As members of the Great Bend Garden Club met for their April meeting, they encouraged those in the community who wish to have loved ones’ names engraved on the memorial plaques in the Cemetery Rose Garden before Memorial Day to get their requests to Garden Club member Delores Grose soon. Cost is $25 dollars for a single name and $40 for married couple. Call 620-792-4466.

Flowers as healing agents was this month’s fascinating program, presented by Garden Club member Pam Sweeney.
How do we know that lavender is very useful as a calming agent? How do we know that if we’re under too much stress, crab apple blossoms can help? According to the Illustrated Encyclopedia of Healing Remedies by C. Norman Shealy, in 1928 an English physician named Edward Bach, unhappy with the medical treatment of the body without concern for human emotions, began experimenting with using flower petals as the basis for remedies for negative human emotional states.
Using extremely sterile processing methods, the carefully selected petals were found to aid in improving human emotional frailties: fatalistic viewpoints (wild roses), nostalgia (honey suckle), shock from accidents or bad news (star of Bethlehem), absentmindedness (clematis), and depression and exhaustion (mustard). He initially found 12 such remedies using wildflowers found commonly in England.
During the business meeting conducted by President Nancy Swafford, the club regretfully declined helping with the flower gardens at Camp Aldrich, agreed to continue the services of Tammi Wagner with maintenance of the Cemetery Rose Garden, planned to replace the needed roses in the rose garden and set up a summer watering schedule. They also heard from members Teresa Bachand and Jeannine Girton, who have made plans for the May tour of the rose garden in Larned’s Schnack Park and lunch at Larned’s Eats and Sweets with the members of the Larned Garden Club.
Delicious coffee cake and strawberries were served by club member Bonnie Sarff.