ANDERSON – Tears well up in Nettie Stansell’s eyes when she talks about how she spent the last couple of months planning a small, simple garden in her front yard.

The garden is shaped like a badge, rimmed with yellow chrysanthemums and young green shrubbery. All around the plants is a bed of small white rocks. And in the middle of the garden is a wrought-iron bench with a small table.

All of it, from the color of the flowers to the shape of the garden itself and the design on the top of the small table, has one purpose: to be a reflection of the memory of her husband, Robert.

For 47 years, Nettie and Robert were married. Then cancer took him this summer.

“I put my love into that garden,” Nettie said, as she wiped her eyes.

Photo by Ken Ruinard, Anderson Independent Mail

Robert Stansell, seen in this undated photograph, was a city of Anderson firefighter. Stansell, the city’s first fire inspector, died earlier this year.

The garden pays tribute to a man who took care of so much in her and their son’s world. Their only son, Russell, is 43 years old and is autistic. He still lives at home. Nettie said this garden is for her son to sit in so he can remember his father.

It is here so they can both remember.

Russell can remember the man who was careful to plan their vacation to the beach every year. His mother can remember the man who saw her around town 47 years ago and found the courage to ask her out when they were both filling up their cars at a gas station near downtown Anderson.

Nettie, a native of Franklin County, Ga., had been working at Owens-Corning Fiberglass on S.C. 81 South for about five years when she met Robert the first time. She worked second shift at the plant then.

“I remember he was driving a 1965 Ford convertible,” she said, her eyes shining. “He seemed real nice and more grown up.”

He was a sensible man, she said.

At the time, Robert worked for the Anderson Fire Department. He went on to become a lieutenant there and was the city’s first fire inspector, Nettie said.

Firefighter’s memory honored with family garden

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She said she learned in the years to come that Robert, who was born and raised in Anderson, was smart as well. He always paid for cash for everything, and spent a lot of his time working jobs on the side to help supplement his pay as a city firefighter.

There were many things that she never had to worry about because he took care of them.

She spent 38 years working for Owens-Corning, and he spent more than 20 years at the fire department. He worked at improving their home on Bellview Road, and he coached Little League teams when he had the time. He also worked at painting and pest control and was good at trading stocks, Nettie said.

“We both worked hard and had pride in the work that we did,” she said.

Robert was always strong and rarely sick, but he got sick earlier this year. They thought he had pneumonia at first. But he had cancer in his lungs. In his last days, he taught Nettie how to handle some of the paperwork that she would have to take care of if the cancer became too much for him to fight.

In July, about a month after their 47th wedding anniversary, Robert died. He was 71.

“He was always visualizing things in the future for us,” Nettie said. “He was always trying to take care of us. I just miss all the love he gave us. He always sat down to eat with us. He was dedicated to us.”

Photo by Ken Ruinard, Anderson Independent Mail

Nettie Stansell of Anderson sits with her son, Russell, and is surrounded by the White and Goodine families. Neighbors helped finish a rock garden in the Stansells’ front yard that honored Nettie’s late husband, Robert. The badge shape of the garden pays homage to Robert’s profession, that of a firefighter and Anderson’s first fire inspector.

Making the garden was therapy for her as she spent weeks planning out the details of the small space. Her neighbors, family and friends helped her with the design.

The work strengthened those relationships. Some of her younger neighbors treat her like a grandmother. She baked a pound cake to thank neighbor Charles White for his extra help.

The garden’s shape is modeled after his fire-inspector badge. Nettie pulled in the red, blue, yellow and white colors from the seal in the middle of that badge for the design on the top of the round table that sits in the middle of the garden.

No matter the season, this place will need tending and care, Nettie said.

“Now, I have it fixed, except for some type of marker, here at the entrance,” she said. “And when the seasons change, I will plant yellow pansies in place of the chrysanthemums.”

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Aside from a handful of ghaf trees, this large suburban garden started out as an empty, sandy piece of land begging for a transformation. Kamelia Bin Zaal, creative landscape director at Second Nature, took up the challenge of landscaping the garden, owned by her mother, interior designer Lesley Zaal. She tells InsideOut about the project…

Johnstown —
A fun-filled holiday event will help the Garden Club of Johnstown flourish.

The 22nd annual Welcome the Holidays program begins at 11 a.m. Nov. 10 at Sunnehanna Country Club, 1000 Sunnehanna Drive, Westmont.

Before lunch, which begins at noon, guests can browse two rooms filled with handmade items created by club members and other items that have been purchased.

“It’s a matter of preventing congestion,” said Carla Straw of Richland Township, one of three women chairing the committee. “Setting up in two rooms has worked out well.”

Straw, along with Mary Jo Gardill and Jan Wolfe, both of Westmont, have been working for nearly a year to organize the event and create items that will be featured at the luncheon.

The luncheon, which is the garden club’s only fundraiser, attracts 240 guests each year.

The majority of items will be holiday themed, but there also will be items that can be displayed throughout the year.

“Items are priced from $5 to $50,” Straw said. “Our goal is to make the event affordable to everyone, which will enable us to sell all the items on display.”

There also will be a half-dozen raffle items and door prizes, including a money tree and the table centerpieces.

“We will be raffling an original floral photograph by former Johnstown resident Fred Gilmour of Williamsport,” Wolfe said.

Gilmour has been a freelance artist for more than 40 years.

Boutique shopping will feature nearly 80 wreaths, centerpieces, swags and floral designs, handcrafted by members of the club, as well as other holiday novelties.

“For the last three months, members have been busy at our workshops creating an array of unique items,” Wolfe said.

Proceeds go back to the community.

“The monies raised are used for our civic development, horticulture therapy, habitat for humanity, conservation and youth gardeners committees,” Straw said.

The club has performed or contributed to civic beautification projects in the Johnstown area for decades.

Founded in 1930, the club’s works includes annual and special projects performed in order to advance gardening, landscape design, floral design and the study of horticulture.

The organization also has taken a proactive approach when it comes to conservation and the environment.

Ellen Singleton of Southmont pointed to the club’s work to limit a knotweed infestation along the Jim Mayer Riverwalk Trail from the Moxham section of Johnstown to Sandyvale Cemetery, in the Hornerstown section.

“By focusing on natural plants, we want to revegetate the area through a combination of seeding and mature plantings,” she said. “It’s an effort to control the problem, not irradicate the knotweed.”

The club’s other projects can be found throughout the Greater Johnstown region. They add a touch of beauty to the gazebo in downtown’s Central Park, four Main Street planters, the Russell House in Moxham, the John P. Murtha Johnstown-Cambria County Airport in Richland Township and the Community Arts Center of Cambria County in Westmont.

The group also tends a 19th century-style vegetable garden at the Wagner-Ritter House in the Cambria City section of Johnstown.

After lunch, there will be a fashion show with holiday styles provided by Karen’s Couture, 9 Entrance Drive, Lower Yoder Township.

A floral design program will be presented by Mary Jane Martucci of Charleroi, Washington County.

She is a Garden Club Federation of Pennsylvania District 10 director and an accredited flower show judge.

“She will present creations for various designs for the fall and winter holidays,” Straw said.

There also will be a slide show on what the club has accomplished at its various sites.

“We will have several before and after photos, which show the accomplishments of the club,” Straw said.

The Garden Club of Johnstown has 91 members.

“We are the largest garden club in District 6, which encompasses Cambria, Somerset, Indiana, Bedford and Blair counties,” Wolfe said.

The group meets at noon on the second Monday of each month at Westmont Presbyterian Church, 601 Luzerne St. in Westmont. New members are welcome.

There are a limited number of tickets remaining.

Tickets for the luncheon are $30 and must be reserved.

Those interested in attending should contact Aurora Gilmour, a club member.

Information: 255-6230.

If you go …

What: Welcome the Holidays luncheon.

Where: Sunnehanna Country Club, 1000 Sunnehanna Drive, Westmont.

When: 11 a.m. Nov. 10.

Reservations: Aurora Gilmour at 255-6230.

Cost: $30 a person.

 

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Johnstown —
A fun-filled holiday event will help the Garden Club of Johnstown flourish.

The 22nd annual Welcome the Holidays program begins at 11 a.m. Nov. 10 at Sunnehanna Country Club, 1000 Sunnehanna Drive, Westmont.

Before lunch, which begins at noon, guests can browse two rooms filled with handmade items created by club members and other items that have been purchased.

“It’s a matter of preventing congestion,” said Carla Straw of Richland Township, one of three women chairing the committee. “Setting up in two rooms has worked out well.”

Straw, along with Mary Jo Gardill and Jan Wolfe, both of Westmont, have been working for nearly a year to organize the event and create items that will be featured at the luncheon.

The luncheon, which is the garden club’s only fundraiser, attracts 240 guests each year.

The majority of items will be holiday themed, but there also will be items that can be displayed throughout the year.

“Items are priced from $5 to $50,” Straw said. “Our goal is to make the event affordable to everyone, which will enable us to sell all the items on display.”

There also will be a half-dozen raffle items and door prizes, including a money tree and the table centerpieces.

“We will be raffling an original floral photograph by former Johnstown resident Fred Gilmour of Williamsport,” Wolfe said.

Gilmour has been a freelance artist for more than 40 years.

Boutique shopping will feature nearly 80 wreaths, centerpieces, swags and floral designs, handcrafted by members of the club, as well as other holiday novelties.

“For the last three months, members have been busy at our workshops creating an array of unique items,” Wolfe said.

Proceeds go back to the community.

“The monies raised are used for our civic development, horticulture therapy, habitat for humanity, conservation and youth gardeners committees,” Straw said.

The club has performed or contributed to civic beautification projects in the Johnstown area for decades.

Founded in 1930, the club’s works includes annual and special projects performed in order to advance gardening, landscape design, floral design and the study of horticulture.

The organization also has taken a proactive approach when it comes to conservation and the environment.

Ellen Singleton of Southmont pointed to the club’s work to limit a knotweed infestation along the Jim Mayer Riverwalk Trail from the Moxham section of Johnstown to Sandyvale Cemetery, in the Hornerstown section.

“By focusing on natural plants, we want to revegetate the area through a combination of seeding and mature plantings,” she said. “It’s an effort to control the problem, not irradicate the knotweed.”

The club’s other projects can be found throughout the Greater Johnstown region. They add a touch of beauty to the gazebo in downtown’s Central Park, four Main Street planters, the Russell House in Moxham, the John P. Murtha Johnstown-Cambria County Airport in Richland Township and the Community Arts Center of Cambria County in Westmont.

The group also tends a 19th century-style vegetable garden at the Wagner-Ritter House in the Cambria City section of Johnstown.

After lunch, there will be a fashion show with holiday styles provided by Karen’s Couture, 9 Entrance Drive, Lower Yoder Township.

A floral design program will be presented by Mary Jane Martucci of Charleroi, Washington County.

She is a Garden Club Federation of Pennsylvania District 10 director and an accredited flower show judge.

“She will present creations for various designs for the fall and winter holidays,” Straw said.

There also will be a slide show on what the club has accomplished at its various sites.

“We will have several before and after photos, which show the accomplishments of the club,” Straw said.

The Garden Club of Johnstown has 91 members.

“We are the largest garden club in District 6, which encompasses Cambria, Somerset, Indiana, Bedford and Blair counties,” Wolfe said.

The group meets at noon on the second Monday of each month at Westmont Presbyterian Church, 601 Luzerne St. in Westmont. New members are welcome.

There are a limited number of tickets remaining.

Tickets for the luncheon are $30 and must be reserved.

Those interested in attending should contact Aurora Gilmour, a club member.

Information: 255-6230.

If you go …

What: Welcome the Holidays luncheon.

Where: Sunnehanna Country Club, 1000 Sunnehanna Drive, Westmont.

When: 11 a.m. Nov. 10.

Reservations: Aurora Gilmour at 255-6230.

Cost: $30 a person.

 

Click here to subscribe to The Tribune-Democrat print edition.

Click here to subscribe to The Tribune-Democrat e-edition.

There’s a secret to the low-maintenance garden: native plants. California natives are drought-tolerant, thrive in local soil without amendments and provide forage and habitat for pollinators. Autumn, with its cooler nights and the promise of rainfall, is the ideal time to start a native garden. When planted during fall, plants have time to develop healthy root systems over winter that will sustain them through the dry season with less irrigation – and less maintenance. Looking to get started? A trio of recently published guides can help you cultivate your own native environment.

“Growing California Native Plants,” the second edition (University of California Press, 2012). Gardener and designer Katherine L. Greenberg retooled this 30-year-old book by the late Marjorie G. Smith into an easy-to-use guide for novices and experienced gardeners. Through colorful photos, maps, lists and charts, the authors make a case for the 6,300 species and subspecies – trees, grasses, perennials and annuals – that thrive west of the Sierra. Plants include drought-tolerant varieties as well as moisture dwellers from meadows, streams and woodlands that can thrive in home gardens with similar conditions.

The book includes a handy section that groups plants according to their special features (dry garden, deer resistant, fall color, and so on), as well as a glossary of plant terms and lists of resources.

Smith and Greenberg assure novices that there is a native plant for any garden situation. Once established, most get all the nutrients they need from the soil and thrive, thankfully, with little attention.

“California Native Gardening” (University of California Press, 2012). Helen Popper’s month-by-month guide lists the chores specific to the calendar up front and fleshes them out in the pages that follow, many of them accompanied by plentiful, colorful images. Particularly useful is a rough guide for when cuttings of specific plants can be taken for propagation.

The guide came out of the Santa Clara Valley chapter’s monthly meetings of the California Native Plant Society where Popper – a member and an associate professor of economics at Santa Clara University – took voluminous notes that ended up in her book.

“Wildflowers of California” (University of California Press, 2012). Let nature inspire your native garden’s design. Author and photographer Laird R. Blackwell’s month-by-month guide reveals when and where to view spectacular wildflower displays and fascinating flowers.

Blackwell divides the Golden State into 10 geographical regions and identifies 67 flower “hot spots.” He also highlights more than 600 wildflower species “whose beauty or fascination would lead me to go out of my way to see them.”

In his introduction, Blackwell offers tips on using his guide: “Since most flowers bloom for at least several weeks, if you’re looking for flowers to see in a particular month, be sure to check the earlier month sections as well.”

A Sierra Nevada College professor who regularly leads wildflower walks and classes, Blackwell has penned half dozen other regional field guides on the subject of wildflowers.

Laramie Treviño is a Monterey County freelancer and master gardener with the University of California Cooperative Extension. E-mail: home@sfchronicle.com

There’s a secret to the low-maintenance garden: native plants. California natives are drought-tolerant, thrive in local soil without amendments and provide forage and habitat for pollinators. Autumn, with its cooler nights and the promise of rainfall, is the ideal time to start a native garden. When planted during fall, plants have time to develop healthy root systems over winter that will sustain them through the dry season with less irrigation – and less maintenance. Looking to get started? A trio of recently published guides can help you cultivate your own native environment.

“Growing California Native Plants,” the second edition (University of California Press, 2012). Gardener and designer Katherine L. Greenberg retooled this 30-year-old book by the late Marjorie G. Smith into an easy-to-use guide for novices and experienced gardeners. Through colorful photos, maps, lists and charts, the authors make a case for the 6,300 species and subspecies – trees, grasses, perennials and annuals – that thrive west of the Sierra. Plants include drought-tolerant varieties as well as moisture dwellers from meadows, streams and woodlands that can thrive in home gardens with similar conditions.

The book includes a handy section that groups plants according to their special features (dry garden, deer resistant, fall color, and so on), as well as a glossary of plant terms and lists of resources.

Smith and Greenberg assure novices that there is a native plant for any garden situation. Once established, most get all the nutrients they need from the soil and thrive, thankfully, with little attention.

“California Native Gardening” (University of California Press, 2012). Helen Popper’s month-by-month guide lists the chores specific to the calendar up front and fleshes them out in the pages that follow, many of them accompanied by plentiful, colorful images. Particularly useful is a rough guide for when cuttings of specific plants can be taken for propagation.

The guide came out of the Santa Clara Valley chapter’s monthly meetings of the California Native Plant Society where Popper – a member and an associate professor of economics at Santa Clara University – took voluminous notes that ended up in her book.

“Wildflowers of California” (University of California Press, 2012). Let nature inspire your native garden’s design. Author and photographer Laird R. Blackwell’s month-by-month guide reveals when and where to view spectacular wildflower displays and fascinating flowers.

Blackwell divides the Golden State into 10 geographical regions and identifies 67 flower “hot spots.” He also highlights more than 600 wildflower species “whose beauty or fascination would lead me to go out of my way to see them.”

In his introduction, Blackwell offers tips on using his guide: “Since most flowers bloom for at least several weeks, if you’re looking for flowers to see in a particular month, be sure to check the earlier month sections as well.”

A Sierra Nevada College professor who regularly leads wildflower walks and classes, Blackwell has penned half dozen other regional field guides on the subject of wildflowers.

Laramie Treviño is a Monterey County freelancer and master gardener with the University of California Cooperative Extension. E-mail: home@sfchronicle.com

A group of students proposed creating a memorial garden to honor deceased students and alumni of Spring Grove High School.

And with administrators and school board members on board, the students from Celeste Barnes’ environmental science classes are ready to move forward with the design and completion of a garden.

The students were motivated by the recent death of 2010 graduate Cameron Stambaugh, according to Lisa Smith, district community relations coordinator. Stambaugh, 20, was one of the six NATO service members killed July 8 when an armored vehicle he was in was demolished by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan.

While students discussed the possibilities, the memorial expanded to include not only members of the military, but those who served their communities as police officers and firefighters as well.

Spring Grove graduate David Tome would be among those honored. Tome was struck and killed in October 2008 while investigating an accident in Franklin Township.

Sixty senior students in the environmental 2 classes, under the direction of Barnes, will be digging, planting and building the 125-square-foot garden. Douglas Rohrbaugh of Crabtree, Rohrbaugh and Associates is donating his personal time, along with that of a landscape architect, to work with students in defining the most appropriate layout and selecting the best trees and plants for the area.

The firm has pledged to provide the trees at no cost, said Smith. The garden will be located in front of the high school pool area.

Members of the National Art Honor Society are also involved in the project; they will design and create an appropriate work of art for the area. Barnes said students would like to have flags surrounding the garden as well.

Donations are being sought for funding of the project. Barnes said the responsibility for maintaining the garden would fall to each successive class of environmental science students.

A timeline for the project has yet to be determined.

A group of students proposed creating a memorial garden to honor deceased students and alumni of Spring Grove High School.

And with administrators and school board members on board, the students from Celeste Barnes’ environmental science classes are ready to move forward with the design and completion of a garden.

The students were motivated by the recent death of 2010 graduate Cameron Stambaugh, according to Lisa Smith, district community relations coordinator. Stambaugh, 20, was one of the six NATO service members killed July 8 when an armored vehicle he was in was demolished by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan.

While students discussed the possibilities, the memorial expanded to include not only members of the military, but those who served their communities as police officers and firefighters as well.

Spring Grove graduate David Tome would be among those honored. Tome was struck and killed in October 2008 while investigating an accident in Franklin Township.

Sixty senior students in the environmental 2 classes, under the direction of Barnes, will be digging, planting and building the 125-square-foot garden. Douglas Rohrbaugh of Crabtree, Rohrbaugh and Associates is donating his personal time, along with that of a landscape architect, to work with students in defining the most appropriate layout and selecting the best trees and plants for the area.

The firm has pledged to provide the trees at no cost, said Smith. The garden will be located in front of the high school pool area.

Members of the National Art Honor Society are also involved in the project; they will design and create an appropriate work of art for the area. Barnes said students would like to have flags surrounding the garden as well.

Donations are being sought for funding of the project. Barnes said the responsibility for maintaining the garden would fall to each successive class of environmental science students.

A timeline for the project has yet to be determined.

In downtown Seaside, garden designer Pam Fleming tells stories with plants rather than pen. In the 17 years she’s been in charge of the coastal town’s street-side garden spaces, she’s used themes to create storefront planters and beds that go beyond pretty texture and color.

For Seaside Apothecary‘s planter,  for example, she chose medicinal plants to reflect the pharmacy, mingling willow for pain relief, wormwood for digestion, chaste tree for regulating hormones, witch hazel for astringent and mallow for poultices.

Restaurants are easy, she says. Pig ‘N Pancake is fronted with planter boxes of blueberry, parsley, lovage and a small knot garden with germander, santolina and lavender intermixed with purple basil and sage. Dooger’s Seafood and Grill has the traditional quartet of parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme, along with fennel, oregano, savory and scented geraniums. To reflect the orange and blue crab logo, Fleming added orange poppies and geum, and blue laurentia.

Not surprisingly, the most imagination plays out in front of Funland Arcade. Whether the obedient plant and calming chamomile have any effect on electrified children is doubtful, but parents in the know will be amused by the pocketbook plant and impatiens, knowing they’ll open their pockets to dole out money and wait impatiently for the fun to end.

Fleming, who started her landscaping business Nature’s Helper in Kansas almost 25 years ago, brought it with her when she moved to Seaside in 1993.

“I felt a little inadequate at first,” she says. “Gardening in Kansas and Seaside are very different.”

That didn’t slow her down. Within two years, the city offered her two contracts, one to overhaul, design and maintain the street plantings in the boardwalk area, the other for doing the same at city buildings such as the library and convention center.

“I wanted the gardens to reflect Seaside,” says Fleming, who also works with merchants on the hanging baskets in front of their shops. “Once I came up with the themes, it made things a lot easier.”

But first, the neglected gardens in the boardwalk area fronting the beach had to be dealt with.

“I had people ask me if we’d had a flood,” she says of the overgrown gardens that were tangled with daisies, crocosmia and mugo pines.

In the first year, Fleming and a landscape contractor donned rain gear to rip out everything but trees. Now the 100 garden beds reflect her vision of themed designs popping with bright colors. Poppies, especially, are one of her favorites — and for several years were also a favorite of a mystery person who made off with the blooms right before they opened. Police and merchants got in on the poppy watch, but no one was ever apprehended.

“It was maddening,” she says. “I’m assuming they mistakenly thought they were opium poppies. But, thankfully, this year they’ve been left alone. One merchant told me he thought he knew who the thief was and that the thief had moved away. Hooray.”

The store and restaurant owners, as well as visitors, are among the reasons Fleming loves her job. Last year she took her career to the next step by opening Back Alley Gardens Nursery at the back of The Natural Nook, a 37-year-old flower shop owned by Cathie Cates. It became obvious the space wasn’t working, so last February off they went to open a new flower shop and nursery in the small town of Gearhart, a few miles north of Seaside, in the old Fitzgerald building, next to one of the oldest livery stables in Oregon.

“I’ve got big ideas,” Fleming says of future garden projects. “We’ll see how they turn out.”

PAM’S PICKS FOR THE BEACH

Ask Pam Fleming to name good plants for the beach and she could rattle off a couple hundred. She culled it down to these.

Aster  

Bellflower (Campanula)  

Fuchsia  

Heather

Hydrangea

Jerusalem sage (Phlomis)

Masterwort (Astrantia)  

Meadow rue (Thalictrum)

Mexican lobelia (Lobelia laxiflora)

Ornamental grass

Pinks (Dianthus)

Poppy (Papaver)

Salvia

Sneezeweed (Helenium)

Toad lily (Tricyrtis)

Turtlehead (Chelone)  

Wormwood (Artemisia)

— Kym Pokorny

CORPUS CHRISTI —
Prepare the beds for spring-flowering bulbs as soon as possible. It is important to cultivate the soil and add generous amounts of organic matter to improve the water drainage. Bulbs will rot without proper drainage.

Norma Hernandez

SMALL SPACES: Carol Krank will discuss “Landscaping Small Spaces” at 2 p.m. Sunday at Turner’s Gardenland, 6503 S. Padre Island Drive. Free. Information: 991-9002.

BROWN BAG EVENT: San Patricio Master Gardeners will host “Container Gardening: Design, Plant, Grow!”, a brown bag event presented by Mary Ann Davis and D.J. Chilcoat from noon to 1 p.m. Tuesday at the Aransas Extension Office, 892 Airport Road, Rockport. Free. Information: 361-790-0103.

LAWN PREPARATION: Neal Stewart will discuss “Fall Winter Lawn Preparation” at 2 p.m. Oct. 21 at Turner’s Gardenland, 6503 S. Padre Island Drive. Free. Information: 991-9002.

BAY GARDENS: The Corpus Christi Area Garden Council Inc. will host the fall garden tour, “Gardens Around the Bay,” from noon to 6 p.m. Oct. 21. Tickets are $10 and are available at Turner’s Gardenland, Gill Landscape Nursery, Green’s and Thing’s and garden club members. Three gardens in Corpus Christi and two in Portland will be featured, plus admission to South Texas Botanical Gardens Nature Center. Information: 991-5375 or bwhitt33@swbell.net

GARDEN CLUB: First Presbyterian Church Garden Club meets at 9:45 a.m. in Kleberg Hall, 430 S. Carancahua St. Meetings are open to members and nonmembers. Oct. 23: Don and Rhoda Poenisch, Native Plant Society, “Easy to Grow Native Plants”; Nov. 27: Carol Krank, Turner’s Gardenland, “Butterfly Gardens”; Jan. 22: Michael Womack, “Best Shade Trees for Corpus Christi”; Feb. 26: Kathy Hubner, Gill’s Nursery, “Plants for Shady Areas”; March 26: Susan Matthews, “Preparing the Easter Cross”; May 28: Induction of officers and salad luncheon at 11:30 a.m. Information: 884-4057.

HEALTHY GARDEN: Denise Housler of Aquaria Services will talk about ways to keep your water garden healthy during cold snaps in the “Winter Care for Water Gardens” seminar, 10 a.m. to noon Nov. 17 at South Texas Botanical Gardens Nature Center, 8545 S. Staples St. Cost: $8 (includes garden admission); free/members. Information: 852-2100.

To speak with a master gardener, contact the help desk at the Texas AgriLife Extension Service, Nueces County, by calling 767-5250, or post questions and/or comments at mpotterhort.blogspot.com/.

ASK THE GARDEN PRO

Q: I noticed many leaves on my plumeria are being eaten. Closer inspection revealed some caterpillars. Will they hurt my plumeria and how should I get rid of them?

A: The caterpillar of the tetrio sphinx moth is a frequent fall visitor to local plumeria plants. This caterpillar has distinctive yellow and black segmented stripes and a red head and rear. Fortunately, there should be no long term damage to your plants. If you find the caterpillars, you can remove them and kill them using the “two-brick” method, also known as “squash and go.”

If you have many plants, you might want to spray with a Bt product like Thuricide at the first sign of damage. We are fortunate that this annual infestation occurs in the fall, just before many plumeria drop leaves and go dormant for the winter. Next spring, the plants will re-leaf without damage.

Michael Womack is a horticulturist and executive director of the South Texas Botanical Gardens Nature Center. Contact him at wmwomack@gmail.com.