Volume 140 November 2018

November Presidents message November means cooler weather, maybe some rain, a time change and so many activities begin for the upcoming holidays. Fall plant sales followed by plantings at the Butterfly Garden and the Beaufort National Cemetery have become regular events for garden club members. This month the garden club announces the Nominating committee who will select the new slate of officers to be presented to the members in February 2019. The Committee chairperson this year is Vickie Cummings. I hope you had a chance to visit some of the homes on the HBF Festival of Homes Tour the last weekend of October. Garden Club design team members, Anne Williams, Cindy Hooper and I created arrangements for 3 homes on the tour, which included the BB Sams home on New Street. Members of the Garden Club under Leslie Holbrook’s direction will be bow-making elves the morning of 11/9. These bows are going up a little earlier this year to prepare for the Homes for the Holidays Tour on Dataw November 17th and 18th, which will showcase 7 local resident homes and the Sams Plantation ruins area. Visit these homes to get ideas on holiday decorating and stop by the ruins area to view the Garden Club efforts at period accents and holiday themes. Decorations will remain up through the holidays. Thanksgiving comes along a little earlier this year, 11/22, a time to get together with friends and family and be thankful for all we have in our lives. This year share your thanks with your neighbors, friends and family both near and far. The annual Festival of Trees to benefit Friends of Caroline Hospice December 4th, 5th, 6th, will again feature a tree decorated by the Dataw Garden Club and the Visual Arts Club of Dataw. Members of both clubs meet in November to paint ornaments for the tree. Jayne Krebs chairs the committee decorating this year and the theme is The Language of Flowers with each floral ornament representing a flower that depicts hospice care. Plans are underway for the Garden Club Holiday Social to be held at the home of Mindy Smyth in December. Look for an email soon asking for volunteers to help set up, bake and clean up on the day of the social. It is always a great afternoon of fun, laughter and sharing with other club members. With so many meetings and events it is easy to forget about the gardens for a while but make sure you take a few minutes to enjoy the fall foliage, plants that love the cooler weather and hopefully put away the lawn mower and clippers. I give thanks this year for the many gardening friends I have in the Garden Club and look forward to seeing many of you over the coming weeks and holidays.Lenda Jablonski

November Program 2018

Tuesday, November 13, 2018 Dataw Island Community Center –

Multi-Purpose Room 9:30 am Social Time with coffee and snacks 10:00 am General Meeting 11:00 am Program: “Farms to Table – Floral Design” Speaker – Melissa Florence Melissa Florence creates beautiful floral arrangements and conducts "hands-on" floral workshops. Melissa is the owner of "Farm City Designs." In preparation for the Holidays, Melissa will illustrate how she creates a large floral design. She will also prepare several smaller floral arrangements using foliage and flowers from our gardens (or that can be purchased from Walmart or Publix). Melissa lives in Beaufort and is the wife of Dataw's tennis coach, our beloved Warren Florence!

BBSams Kitchen Counter

Dataw Garden Club’s Inspirational “Flower” By

Sandi Fischer

Just like a garden, the Dataw Garden Club has its own special “flowers”—members who demonstrate their skill and talent by inspiring us. This month’s inspirational flower is Joan Hoover. Joan states she is not a gardener but became interested in floral design when she joined the club about eight years ago. She says, “All I know about floral design, I learned from Diane Hubbell, Janet Bura and other members of the Garden Club through programs and seminars.”

A photo of one of her designs (right) illustrates how simplicity can be incorporated into an exquisite design—this one lovely camelia resting on a palm spathe is striking.

A second design (below) is composed of dried flowers on a palm stem. Joan says she hates to see lovely blooms die and likes to preserve those her daughter sends.

Joan is also known for her artistic photography and the photo (right) is one of a sable palm from her yard. She says, “We’ve had this tree for 10 years and it never bloomed until this year. Patience - the virtue of gardeners and photographers!” She took the photo because many people don’t realize that palm trees bloom. She points out how the variety of "arches" presented by the stem of the palm fronds are countered by the "fingers" of the bloom. And then the stark straight "pod" (or spathe) from which the blooms emerge presents a contrast. Joan shares how palms provide various media for the floral designer: “The fronds can be used for holiday decorations at fireplaces, the bloom pods are great vessels for flowers and the spent stems of the blooms can be interesting forms around which to create designs—both dried and fresh.” Her inspiring work illustrates beautifully just how true this is! Thank you, Joan, for being this month’s special “flower” in the Dataw Garden Club.

Calling Dataw Garden Club Members!! Gardening provides inspiration to various kinds of artists and this is true for many of you Dataw Garden Club members. In this newsletter issue, Joan Hoover is being featured.

How about you? If you have any artistic talent you have shared through or to the Dataw Garden Club, I would like to feature YOU in an upcoming club newsletter. I want to share your work and how you have been inspired by gardening or nature to create – whether it’s a floral design, a piece of art (painting, sculpture, quilt, needlework, photography) or a literary form (poem, story, article).

If you have created anything within these categories, please do this:

• For artwork: Send me a photo of your work if it’s a floral design, a piece of art or a photograph; define its composition, e.g., oil, acrylic, clay, quilt, needlepoint, etc.).

• For literary work: Send me a copy of your written work; if it’s a long piece, I will create a synopsis and a link where it can be read in its entirety, if available.

• For all submissions: Include a short paragraph about what inspired you and when the work was created. Also, tell if it was created for a specific event or purpose and include any awards it may have won for it.

• Send your name and how long you have been in the Dataw Garden Club. • Send a head shot photo of yourself.

Send all information to me: Sandi Fischer, safischer37@gmail.com

It’s Awards Season – Let’s Go For It! We do so many great things in our club that deserve recognition, why not apply for awards from both the Garden Club of South Carolina and the West Lowcountry District? It’s easy to do and there are many award possibilities. The application consists of answering questions and including photos if you have them. Not difficult at all. DEADLINE for submitting state award applications is December 15 th and are submitted electronically. DEADLINE for the West Low Country is January 15, 2019. If you want to learn more

about these awards and award categories, visit the website for the GCSC which is http://www.gardenclubofsc.org/awards. You can also contact me at donjmckeown@gmail.com. I’ll be happy to help you in any way I can!

Donna McKeown

2018 Cottage Dining Room

SGBFireplace

Plant Sales Thank you to all who ordered from both the fall sale and the holiday sale! We especially want to thank the helpers who unload the truck, sort all the orders, and then hand them out! That is a big job and we have a great team. The holiday plants will be available for pickup on Friday November 30th from 10:00 to 12:00 at the back porch of the Community Center. If you cannot pick up your order please arrange for someone to do so. There will be extra poinsettias, cyclamen, and a very limited number of small wreaths available for purchase that morning on a first come first served basis. Barbara Dittmer & Lenda Jablonski Plant Sale Chairpersons

Horticulture The Christmas holiday allows us an opportunity to enjoy several unique and spectacular plants. Let’s chat about one of the most beloved and reliable staples – the poinsettia! And I should point out this lovely specimen is conveniently available for sale from the Dataw Garden Club! No flower says Christmas like the poinsettia, right? Poinsettias are native to Central America, more specifically the southern area known as Taxco del Alarcon. The ancient Aztecs of the area called these bold flowers “cuetlaxochitl’” where the ‘flowers’ were used as a source for clothing and cosmetic dyes and the milky white sap supposedly yielded the benefit of treating fever. Let’s not try any home remedies, okay? Here’s where the story gets interesting and relatable for us in South Carolina Lowcountry. The poinsettia was named after Joel Roberts Poinsett (March 1779 – December 1851) who was born in, can you believe it, nearby Charleston. He came from a longstanding aristocratic family with a father who tried unsuccessfully to entice his son to become a lawyer. Instead, Poinsett was educated in Connecticut and Europe, where he travelled extensively (France, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, plus the countries of Russia, Chile, Argentina, Spain and more) gaining expertise in language, law and military affairs along the way. Following an incredible career and compiling a long resume to include physician, diplomat, member of the S. C. House of Representative and Secretary of War to name a few, and during a period of residency in the U.S., Poinsett served as a special envoy to Mexico and subsequently as the first ambassador to Mexico in 1825. How does this man’s history relate to the flower on our tabletop this holiday? It was during Poinsett’s visits to Taxco del Alarcon that he, too, fell in love with the poinsettia. On his softer side, Poinsett was an avid amateur botanist and it is him that we can thank for sending samples to the U. S. where, by 1836 the plant became widely known as the ‘poinsettia.’ A lot of changed in the past 182 years, and now we enjoy the poinsettias in not only red, but a wild assortment of pinks, whites, purples, salmon, and multicolors. Here are a couple tips for ensuring long-lasting beauty of your plants: • Chose a pot slightly larger than the original pot, and repot the poinsettia in rich, high organic

matter potting mix. • Place plant in an area that receives bright, morning sun. Protect plant from excessive sun,

draft, and temperature less than 65 degrees. • Water only when the soil being to dry out. Poinsettias are generally drought tolerant. • Fertilize with a general purpose fertilizer once a month.