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Help Support Your WCMGA Chapter
It’s that time of the year when we pay our dues and make donations to qualified non-profits to help organizations and gain a deduction on our taxes. It is easy to accomplish both of these by going to our website (WCMGA) and click on Membership Renewal/Donate at the top of the homepage. This will take you to the Join/Renew Membership and Donate selections; click on either of those options and it will be easy to complete either action or both, individually.
On the same page you will see four additional ways to support your Chapter: Bottle Drop, Fred Meyer Rewards, Intel Involved Volunteer Matching Program (this one is just for Intel retirees), and Renee’s Seeds. Clicking on the + sign will show the details of how to take advantage of the option to support your Chapter. These are simple ways you can give a financial boost to your Chapter.
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Tuesday, December 3, 2024
7:00 - 8:00 PM PDT - Free Webinar, Open to All
Registration Required
8:00-9:00 PM PDT - Members Meeting
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Sean Hogan
Owner of Cistus Design Nursery
Co-Founder and President of Portland Botanical Gardens
Join the Washington County Master Gardeners as Sean Hogan, owner of Cistus Design Nursery on Sauvie Island, shows us a festive sampling of surprises and new introductions – from olives to succulents, manzanitas to scheffleras - that love it here.
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Our climate has so much for so many plants, It can be difficult to choose. Sean will also give an update on the progress of the Portland Botanical Gardens.
Sean Hogan, principal designer, author and Cistus Nursery owner and founder, specializes in public and private garden design, as well as planning and public space planting design. An avid plant hunter and collector, Sean’s passion has been the introduction of new and appropriate plants to Western North America, and the popularization of under-used and unknown plants for summer-dry climates. He was the consulting editor of FLORA: A Gardener’s Encyclopedia published in 2003 and published Trees for all Seasons in 2008, both by Timber Press.
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Happy Holidays to everyone! As our outdoor activities slow down, I hope you all have time to rest and relax. Work continues (as always) behind the scenes – the propagation team is at work and planning is underway for Gardenfest and Grow 1 Give 1 2025. Please renew your membership if you haven’t already so we can get the 2025 directory out.
Our inaugural social event from the Gathering Gardeners team is Sunday December 8 – the Wild Arts Festival at the Washington County Fairgrounds. I hope to see some of you there.
Right now, I am staring out the window wondering where to start on pruning the Japanese maple.
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The dedicated Learning Garden team embarked on a busy November, diligently transforming the garden in preparation for winter's embrace. Countless wheelbarrows were hauled heaped with wood chips to spread throughout the garden. Vegetable beds, either brimming with winter crops or snugly tucked under layers of cardboard, are ready to weather the season.
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Jennifer Rosenquist, Dan McDonald, Marti Farris covering a trug bed in the vegetable garden.
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Amid the crisp air and falling leaves, a spirited group took on the task of setting up shelves, maneuvering a small shed to a new spot, and reimagining the Equipment Shed for optimal use. Their efforts culminated in more storage space for tables and chairs and a more efficient use of the Equipment Shed.
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Dan McDonald and Jennifer Rosenquist moving a shed to create more convenient storage for tables and chairs.
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Uninvited guests made their presence known in the garden this month, with moles, a domestic bunny, and a bustling assortment of insects causing quite a stir. The mischievous bunny tried turning the Supplies Shed into its personal warren, creating a sizable dirt mound, and skillfully evading all efforts by the Master Gardeners to catch it. The gardeners found themselves getting an unexpected workout—and having a bit of fun in the process!
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The rascally rabbit visiting the veggie garden.
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Meanwhile, the relentless moles were up to their usual tricks, burrowing through the garden beds. Several gardeners set out mole traps and the gardeners' perseverance paid off when one of the traps successfully captured a particularly troublesome mole that had been wreaking havoc in the Urban Edibles Garden.
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Steve Kister probing for mole runs in the Urban Edibles garden.
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Meanwhile, thoughtful plans for the 2025 In-the-Garden series classes and Intern Workshops were meticulously crafted, setting the stage for another year of learning. A huge Thank You to all the Master Gardeners who have agreed to be instructors. Special Thanks also to Annette Bell for coordinating the planning of the Learning Garden classes, Lakshmi Srinivasan, Lisa Hansen, and Sue Ryburn for pulling together the Intern Workshop information for both gardens, and Susan Albright for creating the overall WCMGA schedule of events and In-the-Garden series class information for the website.
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The garden, now poised for the winter months, promises to spring back to life after the Master Gardeners take a well-deserved winter break. Learning Garden regular work parties will resume on Thursday mornings, 9 a.m. – 1 p.m. beginning February 6th, weather permitting. For more information contact Steve Kister kansammy@yahoo.com or Robin Burnham robin.e.burnham@aol.com.
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Lisa Barnhart on weed patrol
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Persephone* Days Begin – Emphasis Shifts to Indoor Tasks
Fall rains and cold weather are upon us, forcing even the most stalwart gardeners toward indoor projects. The Education Garden Team has suspended regular workdays until February 2025. Yet there will be no moss growing under their feet this winter! A productive early November workday gave way to a flurry of 2025 planning activities.
*In NW Oregon, Persephone days began on November 4th this year when the time between sunrise and sunset was less than 10 hours. In Greek mythology, Persephone, the mythical Goddess of spring and grain, was abducted by Hades, God of the underworld. He drew her down to Hell where she became Queen the underworld and the dead. Persephone spent the cold winter days at Hades’ side whereby the grain and crops died. Vegetative life sprang forth each spring when she emerged to Earth.
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Helen Dorbolo tending to the Fragrance Garden (note: No horsetail visible!)
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The Education Garden Task List has been updated with plenty of upcoming improvements, including relocating plants, removing some that will crowd out their neighbors, and adding new plants. The team has been updating the Education Garden plant inventory in preparation for another metal plant sign order. We are grateful for Elizabeth Price’s expertise in proper conventions for common, botanical and cultivar names.
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We practice Leave the Leaves at the Education Garden. Leaves provide overwintering habitat for invertebrates, benefit the soil food web, and mulch beds to reduce compaction from heavy rain. Check out the very informative Xerces Society web page for the reasons why we implement and recommend this practice. Scroll to the bottom of this page for several links to Xerxes Society related resources. Leave the Leaves: Winter Habitat Protection | Xerces Society
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Lisa Barnhart (L) and Larina Hoffbeck (R) show some of the plant pages destined for a flip chart in the new Moon Garden. Robin Burnham working diligently in the background.
MGs Tap into AI for Moon Garden Signage
The Moon Garden gives creative MGs another avenue to educate the public about the importance of pollinators. Larina Hoffbeck and Lakshmi Srinivasan developed laminated pages for a new flip chart planned for the Moon Garden. Each page includes a description of the plant, including an example of its importance to a particular pollinator. Cultural needs, bloom, and seasonal interest round out the plant information. AI, specifically ChatGPT, helped craft the information for the flipchart. One good example and a list of trusted sources from Larina, along with a well-engineered prompt, was provided to the AI to ensure that the information for each plant is correct. This method drastically reduced the time that would otherwise have been spent on the research into each plant. If you have questions about how to use AI to do research on different topics of interest to MGs, feel free to contact Lakshmi Srinivasan.
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Other Happenings
- Tuesday, December 3, 2024, Chapter meeting and Webinar: The Wonderful World of Plants We Can Grow. Registration required Webinar Registration -Zoom.
- Saturday, December 7, 2024, 10am-Noon, Mason Bee Cocoon Cleaning Workshop. PCC RC, Building 4, Rooms 103 & 104.
- If you would like to be added to our Education Garden email list, contact Susan Albright or Sue Ryburn.
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The Gardeners Gathering Committee had its first meeting on Nov 17, and brainstormed ideas to bring Master gardeners together to enjoy each other's company and have fun. Some ideas that made an initial list are garden tours, game nights, winery visits, walks, hikes, zumba, line dancing - and we would love to hear more suggestions or get your help with coordinating an event.
Please email Lakshmi Srinivasan (srinival@gmail.com) and Minoo Sweet (minoossweet@gmail.com) if you'd like to suggest and/or help.
We also chose an inaugural event, The Wild Arts Festival on Sunday December 8. You can find the details including the cost of ticket at
https://www.wildartsfestival.org/
If you come at 11am, there is a good chance you may be able to meet some Master Gardeners at the entrance.We would love to see you at the Wild Arts Festival or one of the other events coming in 2025.
The Gardeners Gathering Committee.
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Saturday, May 3 2025, 9:00 AM – 1:00 PM
Set-Up Day: Fri, May 2, 8:00 AM – 3:00 PM (plus member pre-sale)
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Volunteers Make This Event Successful!
As many of you know, we host our GardenFest plant sale every year in May. GardenFest is held at PCC Rock Creek near the Ed Garden and is the largest annual fundraising event for our Chapter each year. Planning is already in progress, and we have many volunteer opportunities for this fun and rewarding event!
At this time, the planning committee needs 4 special leadership roles filled. Each leadership role will help plan parts of the plant sale, lead volunteer teams, coordinate set-up of areas, and earn Volunteer hours for this year. Descriptions of these roles and Volunteer hour types, Program or Partner, are described below. These roles provide an opportunity to meet more fellow Master Gardeners and learn more about Chapter operations. More volunteer opportunities will be announced in February. Please get involved!
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Cashiering Lead
- Manage 8 cashiering volunteers to be recruited by the Volunteer Coordinator.
- Conduct a training session for cashiering volunteers on use of Square Point of Sale in the weeks prior to Gardenfest
- Optional participation at Steering Committee meetings leading up to the event
- A Smartphone with personal data plan is also necessary
- Prior knowledge of Square Point of Sale is a plus, but we can train you if necessary
Interested? Contact Larina Hoffbeck.
All time spent at meetings, trainings, and onsite count as Partner volunteer hours.
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Plant Holding Area Lead
- Manage the holding area and 2-3 other volunteers recruited by Volunteer Coordinator
- Utilize tagging system to hold plants which are not yet paid for
Interested? Contact Lisa Barnhart.
All time spent at meetings, trainings, and onsite count as Partner volunteer hours.
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Plant Signs Lead
- Work closely with the Plant Team and 2-3 other plant sign volunteers to ensure that educational plant signs are displayed at GardenFest to inform our customers of best practices in growing a sustainable garden
- Use own computer to research plant information from reputable internet sites.
- Most plant signs are already produced.
Interested? Contact Lisa Barnhart
Time spent researching plant signs will count as Program volunteer hours. Printing and laminating signs will count as Partner volunteer hours.
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Children's Activity Booth Lead (+ 3 volunteers)
- quick, fun and educational hands-on activities with garden related themes for preschoolers and up
- a scavenger hunt
- cool stickers and temporary tattoo giveaways
- MG volunteers will:
- Earn Program hours for planning and/or working the event
- Use activities we have on hand OR create an activity
- We provide all materials, resources and advice on activity guidelines
Interested? Contact Susan Albright or Sue Ryburn by December 8, 2025
Time spent planning and/or working the event will count as Program volunteer hours.
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Volunteer Opportunity
Do you love books? Do you love garden tools? Or both? The WCMGA is looking for a Master Gardener to manage our books, tools and Gifts 4 Gardeners. You would be researching, ordering, and selling these garden related items to both the public and Master Gardeners. The major events for fund raising are the Intern Table event, Gardenfest and the Joy of Gardening Conference. These contacts provide a good opportunity to share your insights and knowledge about these items related to gardening.
If you are interested or have questions, contact Terry Wagner at tawerwkgw@gmail.com.
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“Everything’s Coming Up Roses”
By: The Plant Propagation Team
For the past few years, MG propagated roses have been one of the most popular offerings at WCMGA’s May Gardenfest Plant Sale – and a fun project for the Propagation Team!
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At the PCC greenhouse, multiple cuttings stuck into pots are kept on the mist table for 1-2+ months until roots have formed, and then transplanted to individual 1G pots for growing on to ‘sales ready size’ in the greenhouse until mid-April. Each year, some of the resulting plants have begun to bloom by Gardenfest – resulting in lots of fun for the team and popularity with GF customers!
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As of mid-November 2024, there are 140 cuttings in the ‘rooting process’, from which we hope to have 75-100 sales ready rose plants to offer at Gardenfest 25! Stay tuned for their progress and join us if you’d like to help when these are ready to pot up in later winter!
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Our WCMGA Propagation group meets Fridays from 9:00 am to 11:00 am at the PCC Rock Creek greenhouses. Contact Karen Anderson, worthog42@gmail.com for more information.
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Washington County Master Gardener Association invites you to the third of three classes on mason bees led by Ron Spendal. In this hands-on workshop, you will learn how to extract, clean, and store mason bees. If you have cocoons ready for cleaning, bring them along. If you don’t have cocoons, we have plenty for you to practice with. Attendance at the previous Mason Bee classes is not necessary to attend this class.
Ron Spendal is an OSU Master Gardener who has been researching and educating on mason bees for over 15 years. He operates educational mason bee displays across Washington County, Oregon and runs highly sought-after courses on mason bee management through the Washington County Master Gardener Association. Ron designs and builds his own equipment. He conducts research in conjunction with Oregon State University and Montana State University. His work with mason bees has been featured on the Oregon Field Guide program on OPB. Ron has invented a cocoon cleaning device that uses dry sand and can clean up to 100 cocoons in 3 minutes.
No registration needed. Free parking.
For more information:
https://washingtoncountymastergardeners.org/event/mason-bee-cocoon-cleaning-workshop/
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Stephanie Engle at the Ed Garden
Stephanie Engle recently completed her Intern training and has quickly become engaged in several Master Gardener Program initiatives including volunteering as a regular contributor to the WCMGA activities at PCC Rock Creek, volunteering at Gardenfest and helping to staff the Extension Office Phone Clinic. Most recently Stephanie agreed to join WCMGA’s incoming 2025 Board as our Business Manager, a busy position drawing upon her administrative skills. Stephanie also volunteered to help deliver the 2025 In the Garden Series, Blueberry Care class. As a newly trained Master Gardener, Stephanie helps to bring that perspective to our activities with new suggestions. Stephanie has an enduring curiosity and interest in learning and sharing her knowledge with a friendly approach.
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Hope Preston and Lakshmi Srinivasan at Oregon Zoo
Lakshmi Srinivasan, who just completed her Intern year, from the outset has sought ways to contribute to the Master Gardener program. Lakshmi volunteered to assist with the Set Up and Take Down for the Ed Garden In the Garden Series , Gardenfest, the Phone Clinic, Oregon Zoo and the MG booth at Hillsboro Pride Party. She has stepped up to help organize the 2025 Intern Workshops, sharing her recent experience as an Intern, to help shape our plans for 2025. In addition, she has volunteered to help with the monthly Ed Garden contributions to Chapter Chat. Most recently she volunteered to help lead a newly formed WCMGA Social Committee to organize ways for our members to connect and socialize, helping to fill a need created with more interactions done digitally. Lakshmi will prepare and deliver a new 2025 IGS growing vegetables. Lakshmi always brings a friendly and gracious approach and is great about sharing new suggestions.
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Human Rights
“Human rights are standards that recognize and protect the dignity of all human beings. Human rights govern how individual human beings live in society and with each other, as well as their relationship with the State and the obligations that the State have towards them.
Human rights law obliges governments to do some things, and prevents them from doing others. Individuals also have responsibilities: in using their human rights, they must respect the rights of others. No government, group or individual person has the right to do anything that violates another’s rights.”
https://www.unicef.org/child-rights-convention/what-are-human-rights
The members of the WCMGA DEI committee recognize that the terms and phrases used when discussing topics related to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion may be unfamiliar or confusing to many people. Definitions may also change over time. Since gardening is for everyone, we’d like to help foster understanding of DEI vocabulary with our members and other readers of Chapter Chat and the WCMGA website.
We’re featuring a different phrase or term each month throughout 2024 on our webpage here: https://washingtoncountymastergardeners.org/wcmga-diversity-equity-and-inclusion-committee/
This is the final installment of our words/phrases definitions series. We hope that those of you who read these articles as well as clicked through to the expanded information on our website have a better understanding of DEI vocabulary. We certainly do after researching and gathering content for this series! Please continue to check our page going forward for more DEI related information and resources.
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After reading this book I would definitely say these two women did a whole lot more than map the botany of the Grand Canyon. In 1938 the only scientific world women were allowed in was botany and then it was taking care of the flowers in a botanical garden. This is the stage upon which Elzada Clover and Lois Jotter, women botanists, launched their ambitious, and at that time, unequaled 43-day river expedition down the Green River, on to the Colorado River and through the Grand Canyon. Their bold, yet unpretentious, mission was to document, collect and preserve botanical specimens of the Grand Canyon. The presiding consensus was that this could not be done by women, and they would not survive. As it turned out Clover and Jotter and the expedition leader were the only ones who completed the entire 600-mile trip. Just two examples of the ferocious river are the Mile Long Rapid and the Soak Creek Rapid, which was a 25’ drop (~2 ½ stories!).
This book is both an adventure story and a biography of two remarkable women. The author made extensive use of diaries and letters of not only Clover and Jotter but also the other crew members. Their plant list included four new cactus species and became a vital part of the efforts to protect and restore the river’s ecosystem. The book has deservedly received numerous awards.
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