February 2008 newsletter





John and Kevin -  our wonderful  hosts!
Our most recent meeting

Tribu Gallery opened its doors and garden just for us.  Kevin and John proved to be very attentive hosts again, and had the coffee hot and readily available on that chilly day.

Our Next Meeting:

Our next meeting will be on February 17th, at 1 pm.  We will be in Tampa, at the riverside home of Brad, our photographer and historian.  His beautiful, tree shaded yard is the perfect location to hold our meeting.  You will need to bring a chair! The club will be providing smoked turkey breast for the potluck, so plan accordingly and bring something yummy.   

RSVP is not necessary, but if you have any questions, Marty has all the answers at  potluck@rakesandbladesfl.com or by calling 727-797-8498.

We will be working at this meeting to make sure that the Winter Pride booth is a success by filling seed packets and folding brochures.

Directions to next meeting: Login to Members page

Don't forget to bring something good for the raffle!  The weather has been having a field day in my own garden, but I still have a few treasures to share. 

Of interest to Gardeners

Check out our calendar of events!

Norris Crenshaw’s monthly timetable of gardening chores:

February:
  • Prepare garden for Spring
  • Spray the petals of azaleas and camellias to prevent blight
  • Ideal time to transplant trees.
Also of interest:

Selby Botanical Garden in Sarasota
Sunken Gardens, 1825 4th Street N, St Pete.
Pinellas County Extension Service calendar for lots more gardening events.
City Beautiful Commission in St. Petersburg
Gizella Kopsick Palm Arboretum in St. Petersburg

Monthly meetings at Moccasin Lake Nature Park
2750 Park Trail Ln., Clearwater:

Clearwater Audubon Society
1st Monday, October – May, 7:00-9:00pm.
Pinellas Chapter of the Florida Native Plant Society
First Wednesday of month, 7:30 - 9:30 p.m.
Suncoast Sierra Club
3rd Thursday, 7:30-9:30pm

ASK THE GARDENER:
In case you don't remember, last month Scott and George sent in a photo of an unusual succulent they had growing around their properties.  There were a few guesses that it was the Mother of Thousands plant, and as turns out,  it is a variety.  To find out more about it, please check out the Garden Shop for the forum.

This month we have a new plant to identify.  Joe Kosmal and Bob Conner have a plant and would like to know what it is.  Can you help?  Please email me newsletter@rakesandbladesfl.com if you know what this is.

Have you got an interesting, but unknown plant you want to learn more about?  Send me a photo and description and we will do our best to find out more about it.
 Club News

The New Year started out at Tribu, with Kevin and John hosting out meeting and potluck.  We are very thankful since they stepped in quickly when Norris and Frank were unable to host. It was a cold, but otherwise dry day, so the coffee was very welcome!


We had a nice turn out of about 45 people.  A lot of people had to miss because the sudden change in weather caused a lot of sniffles and worse. Jim even had a personal amplifier to boost his raspy voice.  Hopefully all have recuperated since then and will be at this next meeting.

I think John's Native American Earth God kept away the evil spirits and provided a nice day for us all.

There was more than enough food to go around, and since there were some hot items, it helped to warm everyone up
After dinner, Jim started the meeting by talking about Winter Pride.   Winter Pride is Tampa's answer to St. Pete's Pride in Paradise event.  To keep from competing for patrons, they hold it  on the last weekend in February.  This year, Rakes and Blades is having a booth at the event.

We heard from our Winter Pride Committee about the event and our participation.  Larry Zollner, Michael Kelly and Barry Campbell are our co-chairs for the event and seem to have everything in hand.  We will be handing out our brochures and seed packets again, and hopefully everyone show support for R&B and will drop by to say hello to those manning the booth.  


Brian, our program director arranged for a guest speaker from the Pinellas County extension service.  Mary Ellen, or as she introduced herself - The Mouth - spoke on the Florida garden and lawn.  She provided many useful handouts and websites, which I will be posting on this site, and answered questions from the crowd.  

She stressed the need for mulching, and the practicality of using rain barrels.  She told us how she improved her home garden soil, changing it from sand to black earth, complete with earthworms.

After the program, everyone moved down to the far end of the garden to examine the raffle plants.

There were a lot of plants to pick from, some of which I could even recognize!  Thanks to Jim, we don't have to guess at what each plant is.  

  

Jim helped us all by identifying some of the more unusual plants, including the mystery plant from Scott and George.   Then Kevin called all the numbers - except mine.  
Jim’s Plant of the Month:

Jewels, February 2008

This month's plants are the members of the genus Ficus, the fig trees. Probably the best known in Florida is the Cuban laurel, which is neither Cuban nor a laurel, but a fig tree from India. It’s sister species is the weeping Chinese banyan, Ficus benjamina. The fiddle leaf fig, Ficus lyrata and the rubber tree, Ficus elastica, are common landscape plants. There are also 2 species of strangler fig native to Florida, and we see those growing out of the cut, dead fronds of palm trees. As always, though, the species I want to discuss are those that are less often seen in Florida, but still likely to perform very well in your garden.

The clown fig, Ficus aspera, has leaves that are variegated green and white, with decorative figs striped reddish-pink to offer a wonderful contrast.  It is slow growing (a rarity in Florida!), but will eventually reach 15 feet in height. It prefers full sun and regular water.

The Roxburgh fig, Ficus auriculata (or roxburghii), is the species with the second largest leaves. Not only is it impressive when the leaves reach full size, but the


clusters of large, decorative figs growing directly out of the trunk make it a fascinating oddity.  It also prefers full sun, but lots of water. I only know of one nursery in the US that carries it, but someday you may be able to get one from me!













Club officer contact

President: Jim Nevers, president@rakesandbladesfl.com
Vice President: Ann Allen, vicepres@rakesandbladesfl.com
Treasurer: Gary Raush, treasurer@rakesandbladesfl.com
Secretary: Bruce Bates, secretary@rakesandbladesfl.com
Newsletter: Bryan Hopper, newsletter@rakesandbladesfl.com
Photographer: Brad Hissing, photos@rakesandbladesfl.com
Raffleator: Kevin Ritter, raffles@rakesandbladesfl.com
Social Director: Michael Argrew, socialdirector@rakesandbladesfl.com
Program Coordinator: Brian Cahill, programs@rakesandbladesfl.com
Host Coordinators: Ann Allen, Marty Volpe, hosting@rakesandbladesfl.com
Potluck Committee:
Marty Volpe, Scott Hoffman, Dani Skrzypek, Jeffrey Davis
potluck@rakesandbladesfl.com
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