Whitehall Garden Club News: June 2024

The Whitehall Garden Club met Wednesday, June 5th, at the Borden's Conference Room with their usual "bloom," as well as a delicious morning brunch including a colorful springtime fruit salad, dilled deviled eggs, and a crockpot full of kielbasa. Since June is "Gingerbread Month" (I'm sure everyone knows this), a gingerbread sheet cake with mounds of fresh whipped cream or frosting was devoured, all beautifully arranged for the eye and the tummy.

The day's first order was Ann Palmer presenting Whitehall High School Class of 2024 graduate Reilly Slater with the Whitehall Garden Club $1000 Scholarship. Reilly is going to pursue an Electric Technical degree at MSU Northern. He was recognized as a "stand-out" student with an excellent work ethic and positive attitude. Congratulations to Reilly!

The guest presenter was Dria Walker from Land Escapes Nursery at 330 Hwy 2 East outside of Whitehall. The theme was "spill-over gardens," and it was such a great presentation. Dria brought in various plants that are perfect for creating "spill-over" baskets and planters, turned on their side wheel barrels, wooden barrels, etc. Dria explained with examples that you must have "thrillers, fillers, and spillers" to successfully create a beautiful display of flowers in your spill-over. The "Thrillers" are the tall, bold plants like dahlia, daisy, or coleus; the "Fillers," like geranium, marigold, aster daisy, and curly parsley, are just that, they fill in around the Thriller, with greenery, small flowers. At the same time, the Spillers are plants that will flow over the edge of the basket being flowers or just greens that trail. In fact, "trailing or spilling petunias," licorice vine, nasturtium, etc., will flow beautifully over the basket or planter's edge, while "mounding petunias" are for traditional planting. Dria reminded us that we need to know our flowers/plants and be careful not to plant full sun plants with plants that need partial sun or plants needing more or less water. And with these simple "rules," you can create beautiful spill-over gardens. Dria loves to help, and if you aren't successful the first time, keep trying or drop by for instructions/guidelines. What a wonderful presentation to jump into Spring. Thank you, Dria!

At the close of the WGC meeting, we were reminded of the upcoming Enchanted Forest Faire on June 22 at Main Street Green Park from 11 AM to 3 PM.

The next meeting of the Whitehall Garden Club will be held on Wednesday, July 10, at the same time and place-just a week later than usual-so we can all celebrate July 4th!