From the Chair 3/17/2024

Welcome to spring 2024! I am just back from the fantastic NARGS tour: Türkiye- Lycia Awakens. Before I left home the temperatures here in Goshen were hard-frost nights, and sometimes up to 40° F days. It was definitely winter coat weather. Upon my arrival in Antalya, a light jacket was all that was needed. Perfect!

Our first day we saw Colchicum burtii, Crocus fleisheri, and Crocus lyciotauricus on a rocky stony slope. But my favorites of the tour were what I grow in my greenhouse: Cyclamen graecum and C. alpinum. The crocus and colchicum were at specific locations but the cyclamen were everywhere.

The reason I went on the trip had much to do with the early days of BNARGS. Norman Singer had recruited me as editor for the Newsletter. He and Geoffrey Charlesworth had sponsored a young man from Czechia, Vojtech Holubec, in NARGS so he could get the journals. In return he wrote letters to them detailing his trips. One of them was to Turkey. Lycia to be specific. Norman had me transcribe it to our fledgling newsletter. I was hooked. I had to see Ak Dag and its hillside of Astragalus angustifolius buns.

Of course there were other astragalus mixed in, as well as daphnes. And sure, what we actually went to see were the Crocus biflorus (akdagensis) growing around the green waters of Yesilgol Lake. Yes they were nice. Ah the Taurus Mountains. They are the home to so many of my favorite plants. All due in large part to the travels of Vojtech Holubec before the Iron Curtain lifted and the generosity of my mentor, Norman Singer.

Upon my return to CT on Saturday night, the temperatures here astounded me. They kept going up, up, up. By Friday they had reached a Lycia comparable 65 °. Whew. Time to move any plants that needed it. And so I began. It was taking a bit of time to reacclimatize to the 8 hour difference so I had plenty of opportunity to be outside after 9. All my chores were done by 7 am! Of course it is only March, so I do expect the pendulum to swing a bit cooler yet.

When I began moving plants I noticed there happened to be seedlings of a 6″ high Daphne cneorum. The mother plant is full of buds! And tucked underneath was a cache of seedlings. Of course I potted them remembering that our BNARGS Seedling Sale is happening on April 13th. Then I began looking around for more things. It struck me that in days past, members would divide established forms of nice hellebores, primula and adonis for our first sale of the season. What have you got in your garden? Take a look and remember your friends. Start potting now so there is no last minute wilt.

Don’t forget the April meeting is the perfect time to pay your dues. Yes, you can do it online on this website. But that costs the chapter a significant amount. It is better to pay your $10/12 to Jacques at the meeting. Or mail it to him.

At our first meeting in April, after the lecture, we will discuss organization for our outreach event for new members at the Berkshire Botanical Garden Plant Sale in May. Our friend and fellow member Matt M is working on a bookmark to hand out that links to our website. I hope each of you will be able to contribute plants for us to sell. And we will be buying in small plants for troughs to sell. We need volunteers for two days – Friday and Saturday of Mother’s Day Weekend: cashiers, salesman, grips, etc. We will have a lot to offer. We need our members to sell plants plus talk about our excellent meetings, and give people a reason to JOIN us.