The Butterfield Cottage garden has a new white fence all across the back and a fine fence it is too. It is part of the garden club's grant from Principal Financial Group but the grant money important as it was, was only the beginning.
The actual construction of the fence was done by Ernie Palmrose. He planed and cut each picket, sunk the posts and then built the fence. After a time to settle and dry, that fine fence needed to be primed and painted so with a little gentle persuasion, my husband, Stewart Berry, donned his painter's cap and did the job.Now Gertrude Stein always said, "Silent gratitude isn't very much use to anyone." With that in mind, let me shout it from the rooftops: THANK YOU Ernie and Stewart for donating your time and labor. The fence looks wonderful!
While I'm on the subject of gratitude, let me include Doris Snodgrass who has donated to the garden a very special bearded iris "Ice Blue Secret." Doris's father, Charles W. Hungerford was a Plant Pathologist at the University of Idaho. Irises were his favorite flowers and he experimented with crossing them to develop new ones. Developing new flowers is a long and tedious process and his system went like this. First he used a small watercolor brush to transfer pollen from one iris onto another. Next he covered those blossoms so the bees would not interfere doing what bees do. When those seeds formed, he would plant them (maybe as many as fifty), then the next year take the best and repeat the process. It might take thirty years to develop an outstanding bloom and Ice Blue Secret (a pale blue five footer) is one of them. We are grateful to have this as part of the garden.
THANK YOU Doris. And THANKS to an energetic group of garden club volunteers, the new beds on the west and north sides have been dug out and are ready to receive their plants. When they are planted, our grant work will be finished.
Speaking of gratitude, come and visit the garden this spring, sit on the bench, smell the herbs, enjoy the flowers, admire that fine fence. I think you will appreciate what we have been able to accomplish with the grant funds and will join the garden club in heartfelt THANKS to National Garden Clubs, Inc. and Principal Financial Group.
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