Tulips of Netherlands, Garden Club Member of the Year
I wish anyone who is a lover of tulips could have been a member of our garden club during our October meeting.
The small amount of pictures included with this column are just a miniscule display of what Dr. Sid Guedry, retired professor of biological sciences at SLU, showed us in a slide presentation of his trip to the Netherlands.
It was one after another of the most glorious colors your eyes could imagine.
There was a fiery orange with a yellow gold center named “Cape Cod,” a red so red it should’ve been called “Blaze,” I think, but it was named “Double Twist.” There was a huge bright orange with the perfect name of “Giant Orange,” a yellow so deeply beautiful that it must have been called “Butter!”
I had two favorites, a perfect hot pink called “Christmas” and a striped peachy pink and pale gold named “Quebec.” I guess the Best of Show for us was a long meandering and curving garden full of a stripe of a gorgeous deep red and pure white tulips. Magnificent!
Dr. Guedry also said there were almost as many bicycles there as tulips, very little cars were in use.
I could go on and on with the spectacular technicolor tulip beds, but they also were able to travel into other parts of the Netherlands to see the beauty of the architecture.
Some of the most majestic buildings in their ancient stateliness made you wonder how it was accomplished in that day and age without the help of today’s power tools or huge equipment to move heavy stones.
Dr. Guedry said, “Much of the great Catholic churches were destroyed by the Nazi Germany during World War II losing that grandeur, those majestic edifices. But they still clandestinely held Mass in the attics of some of their homes.”
What a fantastic journey this must have been! The flowers alone would have been enough, much less the magnificent architecture, the history, the excursion on a liner.
There were many questions from the members after Dr. Guedry’s program, and he also brought bags of tulip bulbs to give away as additional door prizes.
Thank you so much, Dr. Guedry, for an “almost” trip to the Netherlands for Hammond Garden Club members.
When the presentation was complete President Jennifer Allen called on Chaplain Mary Thornhill to lead us in prayer, and the Pledge of Allegiance was then recited by all members. Lunch was served by Oak Knolls’ Mary Monteleone and her very capable staff, and once again everything was delicious.
Jennifer announced that as usual a copy of the minutes from last month had been emailed to the members, and after a motion to accept she called on Phyllis DiBenedetto for the treasurer’s report which was also accepted by all members.
She then called on Dona Calcote for the Garden of the Month award. Dona said it had been given to Thom Castano and Kirk Cramer of East Morris Avenue, and Linda Ross said that with all the bad weather there wasn’t a Link Award given out in October.
Jennifer then called on Linda Ryan with the Member of the Year Award which was given to Pat Graves for all her work on Arts in Bloom and as vice president of the Garden Club.
She said as a reminder that the LGCF Fall District Meeting for District VI is Oct. 24 and not to forget that we soon will be working after our meetings preparing for hosting the Joint Meeting in February.
Since we are at the beginning of autumn, I thought I would leave you with a short quote by Leslie Bennett Smith from one of my magazines. It is titled “In The Face Of Autumn.”
“Like lingering rays of evening sunlight, Fall cloaks the earth in a golden aura. During this season, yellow leaves cascade from proud branches and amber waves of grain are embraced by the harvest…the best of nature is on display.”
The Hammond Garden Club is a proud member of District VI, Louisiana Garden Club Federation Inc. and the Deep South Garden Clubs Inc. and does its best to unify and beautify our homes, gardens, city and nation every day to the best of our ability. God bless America, and God bless the City of Hammond!
by Linda Broussard
She is a member of the Hammond Garden Club