During a recent April meeting, Great Bend Garden Club members made several decisions which will honor memorials given to the Great Bend Cemetery Rose Garden, enhance its beauty and ready the garden for the spring and summer seasons.  
In memory of Teddi Maneth, a beautiful bench surrounded by an attractive area of pavers will be placed amidst the roses on the south side of the garden.  Northview Nursery will install the bench through arrangements made by Mary Kummer and Jeannine Girton using a donation from Teddi’s family.
On April 24, during Great Bend High School’s Community Appreciation Day, five students along with faculty member Emily Mulch will volunteer at the Rose Garden removing debris from around the flowers and weeding the beds. The Cemetery Board offered to provide the students with rakes and gloves for this project.  Club members will arrive earlier with pruning shears in hand before the students get started.
During a visit with Alice Young, Terry Huff with the City of Great Bend indicated that the city will replace the drip irrigation system that runs throughout the roses and will follow up with repairs as needed.
Delores Grose is gathering names of past members, family members and members of the Great Bend community who make memorial requests and will add those names to new memorial plaques hanging in the Rose Garden area.  Anyone in the community who would like information about the memorial plaques or about adding names to plaques should contact Grose at 792-4466.
Mary Kummer announced that the City Beautification Committee will be sponsoring the annual Great Bend Garden Tour this year. It will be held on June 2 from 1-4 p.m., during the city’s annual June Jaunt.
For the morning’s program, a DVD entitled “Spectacular Hanging Baskets, Moss Baskets, Their Care and Feeding” was introduced and shown by Carol Woodmansee.  Demonstrating the process of creating the unusual galvanized wire and sheet moss based basket was Brian Minter, a cofounder of the 32-acre Minter Gardens located in Chilliwack, British Columbia, Canada. His tips on watering and fertilizing the finished basket would be pertinent to all container plantings. This DVD, along with another one demonstrating sun and shade hanging baskets, is available from Woodmansee to anyone interested.
A delicious coffee cake and fruit were served to the group by hostess Eileen Ingersol.