CMGA General Info

Christmas Amaryllis with Orchid to the right. Below Ruth Benson's holiday bears.
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.

Change in Contact Information

Have you moved or changed your e-mail address, but would still like to be contacted about high elevation gardening information from the Extension? The Coconino County Extension Master Gardener Program has a site that will let you change your information on-line.

Click here to change your contact information!

Event Calendar

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. 



Madeline Burton (she/her)
Urban Forestry Specialist
Urban and Community Forestry
ISA Certified Arborist No. TX-4718A
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).
Register in advance for this meeting at:
https://us02web.zoom.us/.../tZMuc...
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.