Upcoming Pond Side Meeting
By: Dorothy Martinez
Please join us for our first Pond Side meeting of the year. We will be meeting on Saturday, June 19th from 12:00 pm until 3:00 pm at Little Eden in Arvada. Little Eden is located at 15550 W. 72nd Avenue, Arvada, CO 80007, (303) 442-3336.
Terry Reynolds founded Big Eden Wholesale and Little Eden Plantscaping in September of 1978. In 1984, Terry purchased a small 5-acre farm in Golden, Colorado (later changed to an Arvada address) and relocated Little Eden Plantscaping. The farm is home to beautiful seasonal outdoor plants, fresh produce, and a sprawling event space.
Bring your own picnic and beverage to enjoy this beautiful slice of paradise. The selection of plants is astounding and the staff are all extremely helpful. They have a fantastic selection of tropical plants, an excellent array of succulents, and even a few carnivorous plants within their 10,000+square foot greenhouse. The property is also home to two very friendly Labradors, a beautiful macaw, and numerous free-range chickens.
Little Eden also provides event space rental. Come and join us for an enjoyable tour of Little Eden, a self-catered picnic lunch, and some plant shopping!
For more information or questions, please contact Dorothy Martinez at 303-279-3137 or dam@johnfunk.com.
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2021 CWGS Plant Sale Thank You
By: Dorothy Martinez
To all those who came to the Colorado Water Garden Society Annual Plant Sale, we
would like to say thank you for your support! We had a great selection of plants and we also had quite a few donations from members. We were so happy to see so many new and familiar faces and were thrilled with the opportunity to visit with you after a year of being socially isolated. We sold out of most of our plants and sales were brisk most of the day.
Also, thank you to all the people who helped select the plants, propagated plants, donated plants, and to those who helped set up the Sale, and worked during the Sale to make sure everything went smoothly. I received several positive comments from shoppers who were impressed by the personal attention given to them to ensure they bought plants compatible to their needs and wants.
Again, thank you to everyone that came to the Sale. We appreciate your support of the Colorado Water Garden Society!
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Upcoming Pond Tour
By: Dorothy Martinez
We are thrilled to announce we will be hosting our Annual Pond Tour & Picnic. The Pond Tour & Picnic will be held on Saturday, July 17th from 10:00 am until 5:00 pm. The Picnic will be from 5:00 pm until 7:00 pm. This year’s Tour will be scaled down in size, we normally have about a dozen participants, but this year we are expecting about half a dozen participants. We have also booked the East Shelter in Waneka Lake Park located in the City of Lafayette for our Picnic. Waneka Park is located at 1600 Caria Drive, Lafayette, CO 80026.
Another change from previous years due to COVID-19 is the Club will not be providing food or beverages for the Picnic. Please bring your own picnic & beverages to enjoy in the company of other water garden enthusiasts. Currently, Boulder County is not requiring social distancing or masks for outdoor activities and those persons who have been vaccinated against the virus.
This year’s Tour will be located in the Northwestern portion of Denver. The tour will include Fort Lupton, Brighton, Westminster, Louisville, Thornton, and Lafayette.
A detailed description of each Pond, directions, and a map will be included in the July Newsletter, so stay tuned.
For more information or questions, please contact Rebecca Nash at 303-921-8144 or nashrebecca@q.com or Dennis Weatherman at 303-457-1783 or dweatherman@msn.com.
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“Shipped by sea” ... and remembered with affection
By: Bill Powell
Longtime friend of CWGS Charlie Oleson is downsizing, he recently
donated his pair of bronze garden sculptures for auction during our
plant sale. Charlie’s generous gift triggered memories and a few
questions, including whether the two birds represent crane or heron?
We now know the birds are herons. Looking into his digital albums,
Charlie found photos and a journal entry posted from Chaing Mai,
Thailand on October 30, 2004. The entry reads in part:
“After a great breakfast at the hotel we headed across town to the
mountain top temple of Doi Suthep. ...walking back down, we visited
Orchid Jade Jewelry store (more shopping). In the afternoon we went to
the bronze factory. Marge and I bought bronze herons. They were
shipped by sea...”
Marge Oleson, past CWGS Board member and a Denver Botanic Garden
Aquatics volunteer for many years, is remembered fondly by many of the
Club’s “old guard”. Sadly, Marge died unexpectedly in 2012 from a
coronary event. Marge was known for her willingness to pitch-in as
well as her ability to finagle a similar effort from others lacking
her passion. (She persuaded me to join her for years, heading up the
DBG Aquatics Division for the Gardens’ annual sale.) Marge’s
persistence when saddled with problems for which she had volunteered
struck her as exasperating; but we found her recollections of life’s
challenges charming and often darkly ironic. Whatever befell her,
Marge was good humored (mostly) and utterly dependable, if always
dependably late. Those who knew her miss her terribly.
Marge and Charlie traveled abroad quite a bit, including the trip to
the Orient that produced the bronze herons. Charlie’s research on the
castings’ provenance has answered the question of species depicted,
which is good in that in life the two birds are often confused. The
easiest way to discern a difference, apparently, is to see them in
flight, which of course is not going to happen with bronze replicas.
If you read the quote from the Olesons’ journal entry, you’ll notice a
parens midway down “(more shopping)”. Charlie recalls Marge’s
attempts to “surprise” him with last minute purchases while traveling.
Another Club member Doris Freestone fondly remembers a story Marge
told about having ordered custom-tailored clothing which was to be
fashioned from silk she had bought toward the end of their vacation.
Since all was arranged on the fly and at the last moment, the tailor
was pressed to satisfy the deadline. He ultimately met Marge and
Charlie on the airport tarmac clutching the hurriedly finished items.
So… it’s a good thing Marge decided early on to have these heavy
bronzes shipped directly home. Hard to fit something like that into
carry-on!
The Oleson’s bronze herons have found a new home with one of our
members, Janet & Bill Bathurst who made the winning bid during the
Club’s Plant Sale silent auction. The Board and Marge’s many Club
friends thank Charlie for his thoughtful donation.
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Tips for a Healthy Summertime Pond
By: Aquascape
The beauty and joy of a pond makes summer more memorable and relaxing! To fully enjoy the water garden, you want to make sure your water feature is healthy and functioning optimally throughout the warmer months. When water temperature rises above 80 degrees (27° C) this summer, it’s important to keep a few things in mind.
Health of Your Pond Fish
Keep an eye on your fish. Do your finned friends appear stressed out, gasping for air close to the water’s surface or especially close to a fountain or waterfall? Warm water has a low capacity for holding oxygen, while cooler water can hold very large amounts of oxygen.
Warm pond water and increased activity go hand and hand, and that increased activity also means your fish require more oxygen when less oxygen is available, thus creating a vicious cycle. Stressed fish often begin to develop diseases, and soon enough you’ll have a domino effect.
Add oxygen to your pond by placing an aerator or pump in your pond. You can also install a fountain with a pump if your pond doesn’t have a waterfall or stream. Make sure all areas of the pond are skimmed and the water circulated. And keep in mind that waterfalls, streams, and fountains play a huge part in the oxygenation of the water in your pond.
Beat the Heat
There are some preventative measures you can take in order to keep your pond from becoming a warm, unhealthy mess. It all starts with a well-designed water feature. Depth, plant coverage, shade, and circulation should all be considered when designing and building a pond. A minimum depth of two feet is suggested; the bottom of the pond will remain cooler.
You’ll also want to stock your pond with a lot of plants to provide shade for the fish. A good rule of thumb is to provide plant coverage of approximately 1/3 to 1/2 of the pond’s surface area.
Perhaps one of the most important parts of pond design is circulation. If possible, you’ll want to place your biological filter and pump strainer across the pond from each other, so that your pond receives optimal circulation.
Additional Summer Pond Tips
During the hot summer months, you can use some of these tips to help keep your pond performing optimally:
1) If you feed your fish, feed them in the morning and be careful not to overfeed. Uneaten food decays faster in warmer water and can pollute the pond.
2) Be sure to remove dying leaves and flowers before they have a chance to decay in the warmer water.
The bottom line is that you need to keep an eye on your pond and let your fish and plants do the talking. If you have a balanced ecosystem, you’ll find it much easier to maintain the health of your pond, fish, and plants.
Article Source
Aquascape, St. Charles, IL, USA. www.aquascapeinc.com
Reprinted from the IWGS Summer 2018 Water Garden Journal, Vol. 33, No. 2, Page 4
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