Horticulture – Lake Minnetonka Garden Club

Mary Meyer – GCA Horticulture Award

Nancy Guldberg — Tue, 01 Nov 2022 13:48:46 +0000

Mary Meyer is considered to be one of the leading experts in the field of ornamental grasses in the country. She is known as a ‘pioneer’ of grasses research. We are blessed to have an esteemed member who has such an extensive background in horticulture.

In 2020, Mary became emeritus professor and extension horticulturist with the University of Minnesota. Mary obtained her Ph.D. in 1993 in Plant Breeding and Genetics, her M.S. from Cornell University, and her B.S. from Clemson University. For over 40 years she has studied grasses and their use in the landscape in the Northeastern and Midwestern U.S. She joined the Horticultural Science faculty in 1994 with an Extension, teaching and research appointment. Her research interests include native and ornamental grasses and sedges. She’s studied the propagation and
production of grasses including cold hardiness, and low maintenance sustainable landscaping. Blue Heaven is a patented grass she released in 2007. She’s conducted research on alternative low maintenance turf grasses.

From 1993-2007, Mary was the State Coordinator for the University of Minnesota Extension Master Gardener program, and worked with several Extension Educators to coordinate statewide multi-media educational programs in environmental, consumer, and commercial horticulture, including sustainable home landscapes. She was the Interim Director of the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, and from 2013-2014 was President of the American Society of Horticultural Science when she started the national initiative Seed Your Future along with Dr. Douglas Needham at Longwood Gardens. Mary currently manages the North American Plant Collections Consortium Ornamental Grass Collection – “the best grass collection in the country” – at the Landscape Arboretum and is the current Chair of the Board of Directors for the Minnesota State Horticulture Society.

Mary is the author of several publications, including Ornamental Grasses for Cold Climates, and The 10 Plants That Changed Minnesota, co-authored with Susan Davis Price and you can read more on her blog http://grasstalkmhm.blogspot.com/ She has received many national awards in addition to the 2016 Garden Club of America, Marion Thompson Fuller Brown Conservation Award and the GCA/LMGC Club Horticulture Award in 2020.
The 10 Plants That Changed Minnesota CLICK HERE

More importantly, Mary has been extraordinarily generous in sharing her extensive knowledge of horticulture and love of native grasses and prairies with our membership.

Mary was also one of the authors of The Best Plants For 30 Toiugh Sites.
View this publication HERE

GCA – NAL Conference

Nancy Guldberg — Thu, 27 Oct 2022 16:51:47 +0000

The first week in March of 2022 saw over 1200 GCA members from around the country participating in the Garden Club of America’s National Affairs and Legislation Conference (NAL), held entirely on Zoom. We emerge from the conference with a list of key legislative priorities that offer real, practical solutions, that if implemented and supported now will dramatically advance our collective efforts in addressing Climate Change. It is important to note that the GCA selects these specific priorities because they are pragmatic and stand a reasonably good chance of bipartisan passage.

Conservation Chair, Sam Muldoon and Assistant Chair, Larey Anne Swanson, were hoping to be on Capital Hill to meet with our state representatives to lobby on behalf of LMGC/GCA’s initiatives, however, they pivoted to pursue their work virtually! Along with their St. Paul Garden Club counterparts, they’ve met with Congresswoman Betty McCollum, Senator Tina Smith’s staff, and Senator Amy Klobuchar’s staff and report that all of our representatives have been strongly supportive of the GCA’s six conservation priorities. In some cases, the teams were able to bring attention to elements of specific bills that aligned with our representative’s legislative priorities, which they greatly appreciated. Meetings with Dean Phillips and Tom Emmer are currently in the works!

These proposed bills support GCA’s initiatives which are identified, researched and explained in the GCA Position Papers. You can review the NAL event and related information on the GCA webpage. In addition to our delegates, LMGC had approximately 20 additional members join in – one of the advantages of a virtual platform – it can be far reaching! Here are a few areas where you can get motivated and involved.

Scenic America – log on here and sign the ‘act now’ email. This will help move forward the ‘undergrounding’ of power lines. Yes, that means burying power lines so we don’t have to see them, or trees cut in disfiguring ways or worry about weather events causing downed power lines. A win, win, win situation! (PHOTO)

(RAWA) Recovering American Wildlife Act – this video will motivate you to sign the associated support letter.

The Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act discussed by Senator Jeff Merkley talked about. See why Diana Cohen founded The Plastic Pollution Coalition – this 5 minute ted talk will inspire you. See a webinar and petitions that you can support and sign here.

Center for Plant Conservation shares why seed collection is so important

Representative Mike Simpson talks about the importance of dam removal. See this documentary DamNation produced by Patagonia, Inc.

And finally, something simple and enjoyable suggested by Senator Mike Braun – “Plant a tree. It’s the simplest way of capturing carbon”.

Protected: New Member Horticulture Heyday

LMGC Webmaster — Fri, 11 Sep 2020 17:18:26 +0000