterpillars. The plant is sending out a “help” message and the wasps are responding. The parasitic wasp will lay her eggs in the caterpillar and the newly hatched larvae of the wasp will eat the caterpillar, causing the caterpillar to eventually die. The wasp larvae later pupate and then become adults. The scientists theorize that the predatory insects can distinguish the odor of an insect-damaged plant from that of a normally damaged plant or an undamaged plant.

In the same March issue is an article where researchers are asking, “Can insect egg deposition warn a plant of future feeding damage by herbivorous larvae?” This is interesting since the chemicals produced by the plant will be harmful to the caterpillar larvae, but not to the egg. Researchers noted that the larvae that fed on the plants containing the eggs weighed less and had a higher mortality rate than larvae which fed on egg-free leaves. You can read more at the link.

We now know that the Roman observer 2000 years ago was right. There are toxins produced by walnut trees that affect other plants. What else is happening in the plant world that we have not yet discovered?

ECO CORNER By Lan Shen

This spring offers many prairie related events, where one can learn about the many beautiful wildflowers that survived the drought and heat of 2011 without irrigation.

On the evening of March 28, Susan and Peter Conaty will be telling the story of the Nash Prairie at the Native Prairies Association of Texas meeting at Bayland Park (see page 7). The Nash prairie, just about fifteen minutes south of Brazos Bend State Park, is a hayfield that is about 300 acres of rare pristine coastal prairie remnant, a fast disappearing habitat. It was recently acquired for preservation by The Nature Conservancy of Texas after about eight years of negotiation. Hear the story of this struggle to preserve a rare gem from the two people who made it happen, the Conatys of West Columbia and hear the story of Kitty Nash who originally owned the prairie.

Contact Lan Shen, if you wish to get announcements of field trips to a beautiful prairie remnant in Deer Park. This is probably one of the last large pieces of extremely high quality prairie remnant remaining in Harris County. Click the link to see photos of the beautiful and diverse wildflowers at that site.

On April 19, hear Jaime Gonzalez of Katy Prairie Conservancy speak on The Coastal Prairie Partnership's Native Plant Great Grow-Out Program (See p. 7). Volunteer to help and take home free seeds of prairie plants.

BUTTERFLY GARDEN By Evelyn Coe

The Sugar Land Garden Club planted and maintains the butterfly garden at the Sugar Land Branch Library at 550 Eldridge Road. Please consider joining the fun one or two times this year. The weeding, pruning, and planting take about one hour once a month. The next butterfly garden workday is Thursday, February 22 at 8:00 a.m. For more information, contact Evelyn Coe at evelyncoe@earthlink.net or 281-565-9813.

Keep Sugar Land Beautiful's 19th Annual Don’t Mess With Texas Trash Off takes place on Saturday, April 14, 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. The event starts at 10:00 a.m. with a complimentary breakfast at the Sugar Land Whole Foods Market, 15900 Southwest Freeway, 77479. Registration deadline for the event is on March 26. Click the previous link for more information and to download the registration form.

Keep Sugar Land Beautiful has been selected for a Whole Foods Market Community Giving Day and will receive 5% of the net sales for Wednesday, April 18.

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SLGC General Meeting Tuesday, March 20 Social 9:30 a.m.; program 10:00 a.m. Floral Splendor from Your Everyday Thing by Anu Rao Knights of Columbus Hall, 702 Burney Road 77498

SLGC Workshop – Part I Tuesday, March 20, 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. Toadstool Yard Art by Brenda Webb Terri Hurley’s home – see directory Workshop is full. Part II is on April 3.

SLGC Butterfly Garden Workday Thursday, March 22, 8:00 a.m. Sugar Land Branch Library, 550 Eldridge 77478 For more information, contact Evelyn Coe

Field Trip - Native Plant Society of Texas - Houston University of Houston Clear Lake Campus Sunday, March 25, meet 8:15 a.m.; leave 8:30 a.m. Meet at Jogging bridge parking lot, east of Houston

Arboretum. Free & open to the public. RSVP to Paul Roling, 281-353-7413 or Proling@att.net

Keep Sugar Land Beautiful KSLB's 19th Annual Don’t Mess With Texas Trash Off Monday, March 26 Deadline for registration – click link for form

SLGC Fieldtrip to Matagorda Nature Preserve Tuesday, March 27 (See page 4) Meet at 7:45 a.m. for carpooling at Knights of Columbus

Hall, 702 Burney Road 77498. Leave at 8:00 a.m.

Native Prairie Association of Texas Wednesday, March 28 Social 6:30 p.m.; program 7:00 p.m. The Kitty Nash Story & Story of the Purchase of Nash

Prairie by Susan & Peter Conaty Bayland Community Center 6400 Bissonnet, Houston 77074

SLGC Workshop – Part II Tuesday, April 3, 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Toadstool Yard Art by Brenda Webb Terri Hurley’s home. Workshop is full.

Houston Federation of Garden Clubs Friday, April 13, 9:30 a.m. Art and the Environment: An Inspiring Approach, by Vicki

McMillan Houston Garden Center, 1500 Hermann Dr. 77004

Keep Sugar Land Beautiful KSLB's 19th Annual Don’t Mess With Texas Trash Off Saturday, April 14, 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Start at 10:00 a.m. with complimentary breakfast at SL

Whole Foods Market 15900 Southwest Freeway, SL 77479

Sugar Land Heritage Hike (See p. 5) Saturday, April 14, meet at 9:45 a.m., in front of the Char

House. Cost $10 adults, $5 teens.

Field Trip - Native Plant Society of Texas - Houston Old Riley Fuzzel Road Preserve/Peckinpaugh Preserve, Spring

Creek Greenway Project, two parks on the Montgomery County side of Spring Creek

Sunday, April 15, meet 8:15 a.m.; leave 8:30 a.m. Meet at Jogging bridge parking lot, east of Houston Arboretum.

Free & open to the public. Contact: Paul Roling to RSVP, 281-353-7413 or Proling@att.net

Native Plant Society of Texas - Houston Thursday, April, 19 Social 7:00 p.m.; program 7:30 p.m. The Coastal Prairie Partnership's Native Plant Great Grow-Out

Program by Jaime Gonzalez of Katy Prairie Conservancy. Free seeds of prairie plants.

Free and open to the public. Houston Arboretum & Nature Center 4501 Woodway in Memorial Park 77024

Fort Bend Master Gardeners Thursday, April 19, (See p. 5) Social 6:30 p.m.; program 7:00 p.m. Bamboo Varieties and How To Grow Them in Our Area by Mike

Frismanis, Master Gardener & bamboo grower Bud O'Shieles Community Center 1330 Band Road, Rosenberg 77471

Farmers Market At Imperial (See p. 5) Saturdays, 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. 198 Kempner St., Sugar Land 77498

Save the date: QUAIL VALLEY GARDEN TOUR, APRIL 21. Sent by Penny Johnson

PHOTOS

Photos from last month have been moved to the album SLGC 2011-2012; New photos from Kathy Hradecky of the February meeting; Terri Hurley of the cork birdhouse workshop; Joan Pritchard of the Moody Garden field trip; and Tricia Tompson of SLGC members at Great Day Houston have been posted in the album Current Month’s Greenleaf photos. You may download these photos to your computer or send them to be printed.

Photo of Rhipsalis baccifera, p. 3 from epiforums' photostream

Photo of Modern depiction of Varro in Rieti, Italy, p.6, from Wikepedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Terentius_Varro

Calendar of Events