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Meetings SCGC meetings are held the first Monday of each month with the following exceptions. In August we have no scheduled meeting as our flower design members are participating in the State Fair. When major holidays, i.e., New Years, 4th of July or Labor Day make the first weekend a long weekend our meeting is set for the second Monday of the month. Our meetings are held in the WESTMINSTER PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 533 So. Walnut Street, Springfield, Illinois. Meetings begin at 9:15 A.M. with coffee and goodies preceding the meeting. Our club meeting is followed by an educational program. Since we are a fairly large club, 425 plus members, we have had and hope to continue to have excellent speakers. We try to maintain a balance between the designers and horticulturists so that we represent all our members. Some of the club's committees, such as Ways and Means, Library, Horticulture, hospitality and, of course coffee have tables at our meetings. Committees may have sign-up tables with information regarding such things as bus trips, luncheons, etc.
January 2010 What a treat for our first meeting of 2010! Our very own, (very talented) SCGC member, Mary Selinski presented her program "Flowers Through the Artist's Eye". Being a perfectionist, not only does she have all the schooling degrees but also has taken the Master Gardener's course to grow and observe every detail of the subject of her paintings. The photos are just a miniscule sampling of her paintings, notecards, etc. 
December, 2009 Chair of the Day Ada Lynn S. introduces our Speaker, Michelle O'Neal-Babicky from Petals & Co. in Rochester, Illinois. We are honored to be her first speaker/design presentation. If she hadn't told us we would't have known it. Her presentation, titled "Naturally Festive" provided tips for holiday decorating with live materials. Notice the last two photos. She begins her design using a sculpture of weeping willow whips which are pliable when fresh and rebar for strength. She notes that these sculptures lend themselves to more than one design in the many "cubbyholes". This was the last of her designs as time was running out. The second photo of this particular sculpture was a surprise to me as from this angle it looks like a praying mantis...cool, don't you agree? 
November 2009 November's program speaker was terrific!! Pat F. introduced our speaker Dr. K. Irani. Dr. Irani spoke on "Landscaping - Made in the Shade." You may have seen him on Illinois Gardener on PBS TV. He is a terrific speaker, knowledgeable and entertaining to boot. 
October 2009 SCGC's October meeting varied from the originally planned meeting. Following the September meeting one of our members returned to her car which was parked a couple of blocks away and encountered a rather unsavory individual. Luckily all worked out okay, but President Park thought it would be a good idea to have an officer speak on personal safety. Officer Kim Overby did just that. One of her suggestons was to press the panic button on your car key ring to attract attention and hopefully scare the troublemaker away. 
President Park is pictured with Becky Linney, President of the Garden Club Federation of Maine and a Springfield, IL. native. She attended our October meeting. Some of the board members were lucky enough to spend time with her at lunch. Notice she is holding the SCGC tote bag she bought. Such good taste! Come back anytime Becky.
Due to unforseen circumstances our scheduled speaker could not make her speaking commitment to SCGC. Not to fear our trusty Program Committee came to the rescue with a great speaker. Randy McCrady. Randy is the rose foreman at Washington Park Botanical Garden here in Springfield. We were treated with information gleaned from his 24 years of experience in this position. Pictured is Chair of the Day Cindy Bohl with Randy McCrady.
September 2009 Our September meeting was great. With the July Garden Walk and no meeting in August it was nice to have a formal meeting and catch up again. Susan Burgett, owner of "Enchanted Florist" here in Springfield was a perfect match. She showed us several fall floral arrangements. Check out some of the different containers and look for the kangaroo paws. Plus, her terrific designs were auctioned off to some lucky SCGC members. Thank you Susan... job well done!
June 2009 Chair of the Day Barbara R. introduced our June speaker, Ben Dolbeare, Invasive Species Project manager with DNR. He gave a most informative program with slides and handouts. The amount of travel and shipping nowadays have brought many new species to Illinois. Some of these have become pests and are pushing out many of our native wildflowers. He encourages gardeners to be able to recognize which plants are potentially invasive so we can avoid them and report infestations to the proper agencies.. He also had suggestions for landscape alternatives using native plants that will do well in our gardens. We'll all be a little more aware of our surroundings in the future. Thanks, Ben. (Click on photos to enlarge) 
At our June Meeting President Sherry Park announced that SCGC's 2008 flower show, "With This Ring", had won a national award. Flower Show chair, Karen Grant came to the podium to accept congratulations from all present. We encourage you to take a look at the pictures from the "2008 Flower Show" page on this web site. Fantastic job Karen, It was a super show. Thank you.
May 2009 Pictured is the SCGC's Chair of the Day Danette C. with our speaker Mark McWilliams, RLA, ICH professional , owner of Copper Tree Outdoor Lifestyles. Mark's program titled "Good Plants are Hard to Find" was a gem. He presented the best of the best, tried and true plants hardy for our area. He answered everyone's questions with an enthusiasm that is contagious. Thanks Mark. 
April 2009 Our newly installed President, Sherry Park introduces our very own "Container Queen", Karen Grant. Karen's slide presentation titled "Creating Pots with Pizzazz" was created by necessity as the deer stop by her property for their meals, as well as snacks. Her education as a master gardener and floral designer and judge made her a worthy advisory. She has containers for all seasons, sunny as well as shady, all colors of the rainbow and she gives us hope that we too can have a garden in a pot. The second photograph shows just a smidgen of the wares SCGC's Ways and Means Committee has for our members. They stay up to date on the best of the new; but continue to carry our favorites.
March 2009 We were very lucky to have Mr. Richard Hawke from the Chicago Botanical Garden as our speaker this month. He is internationally known for his knowledge of clematis. Notice the picture of our members enjoying his expertise. In fact we so enjoyed his talk that many of us spent the evening at the University of Illinois Extension listening to him discuss his work at the trial gardens. CELEBRATION After our meeting it was time to celebrate the Springfield Civic Garden Club's 80th Anniversary. Board members brought the goodies and Mrs. Ila R., our Awards chair and long time member, (1969), produced wonderful poster boards documenting the history of our club. Shown are just some of the boards she presented and were scattered around the room. Ila, you are fantastic!!! (Click on photos to enlarge) 
Mr. Richard Hawke
February 2009 Our February meeting brought one of our favorite designers, also an SCGC business member, Pat O'Connor, AIFD from Fifth Street Flower Shop in Springfield. He is pictured with Chair of the Day, Kirsten Farris. Look at the gorgeous designs he created and consented to raffle off to lucky members. 
January 2009 What a super meeting! Guy Sternberg from Starhill Forest Arboretum, co-author of "Native Trees for North American Landscapes" and an SCGC member gave a presentation on "Trees in a Changing Climate". He is an interesting, knowledgeable speaker. Thanks Guy! 
December 2008 Lisa Rimes, AIFD shared tips and tricks of her holiday designs. We think of her as part of SCGC's family as past president Karen G. is also her very talented mother. Ada Lynn S., Chair of the Day assisted Lisa. She very kindly raffled all of her designs. We had some very happy members. 
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| | | | Nancy T. won the Ways and Means raffle design. Lucky Nancy. |
November 2008 
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| Jeff Epping, Director of Horticulture at Olbrich Botanical Gardens showed us via a slide presentation the many plants that provide year round attention. Many of the slides noted how stunning the benchs, pottery, fences, etc. can be in the off-season, especially when paired with the correct plantings.
| | Mike McPeek, Park Guide at the Lincoln Home National Historic Site gave SCGC a short program on a new project. An Heirloom Garden behind the Dean House, across from the Lincoln Home hopefully will be ready for the Lincoln Bicentennial in 2009. Our assistance is requested. |
October 2008 Our October program "Autumn Bounty" was given by Mari Mackenbach. The first picture is of Mari and our Chair of the Day, AdaLynn S. She gave a very entertaining program showing how we can use many of the items we already have in our homes. Notice in the photos of some of her arrangements the use of fruit and vegetables, candy, as well as orange plastic bags tied into a ring surrounding a pumpkin with the middle carved out to fit a mum container plant. A good time was had by all. We all came home with a new view of our kitchens. (Click on photos to enlarge) 
September 2008 Our September program "Metamorphosis" was presented by Rick Orr, AIFD from Champaign, Il. His designs show the transition from summer to fall. The accompanying photos are as sampling of his designs. (Click on photos to enlarge) 
Rick Orr, AIFD
July 2008 Our July program has been a highly anticipated program - and rightly so! Mr. Ralph Snodsmith, U of I graduate with a BS and MS in Floriculture & Ornamental Horticulture, author, lecturer at New York Botanical Garden since 1968, for over a decade has had a radio show, "The Garden Hotline" where he has answered thousands of horticulture questions...wow! And that is just a partial list of his accomplishments. His program was delivered with humour, knowledge of his subject - which he genuinely loves and it shows. He discussed the latest organic products, bio-products and potting mixes. In order to avoid problems his number one piece of advice is.....read the directions. Believe me, no one left the room early. 
Mr. Ralph Snodsmith
(Click on photo to enlarge)
June 2008 Two programs in One meeting - with two of our favorite people, David Robson and Jennifer Fishburn, both SCGC members, (David a past president), both horticulture educators with the University of Illinois Extension! No way can you leave one of their programs without learning something new. David, "Grow it before you can show it", gave tips and techniques as well as the requirements for us to show our home grown beauties. We have two places to practice what he preaches, our own SCGC Flower Show on June 13-14 and at the Il. State Fair in August. Jennifer gave us wonderful ideas for growing (and eating) herbs in the landscape as well as in containers. Also don't forget to enter some in our flower show in June, section 4: "Table Decorations" is for container grown plants. Good luck! 
David Robson
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Jennifer Fishburn
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(Click on photos to enlarge)
May 2008 "Don't make any rash decisions when you're itching to get in the garden" This was the apropos title of our May meeting, presented by Larry Newell, M. D. (Dermatologist). Knowledgeable, witty, answered any and all questions asked - great program - great speaker. 
Our Chair of the Day, Jackie N. with Doctor Newell.
(Click on photo to enlarge)
April, 2008 April 7, 2008 was a gorgeous, long awaited, truly Spring day. A great day for our speaker, MaryAnn Sink from Missouri Botanical Garden's program on "The Smart Gardener's Plants". All members received MOBOT's "Plants of Merit" 2008 Edition. She discussed many regionally adapted and reliable annual and perennials. 
MaryAnn Sink
(Click on photo to enlarge)
March, 2008
"All Things Green (Flowers Optional)" Michelle Birkner, AIFD from ' Michelle's Florist Shop' in Peoria Heights presented a unique program. This designer created the most attractive arrangements using only green and a little white as colors. She used flowers, branches, popcorn, trachellium (now in a new color - green), grasses, etc. Some arrangements were single, some connected as a pair or trio. We will never look at green in the same way. Thanks Michelle for a super program! (Click to enlarge photos) 
February, 2008
Spring, Winter's Promise One of our favorite designers, who was to present our cancelled due to weather, December program brought her talent presenting our February meeting. Pictured are a few of her designs, many of which were raffled off to our very lucky members. Check out the last picture, since it is laying on the table you might not realize this is a Christmas wreath, taken to the next level for the remainder of winter. (Click photos to enlarge)
January 2008 After our December meeting was cancelled our members were ready for a garden club program with plant and design ideas for the new year. Bill Aldrich, author and publisher of "Chicagoland Gardening" magazine was ready for us. Great ideas and pictures, as well as a gift of the Jan/Feb '08 magazine got our hearts a'beating. 
Bill Aldrich
(Click photo to enlarge)
An introduction and basic primer about growing gourds was presented by Mary Freiburg and her husband. Many examples of ornamentals and hardshells were shown. Baskets, instruments, dippers, clubs, monkey, snake, apple, warty, powder horns, nativity, and canteens were just some of the examples of gourds brought from around the world. Several club members managed to purchase some very attractive gourds. The history of gourds and their many uses around the world in the past and present makes you realize how nature and humans have combined to improve life throughout the centuries. (Click photos to enlarge)
At our program on September 10th we were treated to a great design show. Mr. Eldon Haab, AIFD from Forget Me Not Flowers in Bloomington, Illinois presented a tailgate theme. From beaded squash to sprayed leaves to gorgeous designs with beaded grasses waving ; all were accompanied by his enjoyable sense of humour. (Click photos to enlarge) 
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