Wednesday, September 4, 2013 - North Shore News - A13
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YOUR NORTH SHORE GUIDE to HOME & GARDEN
Wild About Birds Al Grass
Birds get ready for migration EVERYWHERE on the North Shore, nature is showing signs that the seasons are changing.
rhododendrons growing in West Vancouver’s Memorial Park were donated by the club. The club also previously funded an annual scholarship for the now closed Capilano College horticulture program and still regularly contributes funds to West Vancouver, Rockridge and Sentinel secondary schools. Peterson also told me that the club has helped with building Christmas wreaths for Ambleside’s festive beautification, worked to help seniors garden at local eldercare homes and helped with growing in the greenhouse at Lions Gate Hospital. The club also runs an annual plant sale at St. David’s United Church where members contribute plants from their gardens to sell to the public with proceeds going to fund the club’s various community programs. The club (westvancouvergardenclub.com) holds meetings on the first
Wild asters and goldenrods are two of summer’s late flowers — a hint that fall is just around the corner. Birds, too, are getting prepared for fall. All summer long we’ve enjoyed songs of warblers, vireos, the western tanager, and black-headed grosbeak. Now these species are collecting and getting ready for their long journey south. Some, like the purple martin, our largest swallow, fly from the North Shore all the way to Brazil for the winter. Others, depending on the species, winter from Mexico through Central and South America. The tiny rufous hummingbird, for example, winters in Mexico. The hummingbirds we see now and through the winter are Annas’ hummingbirds. Sometimes, when weather conditions are right, you can encounter mixed flocks of migrating birds — warblers, vireos, flycatchers and more. Birders are always thrilled when “fallout” happens at Maplewood Conservation Area. Black-throated gray, orange-crowned, Townsend’s and MacGillivray’s are typical North Shore warblers to be watched for. And there’s always a good possibility in fall migration of spotting a local rarity like the Nashville
See Garden page 23
See Catch page 17
NEWS photo Cindy Goodman
WEST Vancouver Garden Club president Louis Peterson (second from left) joins club members Virginia Munro, and Hedy and Adrian Hartmann in the Hartmann’s garden. The club is celebrating its golden jubilee this month.
WV club enjoys golden years Scan this page with the Layar app to watch a video of Hedy and Adrian Hartmann’s garden sanctuary.
Dig Deep
Todd Major IN a world of constant change it’s reassuring to know that some things are able to survive the test of time and flourish for decades. Take, for example, the West Vancouver Garden Club, which is celebrating its Golden Jubilee this month. It’s no small accomplishment for any organization to continue to grow for 50 years; it’s
a testament to the vitality, enthusiasm and commitment of the club’s members. Founded in 1964, the WVGC has continued a tradition of educating and engaging its members in all things horticultural. The club has had many supporters such as Frank Dorsey who regularly contributed plants and educational seminars to the club. Or the enthusiastic and outgoing Jim Hemphill who was club president in the 1960s. And the late North Shore News gardening columnist Roy Jonsson, who was a club member and educator for many years. Those members and others too numerous to mention herein have helped shaped the nature of gardening in West Vancouver for the past five decades. In most gardening clubs, women often comprise the majority of club membership and I wondered why men do not participate as much as
women do. So I asked Wendi Kottmeier, a longtime club member who told me, “We are more nurturing than most men so we get involved and work at developing things, like the garden club. Our club contains many vital women from the community. Men are often singularly focused in only one aspect of gardening and are therefore less likely to join.” Most gardening clubs exist solely for the benefit of their members, but the WVGC has made some notable contributions to the community. According to the club’s president, Louis Peterson, “We have run plant rescue programs to save old plants from demolition when houses go up for sale in West Vancouver. Some of those rescued plants are sold at our annual plant sale and the larger specimens are donated to various organizations including the West Vancouver parks department.” Several of the
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