The Grapevine - New River Valley Master Gardeners
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INSIDE THIS ISSUE
Share the Spare 2021 2
Plant IDs ................ 4
Remember? ............ 5
Imagine Florida ....... 6
The Grapevine Busy Ruth Ann .......
NRV Garden Tour ...
8
9
Really Busy!............ 10
June 2021
New River Valley Master Gardener Association Newsletter
Plant Sale
by Susan Perry
On Saturday May 8th, the NRV Master Gardener
Association held its annual plant sale. Thank you to
everyone who participated in making it a success.
All the beautiful photos in
this issue are courtesy of
Ruth Ann Whitener, unless
noted.
Share the Spare Set to Celebrate 10th Anniversary
by Lynn Brammer
In 2010, the NRV Master Gardeners started a program at the Blacksburg
Farmers Market called Share the Spare. A Master Gardener booth was
set up to encourage those shopping at the market to consider purchas-
ing an extra item (or two) of produce to donate to our booth’s basket.
It was an experiment to see how we could support and supplement our
food pantries with locally grown fresh produce. These pantries do an
amazing job, but are often stocked with cans and boxes. What if we
offered their patrons an option of fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, and other
seasonal delights? Well, with the support of so many of you who have
volunteered at the booth, we have answered that question. Through
the generosity of our community, we have proven we can do big things
when we work together towards a common goal. Literally tons of pro-
duce have been put on the plates and tables of our local friends and
neighbors in the 10 years of Share the Spare.
In addition to engaging with the market-goers about our mission of pro-
duce collection, we also get a chance to share our passion for success-
ful, sustainable growing. With encouragement from the market manag-
er, we take advantage of the opportunity to function as a Plant Clinic
as well. Our table is full of soil test kits, planting charts, seeds to share,
and resource information. As with any plant clinic, there may always be
questions we’re unsure about, but that’s when we get the client’s con-
tact information so we can get back to them once we’ve done some
homework. That helps us learn something new and fulfill our commit-
ment of relaying research-based information to our community. This is a
wonderful opportunity to make the public aware of the resources Coop-
erative Extension has available. With every conversation, we gain new-
found respect for our program and often recruit new members!
During last season’s hiatus, the New River Valley Glean Team stepped
up and served in our place. Discussions with their leaders led us to invite
them to collaborate with the NRVMG in the upcoming season. The
Glean Team secures garden sites in the area to plant produce for
2
harvesting, strictly for the purpose of donating to people in underserved
areas of our community. Their research on local venues and the days
they serve their constituents has made us aware we can do a more effi-
cient job of taking this produce to where it will be distributed in the time-
liest manner. They rent a shelf at Millstone Kitchen to store the produce
until it can be delivered to the proper pantry/distributor. Previously, the
produce would be taken to the Montgomery County Emergency Assis-
tance location for distribution on Wednesday of the next week. That
meant fresh perishable greens and other time-sensitive items may have
been past their prime. With this opportunity of shelf space and their co-
ordination of local pantry schedules, we can guarantee that we are
much more efficient in our mission. It is exciting to have this opportunity
to partner with the NRV Glean Team. They have volunteers who may
periodically join us at the booth to offer their assistance. We welcome
them with open arms!
The 2021 season of Share the Spare will begin Saturday June 5th at the
Blacksburg Farmers Market. We welcome all those who would like to
earn volunteer hours by spending time at the market and engaging with
market patrons. If you are new to the program, you will always be ac-
companied by someone more experienced who can fill you in on the
details of how we promote Share the Spare, the Master Gardener pro-
gram, Cooperative Extension, and the NRV Glean Team.
(20+) NRV Glean Team | Facebook
Photo courtesy of Lynn Brammer.
3
Plant IDs
by Erica Jones
We just finished the (May 2021) plant sale and some of us did a marathon of plant identification by
various techniques. Here’s what I learned.
Camera: The camera is surprisingly inaccurate/ unsatisfactory tool for plant I Ds.
I discovered this before the plant sale, but was reminded of it again at the plant sale. While
on a wildflower walk at Pandapas Pond late April with a friend with a camera, I begged her
to send me some pictures so she did. Some were easy – like the Fringed Polygala (aka Po-
lygala paucifolia). The first comment in my low-brow wildflower book – ‘also known as
flowering Wintergreen’ totally nails it. And the photo mostly nailed it. But then we got into
the ‘yellow, umbrella-like clusters’. Oh whoops; not enough leaf in the picture for me to tell
if it was Meadow Parsnip or Yellow Pimpernel or something else. “Pretty yellow wildflowers”
was good enough for the photographer!!! I am still stumped on two plants we saw. I sus-
pect they were garden escapees but I can not find them in my flower book(s).
We were definitely having problems identifying plants donated for the plant sale. The other
Master Gardeners would confidently snap a picture, which gets sent to a web site, but nope;
the web site was not having it. Some of the problem was that the plant was a ‘wildflower’
and the website ‘ornamentals’. Sometimes we only had leaf and no flower. Well, leaves
without blossoms do not always work either.
Common Names: Here is w here you get into the ‘so WHAT do you call that????’. I
had some that I thought were ‘dayflowers’, but someone else, probably more correctly,
guessed spiderwort. Spiderworts have three petals; dayflowers also have three, but they
are of unequal size. All this was fairly moot until the plant starts blooming. We all have
run into this problem. Be accepting; be patient of other people’s common names - you
might learn a new one. For example, locally an “Easter lily” is commonly used to describe
daffodil/jonquil/narcissus.
Pronunciation: How do you pronounce TH AT? W e w ere chasing around after
some foliage on a plant — one that was probably of wildflower origin. I shouted out, “Ca
len DO’ lah” and got an odd look for my efforts. Steven Still’s book “Manuel of Herbaceous
Ornamental Plants” has pronunciations at the top of the pages that are totally worth looking
at. The more common pronunciation has emphasis on the second syllable. In the end, it
was probably neither one, so we went back to the drawing board!
Consult a website: W hat w eb site you are looking at is important. J ust because it
is the first choice showing up on your cell phone does not mean it is particularly worth read-
ing/quoting. Some of our plants came in with only a name, leaving us to take a stab at ref-
erencing hardiness and culture (light/water) needs. When I realized what web sites folks
were looking it, it was no wonder useful information nuggets like hardiness or sunlight pref-
erence were not mentioned. If you take the time to compare some of the web sites that
pop up on searches, you might notice a lot of repetition, some incorrect information, or
vague information. Many web sites cater to beginning gardeners and often, popular web
sites make gardening sound SO easy. So keep scrolling down until you find some more de-
tails. Virginia Cooperative Extension recommends using research-based, accurate/
verifiable/researched information for a reason.
4
LATE SPRING and EARLY SUMMER
by Ruth Ann Whitener
5
Lakeside Gardens of Central Florida
by Emma Patterson
When I wrote this, it was still cold outside, even though
the calendar read May, and the wind continued to howl
across our mountains. But imagine you are whisked
away to a tropical garden, where the temperature is 89
degrees and only a light breeze ruffles the glassy surface
of a natural lake. On your imaginary trip, you might find
yourself ambling by a lakeside garden. Come take a
stroll around two balmy and soothing gardens in central
Florida, at Lake Mirror and Lake Wire. These gardens are
developed and maintained by the City of Lakeland.
As you enter
Lake Mirror,
two graceful
eight-foot swan statues greet you. Many of the
nearby lakes are filled with living white and
black swans, but these two are molded from
cement. They seem to be eating from a
tropical bowl of fragrant dracaena and sit
astride bushes of red and green pineapple
bromeliads. Behind them are graceful palm
trees blowing in the breeze and privet hedges
standing trimmed and upright like royal soldiers.
A seven-foot wall of snow-white magnolias lines
the nearby path and fills the air with fragrance.
The massive white petals gleam in the sunlight and look like they have been poured onto
the magnolia with the morning dew.
You turn around to admire the lake, which is as smooth as its name implies, and notice
water lilies spreading across the edges. Fish
swim among the lilies, and as you bend down
to look at them, a brace of ducks – two
parents and nine (count ‘em, 9) ducklings –
catches your eye and makes you gasp. The
startled parents lead the ducklings to safety,
only to return eagerly a few moments later
when your traveling companion starts tossing
out biscuit crumbs from yesterday’s breakfast.
The ducklings aren’t quite sure what to do with
the floating crumbs, but the mother duck
makes it a teachable moment and encourages them to eat.
Five blocks ahead, just a short walk away, you
discover Lake Wire. Clumps of cattails greet
you at the edge of the lake. As you start along
the pathway that circles the lake, a black
crane ruffles its feathers in the morning breeze.
The lake is sur-
rounded by
dozens of
palm species
from across
the globe.
One of the first trees you notice is a six-foot Phoenix roe-
belenii, or a pygmy date palm. A native of southeast
Asia, it has a rounded shape and its fronds are surprisingly
low to the ground. Ambling on a bit further, you see a
dramatic-
looking Phoenix
rupicola tower-
ing 20 feet
above you, a
cliff date palm, native to West Bengal in India. Its
yellow plumes fan out splendidly from the trunk
among its green branches. Several blocks later,
as you round the last bend of the lakeside path-
way, you see a Thrinax radiata, also known as a
Florida thatch palm. A native of south Florida,
this four-foot palm enjoys the sun and lettings its
spiky fronds dance in the breeze. It is well pro-
tected by a cypress tree and larger palms
nearby. Your walk complete, you remove
your floppy sunhat and bask a moment in
the hot Florida sun. As you breathe deeply
and your mind floats back to the chilly New
River Valley, just remember these balmy
lakeside gardens are only an imaginary ride
away.
All photos for this article courtesy of
Emma Patterson.
New River Valley Garden Tour 2021
The 25th Anniversary
by Lynn Brammer
The NRV Garden Tour, postponed from 2020, is back by popular demand. Held
rain or shine, the tour will be on Saturday July 10th from 9 am - 5 pm. I t w ill
feature 5 private gardens in Blacksburg. The tour is organized and sponsored
by the Montgomery-Floyd Regional Friends of the Library with assistance from
the NRV Master Gardeners.
The tour is especially delighted to have the garden of Linda Davis, one of our
own Master Gardeners, on the tour as well as the garden of Mary Ann Hansen,
who often teaches a Plant Diagnostics class for Master Gardener trainees.
The tour is self-guided and requires a ticket, available on line or at a local li-
brary beginning June 1. At $15, we feel it is reasonable to ask even the volun-
teers to purchase a ticket. All proceeds go to the Friends of the Library for con-
tinued support of regional library programs. These programs became all the
more relevant and important during 2020, when our library put on their creativi-
ty hats and made available take home packs of activities that catered to all age
groups and interests. The NRV Garden Tour Committee has an agreement to
donate a percentage of the proceeds to our Master Gardener program in recog-
nition of our important and continued contribution to the success of the tour.
Our role as Master Gardeners, and the way we earn volunteer hours, is by being
stationed in each garden during the tour to serve as a co-host and guide along
with the garden owner. Welcoming the tour-goers as they explore, we raise
enormous awareness of the role of Master Gardeners, our program and our mis-
sion to educate and inspire. Equally important, we are there to answer garden
questions and point out the sustainable methods employed by the owner. A
typical question, “What is this plant?” becomes an opportunity to mention it is
drought tolerant and bees love it! There may be rain barrels, or a compost bin,
pollinator plants, or various other features that may offer valuable lessons to
share. Volunteering for the tour is an excellent opportunity to connect with the
public. Tour-goers may be in groups and may only want you to identify a plant
or tree, but others will enjoy engaging and learning all they can about the space
they are visiting. As a volunteer, you will get a pre-tour visit to the garden(s)
where you will be assisting. The tour is a wonderful way to share a beautiful
garden with fellow garden enthusiasts and also allow the garden owner to take
breaks throughout the day.
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At one garden on the tour, Master Gardeners set up a tent and a Plant Clinic,
inviting people to stop by and pick up a soil test kit, planting charts, or a packet
of seeds and learn about our program. This addition has become quite popular,
as would be expected with fellow gardening aficionados. It becomes another
opportunity to raise awareness of Cooperative Extension and its many contribu-
tions to the gardening community.
On tour day, along with the 5 private gardens, we include “Points of Interest”.
These are public spaces we invite those taking the tour to also visit. This year,
we are excited to include the Hahn Horticulture Garden, the Alexander Black
House and grounds, the Blacksburg Farmers Market, and the Blacksburg Re-
gional Art Associations Artspace@ The Artful Lawyer. Discussions are also in
progress to add a community garden in the vicinity of the tour gardens (Airport
Acres Neighborhood Greenspace).
We need a Master Gardener to serve as coordinator of our volunteers.
This role entails creating a sign up for volunteers (Wendy can assist), and ar-
ranging a visit to the garden a week or so before the tour for each Master Gar-
dener who signs up to volunteer. This visit is to insure Master Gardener volun-
teers are comfortable with the garden where they will volunteer. If you are a
good organizer and have time to devote to this delightful one-day event as a
coordinator of volunteers, please email lbrammer@vt.edu or contact Wendy. If
you need more information about your role as coordinator, do not hesitate to
ask either of us for clarification.
If you’d like to join as a volunteer at a garden during the tour, we will be in
touch once we have the coordinator role filled. As a volunteer, you will receive
the garden questionnaire that the owner completed, giving insight to their gar-
den and its history.
Thank you for your interest in participating in this tour as we celebrate 25
years!
Lynn Brammer
NRVGT Committee
540 449-6621
Garden Tour | Friends of the Montgomery-Floyd Regional Library
(mfrlfriends.org)
Facebook: @New River Valley Garden Tour
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Ruth Ann Has Been Really Busy!
By Susan Perry
Thanks to Ruth Ann for the beautiful photos
submitted for this newsletter. Personally, I
think these may be her best yet and I hope
you will all enjoy them as much as I do.
1011
NRVMGA Executive Board
President: Dianne Blount
Vice President: Steve Hale
Secretary: Beth Umberger
Treasurer: Bill Kealy
Members at Large
Ed Hurysz
Liz Swinfen
Carol Trutt
Lori Kuszmaul
MG Coordinator:
Wendy Silverman, wssmastergardener@gmail.com
Website: www.nrvmastergardeners.com
VCE Montgomery County Office:
540-382-5790
Comments, questions, and submissions can be sent to Susan Perry
(susan_perry@peacenlove.org)
A special thanks to Ruth Ann, Erica, Emma, & Lynn.
Your contributions are greatly appreciated!
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