Great Bend Garden Club met on Dec. 15 at the County Extension Office with Iva Bearens as hostess to the 15 members attending. Kay Hollembeck was introduced as a new member. Nancy Swafford, president, conducted the business session.
A letter of thanks from Terry Young for the recognition the club gave him was read. Young had done volunteer work during the 2011 year in the club’s cemetery rose garden, a project of the garden club since 1960.
Swafford gave the program on two popular plants available as Christmas gifts-the Christmas Cactus and the Norfolk Island Pine. She discussed the selection and care of each house plant. The Christmas Cactus is actually a tropical plant and not a cactus”, she said. “During the winter the plant blooms profusely”, she added.
Norfolk Island pine trees grow tall in warm climates such as Australia and New Zealand. They can not survive hot, dry, and windy locations and the small plants must be watered frequently and misted occasionally, Swafford emphasized.
The next meeting will be at 10 a.m. at the Extension Office with Nancy Williams as hostess and Sharon East presenting the illustrated program, “Calloway Gardens: Floral Gem of the South”.