April 6
Garden Clubs

Anything popping up in your yard? I am not fortunate enough to have tulips, yet. However, I know of a few others that now have tulips and even daffodils growing on the south side of their homes. Lucky guys! It’s such a nice sign of spring and with these cooler temperatures, I could use a shout of spring, especially with Easter fast approaching!

Over the weekend, I enjoyed working with many customers on our first ever Plant Your Own Hanging Basket Class. Boy, was it a lot of fun! I was surrounded by smiling customers, who are just as anxious for spring, as I am. A big thank you to those attending for making the class such a great time. We planted many kinds of annuals including Diamond Frost euphorbia, many colors of million bells, Bluebird nemesia, lots of verbena and many other great annuals for hanging baskets. It was a pleasure to help them and give them a glimpse into the world of our greenhouse facilities.

I recently met with the ladies at the Home Summit Church in Rochester. They were a great bunch to talk with about new perennials that we are carrying here at Sargent’s. And they asked great questions, which I was happy to know the answers. One of the women asked about how to become involved in a garden club, which was stemmed from a suggestion of mine to get involved with your local garden club.

As a member of the LeRoy Garden Club, I find that the garden club is a great group to spend time with and talk about gardening with others. Gardeners have passion not only for plants but for teaching others. In the discussion with the Home Summit ladies, a woman mentioned how gardeners were always willing to share plants and helpful tips. Garden clubs also offer a nice outlet for an evening out once in awhile to be with others who enjoy gardening and plants as much as I do. In LeRoy, we plant up several gardens in the community helping to beautify areas in town. There is an annual trip every year to several larger gardens and plans are under way to hold a Garden Tour this summer along with our 2nd Annual Container Gardening Contest held over LeRoy Summerfest.

I’d encourage all of you to become involved with a garden club. Not only are there fun meetings to attend, most clubs also organize garden tours, trips to the MN Landscape Arboretum and sometimes shopping tours. Many of them also plant community gardens. One thing is for certain, the conversation is usually involving the garden and food is usually present! There are many clubs in the area and the following is a small listing of several, along with contact information. Maybe I’ll see you at the next meeting for the LeRoy or Rochester Garden Club, which I have recently joined and attended a great meeting filled with lots of fun and ideas for the garden.

Adams/Elkton Area
Changing Seasons Garden Club Bev Vangness (507) 582-3194

LeRoy              LeRoy Garden Club   Georgia Eastvold      gaeastvold@mchsi.com

Harmony Harmony Garden Club Lori Slindee slindee@harmonytel.net

Northfield         Northfield Garden Club     Marcia Walters marciawalters@integra.net        website: www.northfieldgardenclub.org.

Rochester         Rochester Garden & Flower Club          Rita Buegler                  ritabueg@charter.net                 www.dwebsite.com/gardenclub

Rochester         Shades of Green Hosta Society  Cindy Tomashek            PrestonPlants@aol.com www.soghs.org

Rochester         Rochester Plant & Bloom Club  Linda Munson               gmunson@cascademeadow.org

Rushford/Houston         Forget-Me-Not Garden Club      Jennifer Evenson  mattjen@acegroup.cc

Wykoff Rainbow Garden Club            Darlene Eickhoff           ddeickhoff@hmtel.com

There are numerous garden clubs in the area, Spring Valley, Pine Island, Winona, Lake City, Rushford and Dodge Center to name a few others. Let me know if you are looking for a club in your community, as I may have other contact information available for you. At Sargent’s we also have a club called the Reward’s Club. All of these clubs are great resources for gardening information.

Let me know if you have any questions or have an interest in something you'd like to read about. I can be reached at wajasper@sargentsgardens.com.

Happy Easter!
Wendy Jasper
MNLA Certified Professional

Past Journal Entries