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Wheaton Garden Club Pollinator and Monarch Butterfly Efforts

Wheaton Garden Club members planted a pollinator garden at Seven Gables Park in Wheaton in the spring of 2021. The pollinator garden has been certified as a Monarch Waystation with Monarch Watch. Continuing volunteer efforts of the from the https://clickatree.com/ in maintaining the garden has resulted in many compliments by members of the community as they walk past the garden, since the garden is always well cared and clean, they even get a service of Japanese Knotweed Removal to make sure these don’t invade the garden as well.

Another new project for the Garden Club was the participation of five members in the Monarch Watch Calendar Project. These members tracked the number of Monarchs seen in their garden for designated time periods in the summer, while they also built a garden studio for the members using resources online for this.

Seven members have their gardens certified as a Monarch Waystation.

Our upcoming February 2022 Garden Club meeting will be on Magnificent Monarchs, presented by a Wheaton Garden Club member.

Wheaton Garden Club creates Pollinator Garden at Seven Gables Park
Garden before planting
Garden Club members planting the new garden
Pollinators in the garden
Colorful annuals add interest
Pollinators in the garden
Monarch Butterfly
Seven Gables Pollinator Garden Designated Monarch Waystation

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Come to the Plant Sale 2021

The Wheaton Garden Club is hosting a flower and plant sale on Saturday May 15th.  The event will be held from 1:00 to 3:00 pm at 0N650 Coventry Drive in Wheaton. The sale will feature professionally grown annuals many of which are Proven Winners. Summer favorites available for purchase include a variety of begonias, coleus and petunias, as well as some hard to find specialty plants.

Proceeds support area community organizations and scholarships for College of DuPage horticulture students. Organizations supported include The Cosley Zoo Foundation, Illinois Prairie Path and Willowbrook Wildlife Center.

The garden club will be accepting cash or check payments. If you have questions, please email the Garden Club at [email protected]

Hope to see you on May 15th!

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Two Awards from the Garden Clubs of Illinois

As the Wheaton Garden club celebrates its 95th year, we are proud to announce that we are the recipients of two awards from the Garden Clubs of Illinois. The Wheaton Garden Club has won first Place in the Gloria Greene Advanced Designer Award and second place in the Planting for Pollinators Award.

The Gloria Greene Advanced Designer Award was based on the flower design workshop held for members in anticipation of the Wheaton Garden Club’s Flower Show in October 2019. Three members created designs, which were then judged by another member who is an experienced flower show judge. Seventeen members participated and left the workshop with helpful design information and an increase in confidence. I think that this quote from the award application best describes the workshop outcome:   “… to paraphrase the television commercial for VISA, ‘peace of mind obtained for new members—PRICELESS’ ”.

The Planting for Pollinators Award recognized the efforts of the Wheaton Garden Cub in promoting Monarch Waystations.  To date, five members have been recognized for creating Monarch Waystations and five other members have planted milkweed, a vital food source for monarch caterpillars, in their gardens. . In addition, the Monarch Project committee created an educational display at the Wheaton Garden Club “Pollinator Power” Flower Show on the importance of growing milkweed for monarchs.

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Pollinator Power

Join us for our Standard Flower Show, “Pollinator Power”, on Thursday, October 3, 2019 12:30 – 9:00 pm and Friday, October 4, 2019 9:00 am – 4:00 pm, at the Wheaton Public Library. Admission is free.

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Horticulture Report September 2019

Perennials, annuals, and bulbs

During the fall months of September, October and November, after soil temperature drops below 60°F., the bulbs of spring flowering tulips, daffodils, hyacinths, scilla, dwarf irises, anemone, and crocus should be planted. Select healthy, disease free bulbs. Add Bone meal or Bulb fertilizer into the planting hole, as you prepare the soil.

Winter pansies, flowering Kale, flowering Cabbage, and fall mums may be planted now, to give a little color to the garden when the summer flowers have faded away.

Scatter the seeds of perennials in a row or in open beds this month so that the young seedlings will be ready to be transplanted into their permanent spot next spring.

As the weather cools, perennials which have overgrown their space or become crowded should be dug and divided, or moved to a new area of the garden. New or replacement perennials can also be planted this month.

Continue reading “Horticulture Report September 2019”
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Monarchs

Monarchs are loving the Tithonia ‘Torch’ (Mexican Sunflower)
and the Liatris ligulistylis (Blazing Star).

Enjoying many butterflies feasting in my garden.

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Monarch Way Stations

Monarch in Member’s
Monarch Way Station

Four Wheaton Garden Club members have certified way stations! We are making progress on our way to reaching our goal of ten. A garden does not have to start from scratch to become a way station. Many times it only takes an addition of milkweed plants. In case you worry that milkweed is invasive, the following are not: butterfly weed (asclepias tuberosa), swamp milk weed (asclepias incarnata) and purple milk weed (asclepias purpurascens).

Information on Monarch Butterfly Way Station requirements and an application form can be found on the link below. You can register online or print out the application. The Wheaton Garden Club will cover the $16 registration fee for members.

http://www.monarchwatch.org/waystations/

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Birdhouses and Plant Sale Pick-up

This is a friendly reminder that the plants you ordered through the Wheaton Garden Club Plant Sale will be available for pick-up this coming Saturday, May 18th, from 1 to 3 PM.

Please note that our pick-up is at a new location this year, 0N650 Coventry Drive in Wheaton. Coventry Drive is just west of Gary Avenue on the south side of Geneva Road. You can find directions to this location using the Bing Maps website. (Google Maps does not know this location.)

Beautiful birdhouses, similar to the ones shown above, will also be for sale during plant pick-up. Each one is an original work of art. Marcia, the artist, makes these out of love and donates all proceeds to charitable purposes. Proceeds from the sale of birdhouses on May 18th will go to help fund College of DuPage scholarships for horticultural students.  

Don’t forget to bring your checkbooks. We’ll have some extra plants for sale, as well as the birdhouses.

Please remember that our plant pick-up is one day only. If you cannot pick up your plants on that day, please arrange for someone else to pick them up for you. The Wheaton Garden Club cannot be responsible for the condition of plants not picked up on May 18th. Thank you for understanding.