Meetings
If nothing changes we will hold our next meeting at the Garden Club building, after many months of zoom meeting.
Monthly meetings are held every 3rd Wednesday of the month, from September to June with presentations on gardening topics relevant to coastal gardening. Presentations begins at 11:00 am with the Meeting followed by a business meeting and a light lunch..
We meet when the weather starts to turn cool and rainy, allowing us maximum time in the garden during the warmer, drier summer growing months. Field trips to private and public gardens are available to members as well as visitors throughout the course of our "club season". Experts from Oregon State University, private enterprise, University of Oregon and others in their field of expertise present informative lectures and demonstrations on horticulture, flower arrangement and master gardening.
Our meetings are free and open to the public. The club is a non-profit organization, 501 (c) (4).
Places to go visit
Adelman Peony Gardens
Marion Demonstration Garden
Marion Demonstration Garden
They grow nearly 500 varieties of peonies on 25 acres, including a two acre display garden that opens to the public in the spring. Visitors are encouraged to stay and picnic among the flowers or spend the day exploring the grassy walkways throughout the garden.
5690 Brooklake Rd. N.E. Salem; peonyparadise.com.
Marion Demonstration Garden
Marion Demonstration Garden
Marion Demonstration Garden
A learning garden for the Marion County Master Gardner Association, the Marion Demonstration Garden is also open to the public year-round. From ornamental grasses to fruit trees and everything in between, the garden has more than 30 themes that change all the time. It's located behind the county's Health & Human Services building.
3180 Center St. N.E., Salem; marioncomga.org
Schreiner's Iris Gardens:
Marion Demonstration Garden
Delbert Hunter Arboretum and Botanic Garden
With more than 150 acres of irises, including 10 acres of display gardens, Schreiner's Iris Gardens is one of the best floral attractions in Salem. Visit the gardens for a day among the colorful, showy flowers and take a fresh-cut bouquet home.
3625 Quinaby Rd. N.E. Salem; schreinersgardens.com.
Delbert Hunter Arboretum and Botanic Garden
Delbert Hunter Arboretum and Botanic Garden
Delbert Hunter Arboretum and Botanic Garden
Described as "a living museum of native plants," the Delbert Hunter Arboretum and Botanical Gardens is a small part of the larger Dallas City Park. Short trails lead through open meadows and forested areas along Reakreall Creek, where visitors can find rock gardens, rare shrubs and blooming flowers.
266 S. W. Academy St., Dallas; delberthunterarboretum.org.
Brooks Gardens
Delbert Hunter Arboretum and Botanic Garden
Dancing Oaks Nursery and Garden
Located just north of Salem, Brooks Gardens specializes in fields of colorful peonies. The garden is open to the public during the bloom season in May and June each year, where visitors can also buy potted and fresh cut peonies to take home.
6219 Topaz St. N. E. , Brooks; brooksgardens.com
Dancing Oaks Nursery and Garden
Delbert Hunter Arboretum and Botanic Garden
Dancing Oaks Nursery and Garden
Dancing Oaks is a retail and mail order nursery just outside Salem in Monmouth. The nursery is embedded within an established display garden, where visitors are encouraged to stop by from March through October- though spring is arguably the best season to visit.
17900 Priem Rd., Monmouth; dancingoaks.com.
Cecil and Molly Smith Garden
Cecil and Molly Smith Garden
Cecil and Molly Smith Garden
The woodland garden on three acres in St. Paul was originally a private garden created by Cecil and Molly Smith, who became renowned for their collection of rhododendrons. The garden was eventually handed over to the Portland Chapter of the American Rhododendron Society, which opens it to the public on spring weekends.
5055 Ray Bell Rd. N. E., St. Paul; smithgarden.org
Gaiety Hollow
Cecil and Molly Smith Garden
Cecil and Molly Smith Garden
Gaiety Hollow was the home of Elizabeth Lord and Edith Schryver, the first women in the Pacific Northwest to own their own landscape architecture firm. After their death, their home and garden was restored and is still tended to today. The Lord & Schryver Conservancy offers free garden tours on select weekends.
545 Mission St. S.E., Salem; lordschryver.org.
Renovations are done and it turned out beautiful
About Us
History of the Club
Founded in 1948, Seal Rock Garden Club is a 70 year plus community non-profit organization formed for coastal gardeners to share their knowledge of plants and to provide a social setting for individuals interested in gardening, conservation and support of community gardening projects. A housing barracks for conscientious objectors during World War II, the clubhouse originally located at Camp Angell, Waldport was purchased at auction for $306 and was moved to its' present site in Seal Rock in the 70's.
Special Events
Christmas Green Sale
Plant Sale and Flower Show
Plant Sale and Flower Show
Each year members are involved in two major fund raising events, the Greens Sale in December and the Plant Sale and Flower Show in June. Our annual Christmas Greens Sale takes place in early December. Locally grown greens are crafted and designed into wreaths, swags, and table arrangements made by members. Holiday gifts, small live decorated trees and a raffle of gift items are available for purchase. Funds from the Greens Sale are used for maintaining the clubhouse and grounds.
***This event was cancelled for 2020 due to Covid***Hopefully we will be back to normal in 2021..
Plant Sale and Flower Show
Plant Sale and Flower Show
Plant Sale and Flower Show
The Plant Sale and Flower Show in mid-June is an end of the year event with the clubhouse decorated with spring flowers and the surrounding yard full of sale plants suitable for coastal gardens. Mark your calendars for our Plant Sale and Flower Show. Gardeners start lining up early to buy plants. Sales are brisk. A portion of the funds raised go to nonprofit organizations that support gardening, education, conservation and local civic gardening projects.
GROWIN' COASTAL
Kudzu vs. Wild Cucumber ????
By Sally Noack
Common Names: Kudzu, Japanese arrowroot
Scientific Name: Pueraria montana (syn: Pueraria
montana var. lobata, Pueraria lobata)
- Description: Kudzu is a fast growing perennial vine in the Fabaceae (pea) family. The dark green leaves alternate on the vines, have three distinct leaflets that are sometimes lobed, and are hairy on the undersides. The taprooots can grow to be quite massive, and can weigh hundreds of pounds. The pea-like flowers are dark pink to purple, (sometimes red), and they are often pleasantly fragrant, like grapes. Kudzu mostly spreads vegetatively, but it also can spread by seeds that grow brown, hairy, flattened pods.
- The plant grows a bit like English ivy (Hedera helix) or manroot (Marah oreganus, also called wild cucumber). However, the leaves, fruits, and flowers of these plants are quite distinct. Ivy has small yellow-green flowers and dark purple berries. A vining native perennial in the cucumber or gourd family (Cucurbitaceae), manroot has white flowers and green spiky cucumber-like fruits, while kudzu has purple flowers and dark brown pea-like pods. All three plants have lobed leaves, but kudzu is the only one with 3 separate leaflets.
- The reason why common names can be confusing: the following describes another plant sharing the name wild cucumber, but it is not our manroot. "In late summer you may notice trees or shrubs festooned with crowns of white flowers that obviously are not the woody plant blooming. Look closely and you'll notice the leaves and individual flowers look just like that of a cucumber -- this is wild cucumber or balsam-apple, Echinocystis lobata. The name Echinocyctis comes from the Greek echinos for "hedgehog" and systis for "bladder", appropriately describing the spiny fruit. A vining native annual in the cucumber or gourd family (Cucurbitaceae), wild cucumber is often overlooked until it it large and sometimes has engulfed the other plants it is growing on. It occurs throughout much of North America, including all of Wisconsin. Its native habitat is along streambeds, swamps, and moist thickets or roadsides. As a fast-growing, warm season annual, wild cucumber grows from seed each year, germinating after the last frost." Remember, Manroot is a perennial.
- Similar Symptoms, Different Causes: A friend asks, "Why are some branches of my lilac (Syringa spp.) showing wilted leaves, dieback, and/or weakened growth, and even death?" Here are a few answers: 1) Physical tree or shrub damage, which can be caused by lawnmowers or weed-eaters scarring the base of the plant and disrupting the flow of the nutrients to branches. 2) The Red-breasted Sapsucker (a woodpecker) is responsible for some tree damage in our area. Sapsuckers drill 1/4 inch holes in the bark of trees and large shrubs, especially those with thin bark, in horizontal or vertical lines. These holes are often mistaken for insect damage by beetles and other bark boring insects. However, insects inflict random bark damage; their holes are fewer and smaller and not in orderly rows like sapsucker holes; and there is often boring dust (frass) in or on the ground around them. Sapsucker damage does not indicate that the tree or shrub has an insect problem as sapsuckers drill for tree sap, not insects. (For more information and control of sapsucker damage see https://pnwhandbooks.org/node/269). 3) Insect damage by the Lilac (Syringa) - Ash borer (Podesesia syringae). This insect resembles a paper wasp. Adult moths overwinter in the bark, emerging from small exit holes in spring. They mate, deposit eggs on the bark at the base of plants leaving telltale sign of frass or sawdust, and the young larvae tunnel under the bark. At maturity the life cycle begins again. After infestation, plants will eventually show branch dieback and weaken growth or die. (For more information including management/control of this insect pest see https://pnwhandbooks.org/node/6938).
- Other Gardening News: 1) Garden Gate magazine May/June 2019 and April 2019 issues have wonderful articles and photos of butterflies, their larval caterpillar stage and their host plants, and spring gardens. I found both issues packaged as one item at Costco. 2) Better Homes and Gardens magazine published a special issue entitled "Succulents" which has lots of great information and ideas for using succulents in gardens and containers, etc. 3) A note on best practices: please try to use the least toxic control method for weeds, plant pests, and diseases. Recently court cases regarding glyphosates (such as Round-Up) as cancer causing agents have been won against chemical manufacturers (reference: Science Magazine, May 22, 2019). Please always follow the package directions if you use any chemical. More information is available at your local OSU Extension Office.
by Betty Bahn and Sally Noack
"Growin Coastal" is the work of members Betty Bahn and Sally Noack. This garden-wise contribution is culled from their many years of coastal gardening experience, research and education. Their presentations, "Horticultural Table Notes", at our monthly meetings guide members on practical, timely how-to measures on what to do in the garden, information on garden events, and in-depth answers to questions and whatever and anything anyone wants to talk about. "Growin' Coastal" aims to continue to offer their guidance here in written form. In this issue, we offer Sally's contribution to "Growin' Coastal" as Betty's appeared in an earlier posting.