January Meetings...

Never a dull moment for this dedicated gardener, even in the dreariest and muckiest of winter days. In between planning garden changes, crafting, ordering seeds and plants, keeping the up the greenhouse and securing new spring items for the shop, I've been busy at meetings. One being a goal setting gathering where a group of women sat down and visually plotted out some goals for themselves during 2012.

It's easier than you think and I guess you have to be female to understand this a little better.  I showed Peter what I spent an afternoon doing. He took one look at the poster and said, "Really?...That's very nice, dear." Okay, not the most intellectually challenging thing for a bunch of college educated, professional women to be doing but it sure can get the ideas focused and in place while the creative juices are flowing.. As you can see, mine is all about lavender, the shop and the gardens...what else?

Jane Munzell, Judy Brown (hostess with the mostess), Peggy Carter and a new friend.

More new friends.

My friend, Judy, had a bunch of us over for lunch and a creative afternoon of laughter and friendship mixed in with  a lot of cutting and pasting ensued. Believe it or not, if you have not done this kind of simple, mental exercise or something like this before, you should, because you will not only find out a lot about yourself, you will also find out about all of the things you take for granted and should be thankful for whether they show up on your poster or not. So, I spent the afternoon with women from various professions including landscape architects and landscape designers who are most definitely a lot chattier than the male variety of Landscape Architect I live with.

Nick Weber

Fast forward to the next meeting which was a gathering of the members from the Herb Society of America's Potomac Unit held at River Farm, home of the American Horticulture Society and also one of the various  homes of our first U.S. President, George Washington, just up the road from his Mt. Vernon Estate. These meetings are always terrific...great food, wonderful friends and extremely  knowledgeable speakers. This meeting focused on the 2012 Herb of the Year, the rose, with well-known Rosarian, Nick Weber sharing his what seemed to be unlimited knowledge and experience in the world of cultivating and growing the genus Rosa.  Of course, his favorite rose is a red rose of any kind.

A Knockout Rose from my summer garden.

Among the hundreds of varieties and many classes of roses that range from simple, old varieties like Apothecary Rose and Rosa Gallica to the modern Hybrids, Floribundas and Grandifora Roses in shrub, climber, and miniature forms, he also spoke about "rose gathering foreys" and  "rose rustling." These practices are nothing along the lines of making off in the dead of night with a hundred head of cattle left  grazing out on the range. Rather, it's a much more genteel practice of spotting a lovely rose in someone's yard, parking your car, going up to that person's house, knocking on the door and asking politely if you can have a cutting of their plant to take home and propagate. The process almost always ends happily for the rustler, original rose owner and the rose itself. Sounds like quite a pleasant thing to do on a lovely afternoon, doesn't it?

While at the meeting, I picked up a copy of a book on Roses published by the International Herb Association which was compiled and edited by noted author and cook, Susan Belsinger, a member of the HSA Potomac Unit.  It's a wonderful compilation of stories, instructions, glimpses, recipes and opinions, not  mention facts, about roses from all sorts of herb and plant experts, teachers, lecturers business people and rose growers from around the world..

So, with that, January, for all intensive purposes, is just about over with. Here's to February and what it has in store when it comes to engaging gatherings and interesting meetings that will, to me,  go a long way in shortening winter days even more and, with each day, a little closer to the first blooms of lavender which compliment roses perfectly!