NO Meeting in July-Sheltering from heat.

The ingenuity, resourcefulness, and different interests of club members were on full display during our annual tour of six of their incredible gardens on May 13. Helene Linden showed us a hidden wonderland of amazing roses and frogs in amusing poses everywhere you look. Howard Galin’s diverse desert landscape, brimming with what the Henderson Police Department calls “hostile plants” (cacti), resembles the setting of a Clint Eastwood western. The back yard of Meiling Zhang is memorable not only for its enviable views and pristine setting but also the vast array of fruit trees—almonds, apricots, oranges, kumquats, lemons, pomegranates. The other three gardens will be featured in next month’s issue.

After taking our annual break from the heat in July and August, we resume our meetings in September with a must-see presentation on tree selection and care by arborist and Instructor Master Gardener, Laura Eisenberg.

 Our annual field trip in October will be to the Univerty of Nevada Reno Extension Botanic Gardens in Las Vegas, where Master Gardeners will demonstrate how they grow to perfection everything from herbs to palms in the Mojave Desert. Members will pay only $5 for a round-trip coach ride and guided tour. Flyers for signing up have been emailed to all members. The completed flyer along with your cash or a check made out to Sun City Anthem Community Association (with Garden Club on the memo line)  can be deposited in the Garden Club's mailbox across from the Fitness Desk in Anthem Center. Seating on the coach is limited to 56 persons, so don't delay.

Is your garden screaming at you for attention, but you don’t know what to do? Have you recently moved here from another part of the country? You can’t identify those weird plants that you inherited when you bought your house, much less figure out how to care for them? One of the many benefits of joining the Garden Club is our free House Call program, whereby two or three experts will visit your home on request at no charge to offer advice.

We meet in the Penn/Morris/Nelson Rooms of the Independence Center from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. on the second Monday of each month except July and August. Free coffee, tea, and cookies are available from 9:00 a.m. Sun City residents are welcome to attend two meetings/year without joining. Dues for 2024 are $15; checks may be made payable exactly to: Sun City Anthem Community Association, Inc. with “Garden Club’ on the memo line. Enrollment forms are also available at the Anthem Center kiosk and on our website (https://garden.scaclub.org) and can be placed in the Garden Club mailbox located outside Anthem's Fitness Center along with your check payable as above. Feel free to email any questions about the Club to its president, Dr. Alec Pridgeon (apridg1@gmail.com).