The Aransas/San Patricio County Master Gardeners Spring Plant Sale on April 6 was one of our most successful to date! The cool and overcast weather made it enjoyable for the over 550 people in attendance to shop and enjoy the beautiful Coastal Oaks Demonstration Gardens.  In four hours, we sold the majority of our plants. This money will help fund vital maintenance at the garden and the educational programs presented to the community.

Potted Plants

Hanging Baskets

This year, in addition to the plants, we offered many non-plant related items for sale. Bird/butterfly houses were handmade and beautifully painted by several of our Master Gardeners.  Other Master Gardeners took donated wine bottles and turned them into beautiful hummingbird feeders for our spring/fall migration visitors to enjoy.

We also had drawings for several fantastic items donated by Master Gardeners and community members including a garden cart, quilt, birdhouses, hanging baskets, and more.

Bake Sale

Raffle

A huge thank you to everyone who came, shopped, and supported the Master Gardeners! A special thanks to our tremendous team of volunteers who organized  and worked at the event, crafted and donated our non-plant items and worked diligently to make our gardens beautiful.

The March dinner meeting was once again a culinary delight.  The Master Gardeners are notorious for being as skillful in their kitchens as they are in their gardens.

Awards are always presented at the March meeting with all of the recertifying Master Gardeners receiving a pin.  Pins are also awarded for reaching milestones in continuing education hours and volunteer service hours.  There is always a long list of gardeners reaching these milestones.

This year we are especially excited about Doree Osmun reaching 300 hours of continuing education and Patty Bidwell reaching the 2,000 Volunteer Service hours level.

Congratulations to all the Master Gardeners receiving awards for the past year.

JANUARY BROWN BAG –
Your Spring Garden and Plants for Pollinators
Master Gardener/Master Naturalist Neli Spurrell presented an informative talk about the beautiful plants you can use to attract pollinators to your yard.  Her program – Gardening with Neli pointed out the importance of knowing what plants you need to attract pollinators to your garden.  She also told us about the different pollinators and why they are a necessary part of our gardens. Neli is also the volunteer coordinator for the Aransas Pathways Butterfly Gardens.  Before coming to our area she managed a private butterfly garden in the Dallas/Fort Worth area.

The December general dinner meeting is always a special event.  Not only is the food fantastic.  But the current years intern class holds its graduation ceremony.

We are pleased to announce that everyone in the class of 2018 graduated

They are Dana Barganski, Ava Brandon, Jama Brandon, Kerry Green, Phil Grunewald, Martha Habluetzel, Rita Hardy, Zim Hoofard, Lynne Kiley, Bobbie Miner, Mary Spencer, Christy Thompson-Hutt, Suzy Williams.

We also had several Interns Certifing this year including:  Glenn DuPont, Rosiland DuPont, Marlene Oldham, Stephanie Redding, Jennifer Williams, Karry Green, Martha Hubluetzel, Rita Hardy.

Congratulations to the graduating class and all of the certifying interns.

 

By:  Timothy Mullin, Master Gardener

It would be an error to assume that the first U.S. Ambassador to Mexico, Dr. Joel Poinsett ‘discovered’ the plant we call by his name.  While Mr. Poinsett was the first person to bring the plant back to the United States, the native inhabitants of Central America had known about this winter blooming plant for a long time. Spanish overlords sent samples to Carl Linnaeus for official descriptions and naming in the 1700s, but it isn’t an easy plant to bring into bloom, and it doesn’t seem to have gotten much attention in Europe.

An avid plantsman from Charleston, Dr. Joel Poinsett was appointed the first U.S. minister to the new Republic of Mexico in 1825.  While visiting an area south of Mexico City, Poinsett encountered this outstanding red-flowered plant, actually named Euphorbia pulcherrima, which he had to have, and, like most plant people, he wanted to share his find.  Dates vary between 1825 and 1829 (as if 4 years makes much difference), during which he sent cuttings to his friends back in America.  One of those people he exchanged plants with was William Bartram of Philadelphia.

Bartram’s Gardens, the oldest botanical garden in America, began in 1728 under John Bartram, plant collector to the King.  John searched the colonies for new plant species which he shipped to Kew Gardens, England.  His sons, John Jr. and William continued collecting native plants after the Revolution and expanded to an international trade rather than just shipping to the King’s garden at Kew.  Joel Poinsett kept up correspondence with the Bartram brothers and sent one of his flower cuttings to William.  Sadly, William had passed on, but his niece, Ann Bartram Carr continued running the plant business, and was grateful to the Ambassador for sharing his find.

The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society established their first Flower Show (which remains the largest indoor flower show in the world) in 1829.  Ann Bartram Carr exhibited at that first flower show in Philadelphia, and featured her poinsettia.

Robert Buist, born a Scotsman, and trained as a gardener, came to America in 1828 and within a few years established a very successful nursery business, featuring roses, camellias and dahlias.  He attended this first-of-its-kind flower show and was intrigued by the Bartram-Carr display, purchasing the poinsettia.  Working with the plant to discover how it grew and bloomed, Buist realized that he could grow a number of ‘mother plants’ and by pruning them, he could increase the number of blooming branches, and by searing the cut branch ends, the lovely red bracts could survive for weeks as a cut flower.   Buist had hit on the plant’s commercial value, Christmas Flowers!

By the mid-1830s, Buist was selling cut poinsettia flowers in Philadelphia and surrounding areas.  He was doing great business and really established the poinsettia as a popular holiday symbol.  Of course, others took advantage of Buist’s work and began growing their own ‘mother plants,’ and selling cut flowers in other cities.

During the Victorian period, known for the increasing love of poinsettias for holiday decoration, they were only sold as cut flowers.  It wasn’t until the 20^th century, with the switch to selling potted plants, that the poinsettia ‘industry’ took off.

Albert Ecke, a clever German immigrant, settled in California in 1900, where he ran an orchard and dairy, but he liked this Christmas flower and worked with it to discover how he could improve on the cut-flower trade.  Albert realized how easily a cutting could be rooted, and that a growing plant had more blooms on it and sold for more than a single flower.  Also, by rooting more than one plant in the same pot, a full, heavily blooming pot of poinsettias looked very beautiful and commanded an even higher price.

Albert began selling his potted poinsettias from street stands in Los Angeles, and did very well. His son, Paul Ecke, joined his father in making poinsettias their main business and developed the technique of grafting different colors of poinsettias onto plants in the same pot for very exotic looking plants.  By 1923, the Ecke family had a virtual monopoly on the poinsettia trade.  The third generation, Paul Ecke, Jr. began national marketing, mostly by providing free poinsettias to TV stations to decorate their stages during popular broadcasts, like Bob Hope’s Christmas Specials and the Tonight Show, taking the beauty of the flower into every home in America, making it even more that symbol of the season.

Due to construction at the Agri-Life building, the November Brown Bag will be held at the Aquarium Education Center, 706 Navigation Center, Rockport.

It is not necessary to register, just come and enjoy this free program hosted by the Aransas/San Patricio Master Gardeners and Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Aransas County Office. For more information call 361- 790-0103.

Feel free to bring your own brown bag lunch.

The Pop-Up Plant Sale usually held after the Brown Bag has been cancelled due to flooding in the Garden.

No, it is not a swamp.  It is the entrance to the Coastal Oaks Demonstration Garden.  The drainage pond has been out of its banks for over a month and has kept areas in the Demonstration Garden under almost knee deep water.

Since it started raining in September, work at the Coastal Oaks Demonstration Garden has been limited to the upper gardens.  The Children’s Garden Area, Granny’s Garden and the Office beds are doing well and all the rain has been making them look lush.

We have lost many of our drought tolerant plants and are uncertain about the fate of many of the other plants in the lower Demonstration Garden area.  However, we have many plants that do equally well in drought and flood.  For example, Tropical sage (Salvia coccinea) can withstand brief periods of water inundation and likes relatively moist soil, but is also one of the last to die back in extreme drought. The bright red flowers on this plant attract hummingbirds while being deer resistant.  It grows in sunny or shady areas and it readily self seeds which makes it a great addition to any Coastal Bend Garden.  Another example would be the groundcover known as Frogfruit (Phyla nodiflora).  A low growing member of the verbena family, frogfruit tolerates extended flooding and yet survives even our hottest, most extended droughts. It grows well in full sun and part shade and it’s white cylindrical blooms are a well loved nectar source of butterflies and other pollinators. It also has the added bonus of mowability.  Gulf Muhly (Muhlenbergia capillaris) is a wonderful ornamental grass that tolerates both flood and drought. It is a clumping grass with beautiful pink seed plumes in the fall.

Be sure to stop by the AgriLife office and pick up a copy of “In Our Coastal Garden” for more information about which native and adaptive plants do well in our Coastal Bend gardens.