Monroe County Master Gardener Association

I was asked to share this with our Master Gardeners and Horticulture Club by Chris K.

Gail gives us another photo display:
Gail recently attended an exhibit titled “COMMUNITY” by Rebecca Louise Law @ the Toledo Museum of Art.
She learned of this while driving to the Leila Garden tour, from horticulture club member Sandy Rabie.
It just so happened that Sandy had helped with the tying of the flower garlands. She shared,someone from Toledo saw an exhibit by Ms. Law in England and invited her to bring her exhibit to Toledo- she accepted. Ms. Law uses local plant material for her display. It makes her “artwork” truly unique yet very personal. Here aresome pics from Gail.

The exhibit located in a room-behind glass doors has strategic lighting from the ceiling.
Looking into the room there is an appearance of shimmering gold strands. Once in, you smell the various nectar, pollen and stages of decomp. from the multitude of material used. The museum’s employees (with allergies) held handkerchiefs to their noses. I visited soon after the opening; June 16th. so I cannot predict what it is like now.

As much as I could tell you what I saw, this exhibit encourages self interpretation. COMMUNITY- the title of the exhibit; was perfect. They control the numbers in the room and base it on a 20 minute cycle. I took a bit longer :)… For as much as you connect with the exhibit as an individual, cautiously weaving around the displays while trying to not miss a thing, there are others all around you. You feel you can share with complete strangers what you see. It’s amazing how we can see the same yet see it differently. In that short moment of time, a community was formed.

I was intrigued by the set up. At first glance chaos-the ceiling laden with the various strands of color & composition; hanging long or short – some as garlands, others in clumps or lonely individuals– and then you enter the canvas and realize, there had to be a remarkable sense of organization to create this unique work of art.

I would encourage a visit. Avoid exhibit fee-go Thursday night (5pm), just parking…..
go early-plenty to see from glass blowing, a sculpture garden, other exhibits and gift shop.

There was so many beautiful things to see at Frederick Meijer Gardens. Here are a few more Photos from Gail.

Here are 3 maps that show the over 300 acres that utilize over 800 volunteers. I would encourage people to visit there gardens:


Not only were our senses awakened but our minds. The docent filled our heads with information. We grabbed material to read and spoke with each other as we tested our knowledge on the names of the man plants.
Oh, I almost forgot the most valuable lesson of the day:

Gail sends us this article and photos:
Bold & vivid colors in the entry gardens,set the stage–our senses were sparked and would finally explode as we attempted to take it all in. This cycle repeated each time we entered a new vista. Yet, we each ended the day having achieved our own personal experience with an individual interpretation of what we had seen that day. I hope you enjoy some extra pics from our tour of the Meijer Gardens.

The Tropical room had many orchids. Flitting about the room were 6 varieties of tropical birds.

Beautiful flowers along with the massive well known horse sculpture.

Various sculptures were scattered in the gardens:

These trees were planted in the Japanese Garden area. They are purposefully planted on an angle or slant, which is often seen in Japanese gardens

Stay tuned for some additional photos from the tour next Photo Friday

Meijer garden tour article written by Jennie and photos by Gail. Thanks to both of you for your contributions.

We were wowed by the knockout colors of the grand entrance flowerbeds as we drove into Meijer gardens. Apparently the plan is to continue the wow right up to the doors of the conservatory but that part is currently under construction.

We will henceforth notice how the sculptures inside the conservatory are chosen to enhance the plants, like armadillos and a javelina in the Western Hemisphere arid room.

Outdoors, the plants are chosen to set off the sculptures, often enclosing even the larger works in an outdoor garden room of green tree and shrub walls with various appropriate groundcovers. Even the terrazzo floor in the conservatory is considered a sculpture with specially colored stones and mother-of-pearl fragments setting off the many imbedded bronze designs that suggest a “forest floor” under the canopy of the concrete “tree” forms that support the roof.

The largest insectivorous plant collection, the largest tropical conservatory in the state, superlatives stacked up! The Victorian room illustrated the historical development of botany and gardening that flourished in that era, and we learned the importance of the Wardian Case in successfully importing exotic species by ship.

A sophisticated cafeteria decorated with blown glass Dale Chihuly flowers, an interesting gift shop, a library, all on the first floor. We could easily have spent the whole day in that building, but the weather was moderate and vast gardens beckoned outside!

The tram was well worth taking as an overview of the outdoor display areas and helped us decide to return to the American Farm garden and the expansive new Japanese garden, before finishing up in the Children’s garden, our senses already overwhelmed even before we saw the oversized tongue, nose and ear denoting the sensory garden areas in it.

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Registration will open on Monday, July 23 (the link will be posted on this page). In the meantime, learn more about the offerings at this year’s conference by visiting the various pages on the website. In order to expand our educational reach, this year’s conference will also be open to non-Extension Master Gardeners. Be sure invite your non-EMG friends and other gardening enthusiasts. Extension Master Gardeners will have a two-week head start to register before it opens to non-EMGs. We recommend registering early as tours, workshops and sessions often fill.

Registration Link
Register online by visiting: https://events.anr.msu.edu/mgcollege2018/

Gail went to the Lavender Farm and sent us photos and notes:

Last Saturday I attended Lavender Lane In Milan Michigan for their day
festival. Here are a few pics from my visit. It was a sunny, partly cloudy day with humidity rising as time went on. I arrived early around 10:30 am. only to find cars clogging the road from both directions, waiting to be
allowed onto the property from the single entry point-despite the entry fee of $5 PER HEAD. There were a number of people there.

There were both English and French Lavender:

The owners had lavender plants for sale,in addition to a limited quantity of homemade & commercially made lavender crafts (which pretty much had sold out by 12noon). Another draw were various booths on site; including food, jewelry, clothing, yard art, and
caricature drawings……..

People were not the only creatures to be enticed by the smells of lavender. Honey bees and bumble bees flitted around the field as they sought to find the best honey-spreading pollen as they did.

The owner said, of what he had for sale, the English lavender was the hardiest for our area and
not a favorite because it is pink vs purple in color. The French lavender is the purple one. I assumed
with the high humidity, the air would be heavy with that wonderful aroma lavender emits but as I went about
with my nose high, the air seemed to lack that aroma and found limited spots where you could smell it. Others
voiced the same findings. This was not the only debated issue for the day. I enjoyed my visit, but in all fairness, I must say a bit disappointed. My opinion, this was an example of social media being a disservice. Far too many people for the size of the operation, their millions being made on entry fees and not product (which I thought over priced). A great enterprise idea for Monroe County but for right now, this young couple may want to focus on taking product to local farmer markets……

After the great variety of Lilies on Montage Monday, I thought it would be good to post this web page from FTD. It shows photos and explanations for the various types:
https://www.ftd.com/blog/share/types-of-lilies

We missed Photo Friday…but these photos are worth the wait. Thanks for sending to me Gail.

Gail made a trip to the Toledo zoo. These were in an area that is being dedicated to pollinators.

So for the 4th of July we have a picture of the well known pair of rescued eagles on display

Gail wasn’t sure what the next two plants were….however, with the help of an app on my phone, I was able to identify this one: It’s a Giant Spider Lily Crinum x amabile.


However, I can’t seem to get an identification on this.

The pond feature with wandering paths and planted areas outside of the conservatory. The conservatory is undergoing some renovations since the new director took over. They are changing their mission statement as well.

Just a note: If you wish to have an plant identifying app, I found two that work well. I use Picture
This and Plant Snap. After opening the app you either upload a photo or take a photo and put it into the frame area then hit the check mark(picture this) or the word snap(Plant snap) and it will identify it. If it can not, you may submit your photo for it to be identified by professionals. I have submitted the one photo and will let you know what I find out.