Author: Whatcom Hort Society

  • Connie Sidles: Avian Utopia for Birds – May 18, 2017

    ByWhatcom Hort Society

    Spring Members Lecture
    May 18, 2017 at 7:30pm • Doors Open at 7
    Whatcom Museum ~ 121 Prospect Street, Bellingham
    Members Free, General $12
    Desserts and beverages will be served!

    Join us for a delightful evening with Connie Sidles where you will learn how to enhance your garden to attract a variety of native birds in all seasons. Seattle Master Birder and nature author Connie will show the most common birds that you can attract to your yard and give tips on the native plants, feeders and other enticements you can feature in your landscape. This indoor “field trip” is a perfect way to tune up your garden for the soon-to-be-with-us neotropical migrants and local resident birds who need your help to thrive. Fantasize about how to make your garden part of a wild ecosystem that will give you endless hours of pleasure. Author of four books, Connie will read an excerpt from one of her books about nature and the serenity it grants us. Connie’s books will be for sale at this lecture. Follow Connie online at www.constancypress.com & www.thelaurelhurstblog.blogspot.com.

    Renew your membership online at www.whatcomhortsociety.org or at this lecture.

  • Nita Jo Rountree – Wednesday April 19, 2017

    ByWhatcom Hort Society

    Including Gorgeous Roses in Your Garden

    Wednesday, April 19, 2017
    Whatcom Museum
    121 Prospect Street, Bellingham
    7:30pm • Doors open at 7:00pm
    Tickets at the door: $7 Members • $12 General

    We welcome Nita-Jo Rountree back to Bellingham to tell us about her newly published book, Growing Roses in the Pacic Northwest. In it she shows us how growing the right roses in the right places can greatly enhance your own garden. By using simple principles of garden design, she will illustrate how to successfully use various types of roses in mixed beds as well as in formal designs. Mouth-watering photographic examples are a delight for the senses and are lled with ideas for beautiful companion plants for disease-free roses.

    Nita-Jo is a garden writer, speaker and educator. She currently serves on the board of directors of the Bellevue Botanical Garden Society, is a member of the Heronswood Garden Steering Committee, and serves on the advisory board of the Northwest Horticultural Society, of which she is a former president. Nita-Jo is a frequent speaker at the Northwest Flower & Garden Show and she is a frequent guest and substitute host on TV Show Gardening with Ciscoe. Many of our members were lucky to visit her garden on our summer eld trip in 2015. The lecture will be followed by a book signing.

     

  • Members Only Event: Fall Plant Exchange

    ByWhatcom Hort Society

    Saturday, Oct 1, 9am to Noon
    2604 16th Street, Bellingham

    (Off Chuckanut Drive near Fairhaven Park)

    plantsLast year several of you enjoyed the opportunity to receive and donate new plants for each other. It was a great success, so we are making it an annual event. Come socialize and get some new plants for your garden! Beverages will be served.

    Drop off plants to exchange on Friday Sept 30 and then return on Saturday, Oct 1 to pick new plants. Or, if you prefer, come earlier on Saturday with your plants. Participants must have plants to exchange, please label plants and bring them in plastic pots.

    Questions? Contact Diana Firestone 360-393-4910 • diananieman@yahoo.com

  • Brian Minter “Taking Your Garden to the Next Level”

    ByWhatcom Hort Society

    BrianMinterJoin us at the Fall Members Meeting!

    Tuesday, September 13, 2016
    7:30pm • Doors Open at 7
    Whatcom Museum ~ Old City Hall
    121 Prospect Street, Bellingham
    Members Free, General $12
    Light refreshments will be served

    Join us at the Fall members meeting for an evening with Brian Minter, well-known horticulturalist, columnist and owner of Minter Gardens in Chilliwack, BC.

    In the garden anyone can be an artist without apology or explanation. Too many gardens are a wasted canvas where little thought has been given to the elements of design and creativity. By approaching your garden with the vision and passion of an artist, the ordinary will become the extraordinary, bringing your garden to a new level.

    Brian will inspire you to be a garden artist in this exciting and fast moving session.

  • 30th Annual Tour of Private Gardens

    ByWhatcom Hort Society

    Thanks to everyone who volunteered their time and/or garden to make the 30th Annual Tour of Private Gardens a huge success!

    Sat & Sun July 9-10, 2016
    11am to 5pm

    Six unique and exquisite private gardens:

    • A charming garden with an expansive view
    • A whimsical garden
    • A lush shade garden that welcomes wildlife
    • An artistic garden with a koi pond
    • A functional garden sanctuary designed to protect the watershed
    • A beautiful country garden with perennial beds, horses, chickens and ducks

  • Maurice Horn: Old Dog, New Tricks

    ByWhatcom Hort Society

    Wednesday, May 11, 2016
    7:30pm • Doors Open at 7
    Whatcom Museum ~ Old City Hall
    121 Prospect Street, Bellingham
    Members $7, General $12

    IMGP7581In the 1990’s, Maurice Horn left a mainstream job to co-found Joy Creek Nursery in Scappoose, Oregon. He and Mike Smith “created the nursery they always wanted to find”, one that specializes in hardy perennials, shrubs, clematis and small trees.  Maurice will talk about his recent move from a small urban garden to his partner’s existing, 10-acre garden on Sauvie Island and how it has led to many new understandings about the craft and the art of gardening.

    Suddenly changing from a site with compacted clay soil to one with loamy sand led to unexpected possibilities and some surprising disappointments. In addition the forest and fields around the site were inhabited by a herd of hungry deer, countless undermining moles, and snails by the thousands.

    This is gardening on a grand scale. The setting overlooks a state park and encompasses vistas of distant mountains and hills. Deciding how to incorporate the work of two previous designers, as well as many previous gardeners, and still maintain the astonishing views was the first priority. Learning how to choose a plant palette that speaks to the landscape, yet allows them to satisfy their need to try new plants has been a struggle. They’ve learned how to frame the natural world around them and to open up the landscape where once they might have filled it.

    Maurice will bring plants from his nursery.

    Bring your checkbook and renew at the lecture, or click here to renew or join online.

  • Plantapalooza Night • Thursday, April 28

    ByWhatcom Hort Society

    Gerbers-webIt’s a plant party with wine and cheese!
    A Spring  Members-Only Event
    Thursday, April 28, 7:30pm
    Squalicum Boathouse • Doors open at 7pm

    It’s a plant party with wine and cheese!

    We had so much fun, we’re doing it again!

    Join us at a members-only event for an evening of plant passion, wine and cheese. Our local nurseries will be there to talk about plants they are passionate about, along with ideas of how to use them in your garden. Each presenter has chosen
    plants they think you shouldn’t miss out on. They may be new or unusual, or a great performer that is sometimes overlooked. You will be able to purchase plants after their presentations.

    We’d like to welcome:

    • Windy Meadow Nursery
    • Cloud Mountain
    • The Garden Spot
    • Tuxedo Garden Nursery
    • The Gardens at Padden Creek
    • My Garden Nursery

  • Sue Milliken & Kelly Dodson: Two Old Jaded Gardeners and the Plants that Light Them Up

    ByWhatcom Hort Society

    Spring Lecture Series Opener
    Tuesday, April 19, 2016
    Squalicum Boathouse
    2600 N. Harbor Loop Drive, Bellingham
    7:30pm • Doors open at 7:00pm
    Ticket at the door: $7 Members • $12 General

    flowers-springopenerSue and Kelly of Far Reaches Farm nursery in Port Townsend will immerse you in the plants they find exciting. Brace yourself for an evening laced with Latin binomials which will be more fun than that might imply as they dive deep into some serious plant lust. In addition to some of the newest plants coming out of their extensive collection at the nursery, they will show some highlights from their recent plant hunting expedition which Whatcom Horticultural Society helped sponsor. This will be a talk that is plant geek-worthy yet not terribly boring for your non-plant spouse. There will be plants for sale!