President Bill’s Message

Welcome and Happy New Year to all members and guests. I hope you all had a great Christmas, it was definitely a white Christmas with difficult travel conditions especially on Boxing Day. It is the start of another year for our Garden Club and I know Gwen and her Program Committee have got another busy year planned with inter-esting speakers, tours and workshops.

As I have mentioned in the past, Gwen is looking for someone to mentor and to eventually take over as Program Director so if you have an inter-est in this area please talk to Gwen. We also need someone to fill the positions of Club Secre-tary and Flower Show Coordinator.

Membership fees for 2017 are now due. Fees for this year are $25 for a single and $35 for a family membership. There are still a few of the Garden Club’s calen-dars ($12) available, please see Barb if you want one. There are also 2 copies of The 2016 Prairie Garden entitled Fruit and Berries left, again please see Barb if you would like one.

Finally, a reminder of the upcoming 119th MHA Convention in Killarney on January 26, 27 and 28. We still have MHA raffle tickets; so if you would like to buy one, please see me during the break.

BRANDON GARDEN CLUB January, 2017 Editor: Kathy Vandale

Manitoba Horticultural Association 119th Annual Meeting/Convention

January 26, 27 & 28th, 2017

Killarney United Church, Christian Education Centre

432 Williams Avenue, Killarney, MB Keynote Speaker – Lyndon Penner,

Lethbridge, AB Horticulturalist, Gardening Columnist & Author

Lyndon’s Newest Book “Native Plants for the Short Season Yard”

Educational and Interesting Presentations

What’s New for 2017 – Owning a Hobby Green-

house – Cacti – Fairy Gardens

Iris – Problem Panel – Perennial Borders – and

many more

Interestingly enough, the Brandon Garden

Club was sent a copy of Lyndon Penner’s

new book in late 2016. It is in Bill’s posses-

sion, should anyone wish to have a look.

Benefits of membership in the

Brandon Garden Club:

Reasonable membership fees

Educational speakers

Awesome door prizes at every meeting

Sharing ideas with other gardeners

Viewing members’gardens during the

annual Members’ Garden Tours

New friendships

Discounts at local garden centres

There are two seasonal diversions that

can ease the bite of any winter. One is

a January thaw. The other is the seed

catalogues…….. - Hal Borland

What do Plant Hardiness Zones mean? From Bylands.com

Many beginner and average gardeners have never heard of the term “zone hardiness,” or if they have, they have no idea what it means. North America is divided into 13 different hardiness zones based on temperature and climate. Each one is labeled as zone 1, zone 2 etc. through zone 13. Zone 1 is the coldest climate and zone 13 is the hottest. Each zone has a 10 degree differen-tial, based on the average minimum temperature of the location, between the previous zone, or, in other words, zone 1s average minimum temperature is 10 degrees colder than zone 2s. They then determine which plants grow best in which zone and recommend a hardiness zone for every plant.

Does the above explanation still have you scratching your head? If so, let’s describe it in a way we can all make sense of. When we go to buy shoes, we all know that we have a shoe size, or a size of shoe that best fits our foot. It is not too small, nor is it too big; it’s comfortable. The same is true with plants. They have a hardiness zone that fits them best. It is where that plant is comfortable and can grow the best. But just like we can sometimes wear a range of sizes, like a 7.5, 8 & 8.5, plants can sometimes fit into more than one hardiness zone as well. And while our foot size is de-termined by the foot’s length, a plant’s hardiness zone is determined by the temperature.

Planting a plant in its ideal hardiness zone is important. Just like you would never want to walk around in a shoe three sizes too small for you, a plant does not want to grow in a hardiness zone that is way outside of its comfort zone either. It can be too hot or too cold for the plant, which can result in it failing to thrive, grow or can even cause the plant to die.

But what happens if you really like a plant and you’re only one zone outside of the recommended hardiness zone? Is it ever OK to make an exception? The answer is yes, it is OK to make an ex-ception. Just like when you fall in love with a pair of shoes and they only have a size 7, when you wear an 8, you make an exception because you love the way they look, but you also know that there are consequences. You may be uncomfortable and it is not the best fit, but you have decided it’s worth it to you. It is exactly the same with plants. It may not be the best fit for them to be one zone outside of their recommended hardiness zone and they may not grow as well as they should, but sometimes you make exceptions and take special care of a plant you really want to have.

Since the hardiness zone is so important, you may be wondering how to tell which zone is good for which plant. Just like shoes are labeled by size, plants are too. The tag on plants contains zone information, saying which zone it grows best in, or you can do an Internet search to find the information. If you ever have any questions on which plants grow best in your hardiness zone or need to know whether a specific plant will grow in a specific zone, a local garden center will be able to help you.

Member’s 2016 Garden Tours

Thank you to Joan Rodenbush for taking the pictures!

Leslie Loader’s Garden

Greg Boguski’s Garden

Brandon Garden Club

2016 Executive President Bill Sutherland 728-0380 Vice President Gwen Beam 727-8558 Secretary Vacant Treasurer Cory Messel 725-4315 2016 Directors Programs Gwen Beam 727-8558 Plant Sale David Long 727-5664 Flower Show Vacant Flower Show Tea and Lunch Bev Morrice 727-3269 Linda Gillis 726-4382 Membership Bonnie Chester 726-4739 Publicity Heather Morrison 726-5826 Telephoning Bonnie Chester 726-4739 Millennium Park Bill Sutherland 728-0380 Junior Gardener Liaison David Long 727-5664 Social Services Karen Gibson 728-8763 Print Competition Deane Sawchuk 726-1435 Awards Tena Kilmury 728-4436 Newsletter Kathy Vandale 725-2293 Website David Long 727-5664

A great reference book for Prairie Gardeners!

The Prairie Garden 2017 Edition: Herbs

The 77th edition brings gardeners exciting plant options for the Prairies, with Herbs featured. Herb gardening is ex-tremely popular and diverse with many common and unusual offerings. The 2017 edition of The Prairie Garden will amaze readers with how successful and diverse the current choices for herbs are for gardeners on the northern prairies.

Beautiful full colour photographs are featured throughout. To purchase a copy send your request with a cheque or money order for $22.45 (taxes and shipping included) to: The Prairie Garden, P.O. Box 517, Winnipeg, MB, R3C 2J3. Orders may also be placed by visting: www.prairiegarden.ca; telephone: 204.388.5340 or by email: sales@prairiegarden.ca