Newsletter 04/13

The Connecticut Dahlia Society

April 2013 Newsletter

Date: Sunday, April 28, 2013
Program: April Root Sale
Place: The Pond House, 1555 Asylum Avenue West Hartford , CT 06117
Time: 10:00 am, setup by Members, please bring your root donations in at this time
      11:00 am, open for Members to buy
      12:00 pm, open for the Public to buy until sold out

President’s Message:

The main event for the Society in April is our Root Sale. This year we are holding it just a little later in the month and that should allow everyone more time to get their tubers out and dusted off for the sale. Response to the sale in the last several years has increased greatly and therefore we need help from all of you to donate as many roots as possible. More details of the sale appear later in this newsletter.

The format this year will be a sale of all roots at one set price. All individually labeled tubers will sell for $4.00 each and they will be organized by size or formation which is a change from past years. We will need an experienced CDS member helping at each table to assist in the public with sizes, formations and colors. All roots will be identified by name so they will be easy to find for our more experienced growers. As in past years, CDS members will be allowed “first picks” at 11 AM before we open the doors to the public at noon

Root donations are always appreciated and if you are able to donate tubers, we ask that you bring in good quality, clean roots and please verify that each has at least one visible eye. We do not want to sell poor quality roots to an unknowing public as we rely heavily on repeat business each year. Experienced members can help to field the dozens of questions asked by the public so please be prepared and bring your classification books.

I look forward to seeing you all at the Root Sale.

Happy Gardening!

Donna Paternostro

April Root Sale:

Members are asked to bring their root donations in by 10:00. We also ask that you bring along your Classification Book and help with the sorting of the roots. The more people that we have working on this, the faster our sales will move along.

Root Donations:

1. Have them individually labeled.
2. Have them clean
3. Have at least one visible eye
4. We are going back to sorting by size, AA through Miniature and all others by their respective formations this year, not color.

Elizabeth Park Display Garden:

CDS will once again plant and maintain the dahlia display garden in Elizabeth Park for the 2013 growing season. We will be preparing and planting the garden around mid-May with the actual timing dependent on the weather. If you wish to volunteer, please contact Jesse for details prior to that date. We will work with anyone wishing to volunteer at the display garden and train on the various tasks involved with maintaining the garden during the season.

Jesse Peterson, Display Garden Coordinator

2013 NADC Show Schedules:

(Note some changes since our last Newsletter)

Aug 17 Washington County Fair, hosted by the RIDS
Aug 24 Connecticut Dahlia Society 55th Annual Show (Saturday only)
Aug 31 & Sept 1 Long Island Dahlia Society
Sept 7 Southern Tier Dahlia Society & NADC Show (Saturday only)
Sept 7 & 8 Rhode Island Dahlia Society
Sept 14 Rochester Dahlia Society (Saturday only)
Sept 15 Mid Island Dahlia Society (Sunday only)
Sept 21 New Jersey Dahlia Society (Saturday only)
Sept 21 & 22 Greenwich Dahlia Society
Sept. 28 & 29 Provincetown MA Dahlia Society
Sept. 28 & 29 Long Island Dahlia Society, 2nd Show
Oct. 12 & 13 Mid Island Dahlia Society, 2nd Show

2013 Meeting Dates:

(All Meetings are at the Thomaston Bank unless otherwise noted). The programs for new members are open to any members who are interested.

(By Default the calendar below may only show dates 2 months out. If you wish to see later dates please click “Look for more”)

Marge Schnerr, Editor