An expert panel from our Society will answer questions about gar-dening problems, plant varieties, propagation, irrigation and anything you have been dying to ask but thought it sounded too dumb. This is the night to get that answer. Oh!

It‟s not limited to Hy-drangeas. You can e-mail your questions to: info@csrahydrangeasociety.org The panel members are: Linda and Sam Christine, Sandy and Chris Randall, Ben

Rhoden and Denny Workman. If the names sound familiar to you, they should. These are the same wonderful mem-bers who opened their gardens to us earlier this year for our very successful garden tour.

The November 19th meeting At 7:00pm at Aiken Tech , Building 1300,

Community Room 1300.

Volume 8, issue 4

Spring—2006

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Volume 8, Issue 4

Winter 2009

‘Tardiva’

‘A’

‘Fr

‘Mme Emile Mouillere’

‘Lanarth White’

‘Limelight’

Lavender’

Welcome to the final newsletter of 2009. I hope this past year with the Hydrangea Soci-ety has been enjoyable and productive for you. When I became president in January I thought about the goals that I would strive to achieve during the upcoming year. There seemed to be three areas that I could have a positive affect . The first was to try to introduce more CSRA garden enthusiasts to the benefits and opportuni-ties available in our or-ganization. We started 2009 with 90 members and as of today we have 150. I sincerely hope this trend continues in 2010.

My second goal was to make the quarterly meet-ing more diverse and in-teresting to our members. To that end we added a Garden Tour which was a huge success, then a panel of garden experts to respond to our mem-bers questions at our No-vember meeting. To that same end we have already started plan-ning for an all day semi-nar/garden tour in Au-gusta next June. To retain members and add new ones we need to continu-ally strive to have differ-ent and interesting pro-grams. My final goal was to bring us into the digital age with our own website. I have long felt that we needed to have a way to

“advertise‟ our existence and to provide a way to communicate to both our members and for those people who type “Hydrangea Society” in Google. Our website pro-vides up-to-date informa-tion about our meet-ings and activities and has a substan-tial amount of horticul-tural information on the care and feeding of the genus hydrangea. This task has involved a sub-stantial amount of time and effort and I would like to thank my son, Scott Magin, who designed web-site and continues to maintain it from his home in Tampa Fl. (see article on statistics for website).

President’s Message

We have lost a dear friend. William Adams, or Mr. Bill, a master Mas-ter Gardener, who was generous with his time, donating to causes that were close to his heart will be missed. Every

experience with Bill was a learning experience that upon walking away from you were a better person and gardener for it. He was a dear friend and a wonderful teacher.

Bill was killed in a traffic accident Sunday (11/8) afternoon while working in his beloved garden. Please send your thoughts and prayers to his family.

H. Citiline Mars

H. ‘Skyland Giant’

H. ‘Firefly’

H. ‘Masja’

H. ‘Parzifal’ Continued on page 2

First, thanks to all members for their participation and interest during this past year. Also, thank you to the many volunteers who made it possible to have the ac-tivities we enjoyed this year. And finally, I give my sincere thanks to the officers, direc-tors and chairpersons who were always there to ensure our suc-cess. Because of their efforts I‟d

like to think we have had a very successful 2009. Sincerely,

Irv

For our November meeting, a panel will be taking questions. Questions can be submitted via email, to info@csrahydrangeasociety.orgor you can bring them along with any samples / cuttings to the November meeting. As this will be my last newslet-ter and meeting as president I‟d like to thank a number of people.

Visitors now have two swings to sit on in the PKP Hydrangea Garden. In a shady spot in the lower portion of the garden sits a pretty new swing with a small pergola. The base of the swing is paved with tiles formerly used to identify the hydrangeas in the garden. With the installation of new metal markers, the tiles are ideal to add color and connect the swing to the garden.

A potato vine has been planted and will eventually cover the pergola. The structure was built by Dr. Will Bowman. Fey Hardy donated the swing and pergola in honor of her daughter Andrea. It is a popular new addition that

will be greatly appreciated by our visitors during the warm days of summer where they can swing and enjoy

the beautiful hydrangeas in the lower garden.

Gloria Wade.

This slate of officers and board embers will be voted on at the November meeting. Thank you to each of these members for their willingness to serve our or-ganization.

There are still other positions and volunteer opportunities available. We ask that anyone

interested in helping with re-freshments, programs, door prizes and audit let someone on the board know. You will also have the opportunity to volun-teer to work at the plant sale and at the 2010 conference and gar-den tour.

Page 2

President’s Message

Pendleton King Park Hydrangea Garden Gets a New Swing

Next year's Proposed Hydrangea Society Board

HY DRA NGEA S OCIE TY NE WSLE T TER

The following members have accepted nominations to posi-tions on the board:

Board Officers: President: Chris Randall Vice President: Jacque Rees Secretary: Valerie Martin Treasurer: Pam Glogowski

Board Members: Irv Magin, Bill Hayes, Kay Mills, Rick Rasmussen and

V OLU ME 8, ISS UE 4

A panel of advisers has re-searched and narrowed the re-cipients for our 2009 Grants to the following organizations. Considerations for awarding the grants were: organizational needs, goals and benefit to the students, residents and / or public. The grants are in-tended for educational pur-poses, such as students learn-ing the skill of greenhouse management, or the re-education of adults seeking a new skill for jobs, or the educa-tion of the public on Hydrangeas varieties. The following four organiza-tions are our 2009 Grant Recipi-ents:

.

.

SA, Hungary, United King-dom, Poland, South

Africa and Thailand Top 10 pages visited: 1. CSRA home page 2. Newsletter 3. Events Page 4. Gallery 5. Why doesn‟t my hydrangea bloom?

Since the conception of our web-page just 6 months ago: We‟ve had:

· Over 22,000 “hits” · Total 1500 visitors · Average 126 hits per day · Nearly 500 hits on plant sale pagesIn Oct. alone we had visitors from: Bel-gium , Canada, Colombia,

6. Resources page 7. Planting/fertilizer page 8. Links 9. Resources 10. Propagation Thank you Irv and Scott for your hard work and congratulations on our web-site‟s success!

Page 3

Hydrangea Society Horticultural Grants 2009

Hydrangea Society Web-Site Facts

Lynndale Inc. $500 to the Ralph Levy Green-house and Garden 1490 Eisenhower Drive, Augusta Ga

Columbia County 4 H $500 for their 4 H program Augusta, GA

Pendleton King Park Hydrangea Garden $500 to improve garden area Augusta Ga

Aiken Country Career and Technology Center $500 to the Agriculture Education Pro-gram and Greenhouse 2455 Jefferson Davis Highway Aiken, SC

Jacque Rees, Editor CSRA Hydrangea Society 1145 Willow Woods Aiken, SC 29803

Hydrangea arborescens ‘Spirit’ Spirit Mountain Hydrangea Being that October is Breast Can-cer Awareness Month, the mention of this new variety seemed timely.

„Spirit‟ is a tribute to those affected by breast cancer. Tom Ranney, a NCSU Professor has taken the US native Hydrangea arborescens and created a sterile mophead with rich pink flowers.

Imagine „Annabelle‟ but with pink flowers. „Spirit‟ produces 6”

mopheads blooms that may reach 10” wide if cut to the ground in spring, may reach 10” wide. Although H. „Spirit‟ is quite drought-tolerant, a well-drained moist soil is best .

Part Sun to Light Shade. US Zones 3-9.

“Everything that slows us down and forces patience, everything that sets us back into the slow circles of nature, is a help. Gardening is an instrument of grace.” May Sarton

“There can be no other occupation like gardening in which, if you were to creep up behind someone at their task, you would find them smiling.” Author Unknown

A sincere THANK YOU to all the special members who furnished refreshments during the last year. We appreciate all you do for us.

We also would like to recog-nize Lois Christensen for hard work in the planning and organi-zation of these volunteers.

To volunteer for refreshments at the August meeting please contact Lois Christensen at (803) 648-6167.