Activities

Monthly Meetings

Monthly meetings feature a guest speaker presenting an educational lecture, and are generally held at The Gardens at Elm Bank in the Putnam Building. See directions.

Flower and Foliage Shows

Our Chapter has our biggest flower show (Main Flower Show), on Memorial weekend in May every year, in conjunction with our Plant Sale.  This is a formally judged show with ribbons awarded in every class and trophies in many categories.  Any person, member or not, can enter.  The show is open to the public and is one of the ways we reach out to educate the public.  It is always gorgeous – and also serves to demonstrate the wide variety of colors, sizes, shapes, and foliage of rhododendrons and azaleas.

We also have a foliage show at one of the fall meetings; no flowers, just the beautiful foliage that we enjoy for the 51 weeks when the plants are not in bloom.  We have quite a number of classes based on rhododendron taxonomy but this show is judged by the attendees of the meeting – a popular vote.  We often have a third show at our April meeting (Early Flower Show) for the earlier bloomers.  These are usually the smaller flowers from the small-leaved rhododendrons (the lepidotes) that brighten our landscapes before the main season plants bloom.

All three shows are great opportunities to see excellent plants that grow well locally.