Coconino Master Gardener Association: September 2023

CMGA General Info

Species tulips planted in fall. These appear in early spring. Olivia White Hospice Garden.
Photo by Loni Shapiro.

Welcome to the Coconino County Master Gardeners Association blog. The mission of the Master Gardener Program is to create a corps of well-informed volunteers, and to deliver quality horticultural education programs adapted to our regional high elevation environment. The purpose of the association is to provide support for those volunteers and Master Gardener graduates, continuing education, and opportunities to participate in community programs that increase the visibility and participation in the Master Gardener Program.

The Coconino Master Gardener Association (2009) began in 2009. This blog contains information on:

-How to become a member

-Volunteer and Education hours reporting

-Calendar of Events

-General gardening information articles

-Master Gardener Association Documents and forms

-References and Resources

-Interesting Websites and Blogs

-Old Gardening Etcetera columns

-Recipes

-Book Reviews

-How to contact Board or Committee Members

Meetings are held monthly on the 2nd Thursday from 600pm - 8;30pm. We meet at the Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church at 1601 N. San Francisco. This includes continuing education and a business meeting.

Reporting Master Gardener Hours

All master gardener trainees and certified master gardeners need to report their hours.
Beginning in 2010 certified master gardeners need to have 6 Education hours and 12 Volunteer hours in order to maintain certification.The on line reporting system allows you to report Education or Volunteer hours. You can sign in to record hours in the right hand column under Recording Volunteer and Education Hours. Just click on the U. of A.
If you have any questions or concerns about the new reporting system, please contact Brenda Smith (A - M) or Sue Madden (N - Z). Their contacts are listed at the bottom of the blog under Contacts.

Ideas for hours------
--Attend monthly meetings
--Work on an association committee
--Work at an informational booth for the Master Gardeners
--Be a speaker about gardening topics at a variety of venues
--Host a garden tour
--Work at a fundraising event (Plant Sale - Garden Tour).
--Work at a MG site (Olivia White Hospice, the Arboretum, Riordan Mansion, or school gardens (many others)). Check out the Assoc. Doc. & Forms under Volunteer Sites.
--Work in the Extension office
--Write an article for the newspaper column -Gardening Etcetera
-Volunteer with the Seed Library
Be creative! There are many ways to fulfill your hours. Just remember for volunteering it needs to be a non-profit endeavor or an approved for profit site.

Tuesday, September 19, 2023

Arizona Magnificient Tree Measuring Workshop

From Susan Holiday

id you know that Arizona has a program honoring Magnificent Trees? The Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management sponsors the Arizona Magnificent Tree Program designed to honor the largest trees of their species (Champion Trees); those with cultural significance (Heritage Trees); and those proven to be in place since Arizona Statehood in 1912 (Witness Trees).

Want to become a big tree hunter and volunteer for our program? Join us for a workshop on September 30th at the Arboretum at Flagstaff with Madeline Burton, the Urban Forestry Specialist from the Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management. Madeline and her team facilitate the Magnificent Tree Program and seek volunteers interested in learning HOW to use forestry tools to measure the height, circumference, and crown width - the three variables required to calculate the tree scores for the Arizona Magnificent Tree Program. Afterwards we hope several participants will sign up for our Magnificent Tree Program "Measurement Verification Committee" to help us measure some of the trees needing to be reverified all across Arizona.

Register here!

Madeline Burton (she/her)
Urban Forestry Specialist

Urban and Community Forestry

ISA Certified Arborist No. TX-4718A

Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management

1110 W. Washington St. | Suite 500 | Phoenix, AZ 85007
Ph: 480-769-4184 | mburton@dffm.az.gov

Wednesday, September 13, 2023

AZ Native Plant Society Meeting

We will be having our next meeting Thursday, Sept. 19 at 7 PM. You need to register in advance using the zoom registration sight below.

Andrew Salywon - Using trained dogs to detect endangered Spiranthes delitescens and related orchid taxa

The objective of this work is to determine the ability of detection dogs to identify the presence of Spiranthes delitescens. If successful, the use of detection dogs would be a powerful tool to aid future surveys to relocate historical populations or discover previously undocumented populations of Canelo Hills ladies’ tresses. Utilizing trained dogs and their powerful sense of smell can greatly aid conservationists by making plant surveying much more efficient thus requiring less human effort and resources. Spiranthes delitescens have recently been observed in small numbers at only one of four historically documented sites.

Andrew Salywon is an herbarium curator and research botanist at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix. Salywon came to the Desert Botanical Garden after completing his Ph.D. in Plant Biology and conducting postdoctoral research on developing Lesquerella as a new industrial oilseed crop at the United States Department of Agriculture, Arid-Land Agricultural Research Center. His research interests are in conservation, endemic, rare and endangered plants in Arizona and the Sonoran Desert, floristics, new crop development, and systematics using both traditional and molecular data. On-going projects include the Flora of Agua Fria National Monument, evolution and inheritance of hydroxy fatty acids in Lesquerella (Brassicaceae – the mustard family), systematics of native and cultivated Agave (Agaveaceae - the Agave family) in Arizona, Cylindropuntia (Cactaceae –the cactus family) and Mosiera (Myrtaceae – the myrtle family).

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Arizona Native Plant Society talks are free and open to the public. See aznps.com to become a member.

Remembering Beverly 1928-2016

On Monday, Aug. 8, 2016, Beverly Jean MacAllister passed away fully lucid and comfortably in Santa Cruz, CA, at home and in the presence of her daughters, just three days after her 88th birthday. For many months she sought a way out of or around a severe lung infection. She was a Master Gardener and tended 12 vegetable and flower beds at her home in Timberline. She supported the master gardener program in many ways - providing consult to a local fire department to grow vegetables for food, assisting with regional conferences, and helping each year with the Coconino County Fair in the agriculture building. In addition for several years she worked as a Senior Companion with 5 clients that she helped with aging issues. A celebration of Bev’s life will be held at 11 am on Saturday, Sept. 17, at Beacon Unitarian Universalist Congregation, 510 N. Leroux St. Memorial gifts in her name may be made to Poore Medical Clinic, 120 W. Fine Ave., Flagstaff, AZ 86001; or Bonny Doon Fire Safe Council, 150 McGivern Way, Santa Cruz, CA 95060.
I will personally miss her guidance on aging well. The photo above is from a Christmas card I received from her. On the back it says "Kindness is a language we can all understand. The blind can see it and the deaf can hear it. Thank someone who has touched your life today. Thank you for being part of my life. Bev." Loni Shapiro

Dana Prom Smith 1927-2015

On Sunday, Jun 28th, Dana Prom Smith passed away from a
heart attack at the age of 88. Dana was a long time supporter of the Master Gardener program and association . He was certified as a master gardener in 2007. He worked on his own garden at home, and since then has shared his wealth of knowledge and creative writing skills to write and edit weekly columns for the AZ Daily Sun -Gardening Etcetera. We will miss learning more about life and gardening and the humor with which he presented it.

On August 24th, a Blaze Maple was planted at Olivia White Hospice Garden by his gardening friends in rememberance.

“If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

Coconino Master Gardener Association