Congratulations to the spring Master Gardener class graduates! We're pleased to provide you with complimentary mem-bership in the LMGA for the remainder of 2016 – and we hope you will join the Association in 2017 and beyond. The LMGA has lots of projects that you can get involved in to get your 40 hours of voluntary ser-vice. Check out our web-site, Lowcountrymga.org, for descriptions and contact information. If you have any questions about the LMGA or its activities, don't hesitate to contact me, your Area Coordinator, or any of the other Board mem-bers. We're delighted to wel-come Lois Harper to the LMGA Board as Recording Secretary. Lois received her MG training and certifi-cate in Hampton County,

but is now living in Bluffton. We're glad she wanted to get involved with the LMGA and fill the Board vacancy. We've had a very busy spring. Our April 7 event at the Heywood House in Bluffton was well-attended. MG's had the opportunity not only to tour the gardens maintained by Alice Fraser and her team of volunteers,

President’s Corner

Diggin’ Dirt Lo wcoun t ry Ma ster Garde ne r Asso c ia t i on

Inside this issue:

Singapore Botanic

Gardens

2

New MG Grads! 4

Waddell Maricul-

ture Buffer Garden

5

St. Helena Library 6

Old Town Planters

in Bluffton

8

dra Educate's hard work in lining up a terrific group of speakers, many of whom are our own members. This spring Sandra and other MGs installed a butterfly garden at the St. Helena's library for visitors to enjoy. Area Coordinator Sheila Drouin reports that two more Habitat homes will be ready for landscaping later in the year, and she is ex-ploring some new projects ideas. Stay tuned for more information from Sheila on these. And, of course, I can't for-get our Rent-a-Master Gar-dener teams who have to date completed over 50 visits throughout the County. MG Interns are welcome on the teams – it's a great learning opportunity. The Board, Planning Com-mittee and instructors are all very excited about our June 24 training on plant propagation. As of this writing, we've almost reached our maximum en-rollment. Many of those registered are from our Association, so you'll have a chance to reunite with fel-low MG classmates and meet other LMGA members. — Bette Warfield

but also this historic home. Area Coordinator Marilyn Shaw and her crew did a spring refreshing of the planters in Old Town Bluff-ton and a clean-up of the buffer garden at the Waddell Mariculture Cen-ter. And, thanks to MG Chris Wave, we now have a table at the Thursday after-noon Farmers Market in Bluffton. She's there from 1:30 to 6:00 and is happy to have MGs come by and give her a hand. On Hilton Head, Area Co-ordinator Marilyn Rego and her volunteers installed landscaping at two Habitat for Humanity homes. More homes will be completed and ready for landscaping later this year, so there will be more opportunities to participate in this very worthwhile project. Two of our recent MG graduates, Fred and Donna Manske, have hit the ground running

and are spearheading a new project to maintain the camellia garden (131 shrubs!) at the Coastal Dis-covery Museum at Honey Horn. They'll be looking for volunteers for quarterly workdays. North of the Broad, our Lunch & Learn series contin-ues to draw standing-room-only crowds, thanks to San-

Diggin’ Dirt Page 2

During a recent trip to Singapore to visit my daughter, we made sever-al trips to the National Botanic Gardens. This is a 156 year-old tropical garden near the main shopping area of the city. It is open from 5 am to midnight every day of the year and has over 10,000 species of flora. About 4.5 million people visit the gardens each year. The Garden was listed as an UNESCO World Heritage

Site in 2014.

Within the Botanic Gar-dens is the National Or-chid Garden which is the main attraction in this large site. The Orchid Gardens is a pioneer in the cultivation of hybrid orchids, and has over 1,000 orchid species and 2,000 hybrids. This com-plements the fact that Sin-gapore is a major export-

er of cut orchids.

Also within the Botanic Gardens is a Ginger Gar-den, a small Rainforest, and a Children’s Garden. There are 3 lakes on the property and also many free concerts on weekends performed at the Shaw Foundation Symphony Stage on Symphony Lake. Notable performers in-clude the Singapore Sym-

A Visit to the Singapore Botanic Gardens

phony Orchestra and Sin-gapore Chinese Orches-tra. There is a lovely res-taurant in the Ginger Garden that is open for

lunch and dinner.

If you ever get the chance to go to Singapore (a spectacular city with gor-geous horticulture plant-ings everywhere), be sure to visit the Botanic Gar-

dens.

-- Janet Rivers

Page 3

Welcome New MG Classes of 2016!

Diggin’ Dirt Page 4

Salix Class

(Beaufort)

Veronica Anderson

Janet Benway

Victoria Bergesen

Malinda Blackshaw

Mary Ann Capria

Christine Collins

Julia Craib

Barbara Eagle

Josette Grimsley

Wendy Hilty

Belinda Jones

Donna Kaputa

Henrietta King

Char Kovach

Marie J. LeRoy

Sharon MacBride

Trish O’Neill

Esther Quisenberry

David Riedmayer

John Roberts

Mary Somerville

Marti Webster

Peggy Willenberg

Sue E. Wilts

Taxodium Class (Hilton Head)

Bill Anderson

Ed Begley

Luigi Canonni

Patsy Cartwright

Sandy Crovo

Terri Doyle

Elizabeth Evans

Donna Gaal

Paul J. Grazioli

John W. Haddock

Mimi Harmon

Terri Johnson

Mary Kelly

Jim Lyons

Donna Manske

Fred Manske

Marie McClune

Lorraine Miller

Nancy Mitchell

Theresa Pleimling

Sharon Ryan

Sherry Seymour

Ben Smith

Jim Uchno

Murry Yanker

Did you know?

The Rent-a-Master-

Gardener program has do-

nated $17,000.00 so far, to

Clemson for a horticultural

scholarship. Last year

alone, we did over 100

visits. This is our only fund

raising program.

Waddell Mariculture Buffer Garden

Page 5

Save the Date!

On Friday, June 24, the

LMGA will be hosting a train-

ing day for MGs from around

SC. This will be an advanced

MG training course on plant

propagation. It will be a full

day of classes held at USCB's

Hilton Head Gateway campus

(on Rte. 278 in Bluffton).

More information will follow,

but you'll want to pencil this

in on your calendars.

Master Gardener volun-

teers gathered in April to

put the buffer garden in

order for the summer. We

pruned, moved over-

crowded plants, weeded

and worked on the irriga-

tion. Although we added

some mulch, we have more

on order which we will

need to be spread as soon

as it comes in. Watch for

an email.

In the picture are: Pat

Cooke, Jim Nangle, Les

Canter, Dawna Bartell,

Craig Collinson, Sally Dan-

iel, Jane Marquat, Hattie

Monson, Myrna Horn,

Laura Lee Rose and Mari-

lyn Shaw.

St. Helena Library

Diggin’ Dirt Page 6

The volunteers, from left to right:

Robbie Robertson, Marti Web-

ster, Sandra Educate, Alice Mas-

sey, John Roberts, Joe Allard.

The Lowcountry Master Garden-

ers Association received permis-

sion to design and plant a Court-

yard Garden for Butterflies and

Hummingbirds at the St. Helena

Library. Their first chore was to

build two trellises, painted to

match the exterior window trim at

the library. Two birdhouses were

mounted on the posts of the trel-

lises. A bird bath was donated

by Maria Benac, the Director of

the St. Helena Library.

In addition to purchasing many

plants, the Master Gardener vol-

unteers scoured their own gar-

dens for appropriate plants. All

were selected to provide food

and shelter to encourage visits by

butterflies and hummingbirds.

Honeysuckle, Salvia, Cuphea, and

Butterfly Weed are prominent in

the garden. Concrete pavers

were painted with leaf and frond

stencils, and arranged in a path

to the birdbath.

The garden is visible through the

glass wall in front of the seating

area in the Library. The library

staff enjoys the garden daily,

and visitors can relax and ob-

serve the garden as it changes

though the seasons. It takes a

while for plants to mature to their

fullest display, so plenty of room

was left for everything to reach

its full size.

rank, vegetative growth. Plants need to be divided at least every other year.

Amerindians used root tea for diarrhea (in chil-dren); plant tea for worms, stomachaches.

Not deer resistant– is an-ything, really?

www.wildflower.org

Our native Blue-eyed Grass (Sisyrinchium angustifolium.) Although the plant is small and has grass-like leaves, the flowers have all the fea-tures of the Iris family.

This short-lived perennial will de-cline if allowed to dry out. It likes a sunny spot. Heavy mulch causes crown rot and rich, or-ganic soils encourage

Page 7

Narrowleaf Blue-eyed Grass

Photo by Darah

Latourelle

The Master Gardeners dedicated the garden to Carl Linneaus, the botanist who was known as the father of modern taxonomy. Master Gardeners will continue to maintain the garden. This fall, they plan to add many

bulbs to the garden for a spring display of color.

Officers

Bluffton Marilyn Shaw mbshaw5@gmail.com

843-686-6020

Beaufort Sheila Drouin sheiladrouin@islc.net

843-770-0359

Newsletter Jennifer Staton treefrogfen@gmail.com

843-812-6405

Board President Bette Warfield betwarfield@gmail.com

843-987-0170

Vice President Betty Heath-Camp heathb@vt.edu

843-757-3482

Communications Secretary Sandra Educate silkroad@embarqmail.com

843-524-1916

Recording Secretary Lois Harper loisharper86@gmail.com

803-943-6323

Treasurer Susan Harden yoteus@embarqmail.com

843-470-5141

Past President Janet Rivers rivs67@gmail.com

843-815-2458

Board Members at Large Joe Allard burnbeforereading@earthlink.net

843-271-7297 Bill Moss billmosshhi@gmail.com

843-422-1728

Jenny Kingery tthyme@hargray.com 513-515-8798

Area Project Coordinators:

Hilton Head Marilyn Rego marilynrego@aol.com

843-686-3301

Beaufort County Extension Service

P.O. Box 189

102 Industrial Village Rd. Suite 101

Beaufort, SC 29906

CES Advisor

Laura Lee Rose - lrose@clemson.edu

or by phone:

(843) 255-6060 ext. 117

Master Gardener Hotline:

(843) 255-6060 ext. 124

Fax: (843) 255-6065

Lowcountry Master Gardener Association

www.lowcountrymga.org

Laura Lee Rose

Beaufort County

Horticulture

Extension Agent

Master Gardeners changed out the plants in the concrete pots

along May River Rd. in Old Town Bluffton in April. We have

a commitment to the Town to do this in the spring and fall.

Old Town Planters in Bluffton

Eileen McHenry and

Kathryn Rustad

Stephen Rupprecht

and Jenny Kingery