The Maplewood Garden Club Website

2012 - 2013 Meeting Schedule

All meetings are held on the first Monday of the month, unless otherwise noted. We meet at the Maplewood Memorial Library, 51 Baker St, Maplewood, NJ. Meetings are free and open to the general public.

September 2012
Monday, September 10, at 7:30 p.m.

Subject:  Ornamental Grasses
Speaker: Bill Kolvek

Bill has been gardening here in Hardiness Zone 6 in some format since 1961. In 1987, he became the owner and operator of Bill Kolvek Perennials, a plant nursery selling to the Green Industry in the tri-state area. For the past decade he has been instructing classes and giving lectures for various organizations, including the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Bill will present ornamental grasses and grass-like plants, along with some promising beauties that are new to the scene. Grasses offer ease of culture, long season interest and animal and pest resistance.

October 2012
Monday, October 1, at 7:30 p.m.

Subject:  Preserving the Bounty of Your Summer Garden
Speaker:  Leda Meredith

Due to the influence of her great-grandmother, Leda Meredith has been preserving food and foraging since she was a kid. She teaches food preservation and other food-related topics for the New York Botanical Garden, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Green Edge Collaborative, Genesis Farm, and a number of other places. She is also the author of two books on related topics. Come find out how food preservation fits into a mostly local-foods diet in our cold-weather region. Leda says, “Preserving means I reduce my carbon footprint…and I have really fabulous ingredients to play with in the kitchen year-round. Yay!”

November 2012
Monday, November 5, cancelled

Subject:  Floral Design for the Fall Season
Speaker: Laura Clare

Floral designer and event planner Laura Clare will demonstrate ideas for decorating homes for the upcoming holidays. She has an extensive background in design and horticulture, including a degree in floriculture and ornamental horticulture from Cornell University.  Laura has her own firm with locations in Bernardsville and Hoboken, where she also offers floral design classes. She recently offered a program at the Garden Club of New Jersey meeting in June. 

December 2012
Monday, December 3, at 7:30 p.m.

Subject:  Through the Garden Gates of England
Speaker: Regina Carlson, Photography: Kenneth Carlson

MGC members Regina and Kenneth Carlson have visited more than 300 English gardens, both the great public and the individual private ones. They will describe and illustrate their characteristic elements and share their many experiences exploring the beautiful English countryside.

January 2013
Monday, January 7, at 7:30 p.m.

Subject:  Backyard Birds Throughout the Seasons
Speaker: Dorothy Smullen

A nature and garden speaker for over 30 years, Dorothy Smullen is retired as a high school science teacher. She is a teacher-naturalist with the New Jersey Audubon Society and a board member of the Friends of the Great Swamp.

Most people first learn about birds by putting up a feeder in their backyards. Dorothy’s presentation will offer tips on bird identification, types of food, and birds you can see throughout the seasons in New Jersey. Also: some dos and don’ts, and the challenges presented by squirrels, cats and hawks.

February 2013
Monday, February 4, at 7:30 p.m.

Subject:  Plant Propagation
Speaker: Nicki Graf

For the past 23 years Nicki Graf has managed the Floriculture Greenhouses on the Cook Campus of Rutgers University. They are a diverse teaching facility with attached labs that have five different climates, ranging from arid desert to deep rainforest.

We have plants and want more, so we need PROPAGATION. Whether it be sexual (yes, plants have ‘sex’ too) or asexual/vegetative reproduction, the result is MORE PLANTS. The mysteries behind the methods (layering, grafting, cuttings, division, special conditions to induce germination, to name a few) will be revealed.

March 2013
Monday, March 4, at 7:30 p.m.

Subject:  Gardening in Small Spaces
Speaker: Monika Hannemann

MGC member Monika Hannemann brings a wealth of experience to her present role as coordinator of our eminently successful Youth Gardening Program, which collaborates with the MapleFood Garden, where kids and families grow vegetables in small spaces for local food pantries. She has worked in New York City with the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, the Horticultural Society of New York and the New York City Parks Department, as well as in native plant restoration and garden design of the Bowman’s Hill Wildflower Preserve, the Mt. Cuba Center for Native Plants and the Aldo Leopold Foundation. She will discuss the challenges and benefits of gardening in small spaces, including specific, well-suited plants and cultivars.

April 2013
Monday, April 1, at 7:30 p.m.

Subject: The New York City High Line From the Rails On Up
Speaker: Annette Wilkus

Annette Wilkus has been honored internationally for her achievements as a landscape architect. Opportunities in this field encouraged her to found her own firm, SiteWorks, which has been responsible for a number of significant installations in New York City. Ms. Wilkus was an integral part of the construction management team on the groundbreaking High Line. She is part of both the design team and leading the construction management for the new Native Flora Garden extension at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, as well as five innovative green infrastructure projects for the New York City Playground Program.


May 2013
Monday, May 6, at 7:30 p.m.

Subject:  Secrets of the Plant Sale
Speaker: David Nial

Our very own David Nial has been involved with the MGC plant sale since 1988. A past chairman, he spearheaded the reorganization which propelled the sale to its present status as “the Big Momma of all Plant Sales.” David certainly knows some of the secrets that have made this sale so significant. He’ll share them, along with a rich array of anecdotes and myths. You’ll be surprised how much work goes into selling 15,000 pots in two and a half days. As usual, he will include his show-and-tell of what to watch for at the sale.