Dig This: Spotlight on the Hutchinson Horticulture Club

The Hutchinson Horticulture Club is a local community group that was organized in 1984.  Its purpose is to gather people who are interested in horticulture together so they may learn more about plants for their own benefit and to benefit the community through service projects.

The Horticulture Club meets  every third Tuesday of the month at 7:00pm at Dillon Nature Center.  In the summer months, meetings are held at the homes and yards of different club members.   Monthly meetings include guest speakers on various horticulture topics, regular club business and a great opportunity to visit with other enthusiastic gardeners.  Meetings are free and open to anyone, you do not need to be a member to attend.  You may also become a Horticulture Club member with yearly dues of $5, which allows you to receive discounts at some of the local garden centers - a deal that can't be beat!

Club projects include planting and maintaining the flower bed at the Main Street entrance to Carey Park.  Each year, club members design the flower bed, grow the flowers from seed and then transplant them into the bed.  They take turns watering and weeding the bed throughout the growing season and then help clean it up in the fall. 

The Horticulture Club also holds a plant sale in the spring at Dillon Nature Center. Club members divide perennials and/or raise extra plants which they donate to the Club’s annual plant sale, which will be held this year on April 25.  It is open to the public and is a great opportunity to purchase a wide variety of plants. 

Proceeds from the plant sale are used to sponsor the Gathering for Gardeners.  The Gathering is a day filled with presentations on a wide variety of horticulture topics. It is free and open to the public. 

This year's Gathering for Gardeners will be this coming Saturday, March 14.   It will be held at Our Redeemer Lutheran Church at 407 E. 12th across from the Cosmosphere.  You’re welcome to stay for all of the sessions or pick and choose which ones to attend and come and go as you please.  Each session starts pretty much on time.  Drawings for door prizes are held after each session.   It is free and open to the public.  The schedule for the Gathering is: 

8:30 am          Doors Open – Registration for Door Prizes Begins

9:00 am         Green Beans and Beyond
                     James Taylor, Retired Instructor
                     Hutchinson Community College

10:00 am       How to Make & Sustain the most
                    Awesome Container Gardens
                    Ben Miller, President
                    Stutzman’s Greenhouse

11:00 am       Bugs:  The Good, The Bad & The Ugly
                    Dr. Raymond Cloyd, Specialist in Ornamental Entomology
                    K-State Research & Extension, Manhattan

Noon             Lunch – On Your Own

1:00 pm         Lawn Advice Based on K-State
                     Research, Part II
                     Dr. Rodney St. John, Turfgrass Specialist
                     K-State Research & Extension, Olathe

2:00 pm         What’s New in Annual Flowers
                     Dr. Alan Stevens, Director
                     K-State Research & Extension Center, Olathe

3:00 pm         Hardy Ferns for Kansas
                     Duane Petersen, Wichita, Kansas

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