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Month: June 2023

Montgomery Botanical Gardens at Oak Park Plans Hosta Class for August Offering

The Montgomery Botanical Gardens at Oak Park has scheduled a class on Growing Hostas for its August session. The class will be taught by Master Gardener Bionca Lindsey and will be offered Saturday, August 12, beginning at 9:00 AM in the Wisdom Wood Outdoor Classroom. The reader will note there is no class scheduled for July, and there is a time change for the August class due to the summer heat.

Ms. Lindsey, retired Chief Master Sergeant, USAF, is an Advanced Master Gardener, Junior Master Gardener educator, and holds certifications in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in the Workplace, and Program Manager. As a member of the Air Force, she served in the diet therapy field as a consultant to the Air Force Surgeon General on Air Force Dietetics.  She oversaw 55 nutrition sites worldwide and managed fourteen medical treatment facilities across the United States.

Included in Ms. Lindsey’s presentation will be information on selecting, planting, and caring for hostas. She will also discuss the great variety of these beautiful perennials and how to propagate them.

Future classes scheduled for the remainder of the year include Herbs on September 9, taught by Janell Diggs; Fall Floral Arrangements on October 7, taught by Anna Owen; and Bulb Planting/Perennials on November 4, taught by Karen Weber.

The Hosta Class is free and open to the public. Seating is available in the outdoor classroom. For comfort, participants may consider bringing folding chairs. Water will be provided. For additional information, contact info@montgomerybotanicalgardens.com.

When life gives you lemons, it is time to make lemonade

If you are a gardener, you will understand that when a certain area of your “garden” exhibits problematic conditions, it tugs at your thoughts until you determine a way to either correct the conditions or take advantage of them. Well, our valiant Master Gardener volunteers have just done that! 

You may be aware of an area to the right of the MBG entrance along the pathway as you turn right toward the Daylily Garden, that remains wet most of the time. It was thus not planted and was not contributing to the beauty of the gardens. The Master Gardeners who comprise the CCMGA MBG Project Committee decided to use the fact that the area was wet and created a planting bed for blooming plants that thrive in those conditions. 

On the day before the volunteers had scheduled to begin to build this planting bed, a huge Sweet Gun Tree fell from a storm right across the pathway near the wet area. So work was delayed until the tree and debris could be removed with the help of Mr. David Card, Director of Montgomery Parks and Recreation Department. 

Once work began, led by Committee Chair, Karin Carmichael, the bed was completed in a day. Twenty- five bags of garden soil provided the base for planting Louisiana Iris, Canna Lily, and Hidden Ginger.  Others who assisted included Mamie McClure, Nell Copeland, Jane Martin, and Cathy Maddox. Plans are in the works to lengthen and widen the bed and to plant an Amaryllis bed in another area of the established beds. 

With the addition of the “wetland” garden, additional bulbs in the gardens, the colorful entrance beds, the pollinator gardens, and the Daylily Garden, MBG is bursting with color.  Thank you to our volunteers.

By Cathy Maddox

June Blooms

June is “bursting out all over” at the Montgomery Botanical Gardens

June is here, and the flora in the botanical gardens is “bursting out all over” as the 1994 song by Rogers and Hammerstein in Carousel said. You may burst into song yourself as you stroll the pathways and enjoy the myriad of colorful blossoms.

The intense reds and purples of the circular entrance beds welcome you to take the pathway in either direction and enjoy the view. Large, fluffy pink and white Hydrangea blossoms greet you in various locations in the gardens and will provide blue blooms soon.

The magnificent specimens of both color, size, and shapes in the Daylily Garden are something to behold. Tall willowing stems with large blooms of intense colors offer you a brief but beautiful view of one form of daylilies. Shorter sturdy stems supporting smaller delicate flowers provide a contrast that only enhances both forms. The variety of hybrids in the garden includes, spider-shaped blooms, ruffled blooms, curled blooms, and two-toned blooms along with colorful companion plants that will delight your eyes and provide you with photo-worthy opportunities. 

The abundant purple blooms of the Chaste Lilac trees among the creamy white blooms of the Magnolia Grandiflora are breathtaking. The multitude of small, colorful blooms in the three Green Bridges Pollinator Gardens with their buzzing and fluttering visitors will bring a smile to your face and your heart. 

All blooms are temporary and other types of blooms will follow. As June passes and July comes into view look for a variety of blooming Crepe Myrtles trees in the gardens as well as the Lime Light Hydrangea in a row along the Forest Avenue end of the garden. 

What a magnificent contribution to the quality of life in our fair city is our Montgomery Botanical Gardens at Oak Park. 

By Cathy Maddox