The Cornell Cooperative Extension of Monroe County recently awarded Jerry Kral the 2010 Excellence in Horticulture Award for the Greater Rochester Region. Jerry was honored for his volunteer work with The Eastman House, Rochester Civic Garden Center, Cornell Cooperative Extension and his work with many plant societies. It is certainly a well deserved award, Congratulations Jerry!

Watch Out For Lily Leaf Beetles

Adult beetle and feeding damage


















Eggs

I found these awful creatures on my fritillarias yesterday; the adults must have just emerged. They showed up in our area a year or two ago, and can completely decimate lilies and fritillarias, and possibly some other plants such as Soloman's seal and solanums. For now I am going to try to control them by squishing the adults and the eggs by hand. They are easy to spot, being bright red, but the adults drop to the ground and hide when you disturb them. Keep a close eye on your plants, because once they get going they are voracious, and the larvae that hatch from the eggs are even worse than the adults. Cornell recommends this fact sheet for further information: http://www.umassgreeninfo.org/fact_sheets/defoliators/lily_leaf_beetle.html

Good sharp tools make gardening so much easier! If you’re afraid to look at yours and need some tips on how to care for them and choose between the good, the bad and the ugly - make sure to tune in to Rochester public television RCTV-15 Tuesday April 6, 6:30pm-7pm for a special program: “The Sharpest Tool in the Shed” with RCGC executive director Christine Froehlich and instructor Nellie Gardner.

Gardenscape Thanks

Gardenscape is an event all of us enjoy escaping to at this time of year. For organizations like ours, its a terrific way to let folks in the community know about who we are and what we do. With the help of many hardworking members,RCGC won the best educational non profit award for our exhibit. We couldn't have done it without the help of Bob and Carolyn McKee,who spent countless hours unearthing pots, plants and furniture from their home and schlepping them to our booth. We can't thank them enough for their help and great ideas. Additional thanks to Nellie Gardner, Amy Semple, Pat McCandlish and Milli Piccione for helping us to tweak it all up. Bristol’s Garden Center and Palmiter’s Nursery generously provided us withe some terrific plants- a special thank you to them and to the many other volunteers for manning the exhibit over the weekend. Many hands make light work-we couldn't have done this without you.

Visit the library

This is the time of year when you can cozy up with a good book-guilt free. The RCGC library is open all year Tuesday-Thursday, 9am-4pm. During the months of January, February and March it is also open on the 1st and 3rd Saturdays from 9:30am-12:30pm (in the fall we will have Saturday hours again). Everyone may visit and use the library. RCGC members may check out books, or you can get a library-only membership for $5 a year which will allow you to check out books. Our catalogue can be viewed on our website, http://www.rgc.org/.

Restoring the Ceiling

They are putting up the finished pieces now, almost done. We will miss them - what a treat to watch these craftsmen at work! The restored ceiling is beautiful.

Molding the Pieces

First they applied a liquid rubber compound to pieces of the original moldings.














Then the rubber molds were imbedded into more plaster inside a wooden frame and new pieces were cast.