Meeting:
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Annual Members Night:
Irresistible Cookies, Plants & People
In a land as vast and populated as Southern California it’s easy to get overwhelmed by the holiday season and feel lost in the crowds. But for members of the Southern California Horticultural Society, the small town spirit of the season is alive and embracing at our Annual Members Night meeting on Thursday, December 13. This is the perfect meeting to share with your gardening friends and make new ones, too. So please join us and enjoy our old-fashioned holiday cheer and goodwill.
Lovingly known as “Cookie Night,” the Society’s yearly tradition focuses on giving, sharing and enjoying the warm company of fellow plant people. This is the one meeting each year we eschew a guest speaker and gather together to visit with our friends, exchange plants and eat too many cookies, baked goods and other snacks.
The treats are always tasty because they’re brought to the party by all of us and we’re a community that knows how to feed our friends even better than we feed our plants.
But don’t come just for the cookies, because we’ve got so many other reasons to be there. Last year’s first-ever Members Night Plant Exchange was a huge success and it’s back to wow and excite you. The Holiday Sharing Table will be a big part of the evening, too. Please make sure to arrive by 7:45 pm if you plan to participate.
The Plant Exchange
Members may bring up to 10 healthy, pest-free, non-invasive plants, seed packets or bulbs to place in the Exchange. You’ll receive one ticket for each plant, seed packet or bulb you contribute, so bring as many as possible. The Plant Exchange is the only event of the evening that is available exclusively to members.
It is important to label each item with the plant name. Bring either a Plant Forum description card or other card with culture information for each species (if all plants are the same species, you’ll need only one card).
If you don’t have a Plant Forum card, your plant description card should include:
- Botanical name
- Common name
- Country of origin
- Kind of plant and size
- Flowering or fruiting season
- Culture (water and sun needs)
- Where grown
- Your name and the meeting date
Plants will be expertly described, a la Plant Forum style, and some may be included in the Green Sheet which we publish in the Society’s monthly newsletter.
The Exchange will be conducted in 10 fast-paced rounds. In each round members will be able to redeem one ticket for one plant, seed packet or bulb. Members who bring in more than 10 plants are encouraged to donate the extras to the Holiday Sharing Table.
Holiday Sharing Table
Part of what makes this annual Members Meeting such a special part of the season is our Holiday Sharing Table. Any attendee may contribute garden ornaments, plant materials, garden tools, books, accessories and other items that are no longer used or wanted.
Some other ideal sharing items include your garden bounty (herbs, fruit, lemons), dried flowers and grasses, decorative seed pods, holly boughs, pots, trellises, artwork and craft items. Survey your scene and you’re sure to discover something to share.
During the middle of the meeting, the Sharing Table will be open for attendees to take what they like. Although last year there wasn’t an item left on the table, please be discriminating and be prepared to take your unwanted “treasures” back home.
Please join us if you’ve ever thought about attending a Southern California Horticultural Society meeting. Our annual Members Night meeting is the ideal opportunity to come and see what we’re all about. You’ll find us a warm-hearted, down to earth group (how could gardeners be anything else?) who welcome new visitors. It usually only takes one meeting for folks to want to join us on a regular basis as members. We hope to see you there!