WILLAMETTE CHAPTERWILLAMETTE CHAPTERWILLAMETTE CHAPTER AMERICAN RHODODENDROAMERICAN RHODODENDROAMERICAN RHODODENDRON SOCIETYN SOCIETYN SOCIETY

http:members. http://www.arswillamette.org/ ARS Home Page: http://www.rhododendron.org

Christmas Potluck ALL VISITORS WELCOME

CHAPTER MEETING December 2, 2018

NEWSLETTER Willamette Chapter American Rhododendron Society

Volume 14 Issue 122 December 2, 2018

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

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December 2, 2018 Wally & Kathy Reed Christmas Potluck

January 9, 2019 Jack Olson TBA

February 13, 2019 Steve Hootman TBA

March 13, 2019 n/a

April 10, 2019 n/a

May 8, 2019 Potluck and Plant Sale

CALENDAR OF EVENTS ANNUAL CHRISTMAS POTLUCK at KATHY & WALLY REEDS

Christmas Potluck

December 2 Dinner 1:00 pm It is time again for our annual Holiday Potluck which will be at Wally and Kathy Reeds home again this year. The Chapter will provide the traditional prime rib of beef, beverages and table service. We are looking forward to the delicious and variety of good-ies that you have all brought in the past and the fun of the gathering. BYOB’s as usual. You need to bring only yourselves and a delicious item to share with your fellow members. A salad, vegetable or dessert item would be appreciated to go along the meat dish, beverages and table service that will be pro-vided.

How to find them Wally and Kathy live at 940 Leffelle St. SE in Salem. Their home faces the SE corner of Bush’s Pasture Park. This is the lower portion of the park by the open fields and Phillips Softball Field at 1:00 P.M., Sunday, December 4. To get to their home take Cross St. which runs between 12th St. and High St. Turn on Davidson St. to the North. Should you need further directions, call 503-588-3666 or e-mail is: wallacereed@comcast.net. Early arrivals are welcome at 12:30. Editor

MINUTES - WILLAMETTE CHAPTER ARS November 14, 2018

After another excellent supper at the Ram and a very short business meeting, we jumped right into the evening's presentation, thanks to Dana Malby. First, though, President for Life, Wally Reed, ac-knowledged the yummy autumn-themed cake Fred Katz brought for our refreshments. Fred did a great job of cake decorating....he should go into business! Wally also acknowledged the loss of Tammy Malby, Dana's wife, who died the week before. Although Tammy had been fighting cancer for many years, her death still came without any clear warning. Our thoughts and prayers have been with Dana, Andrew, and Sarah. Sunday, December 2nd, is our annual Christmas Potluck held at the Reeds' home, as usual. A map will be furnished for those who are new and don't

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know how to get there. Kathy and Wally will furnish the meat (usually prime rib or roast) plus gravy (and potatoes...or potato’s?) and we will furnish casse-roles, veggies and/or desserts. Preferred arrival time is noon, with the exception of Herb (and Edie, of course) Spady, whose preferred time is 11:30 AM, or whatever it takes to get them to join us for this event. In the wings, with lots more information to come is our ARS 75th Anniversary Conference. District 4 chapters are the hosts, and that includes all the chapters in Oregon and Washington. It's being re-ferred to as "The 20/20" as it will be in May 2020. Keith White, Program Chair, is lining up weekend meetings for us, at other venues besides the Carrier Room. He's looking at Bishop's Close in Portland. Other possible choices include Smith Garden, Crystal Springs (Portland) and the beautiful garden of Roger and Kathy Lintault in McMinnville. Keith also had with him the 2019 edition of the RSBG Calendar. Beautiful photos as always and a great buy at only $15 with all the profits going to the RSBG. Excellent Christmas gift for those who "have everything" or can't eat chocolate or who love beautiful flowers. Keith then introduced Dana who did a super job with his presentation on New Zealand. Lots of hu-mor included. Dana's been a long-time member and is our current WCARS Treasurer, just like his Mum used to be. She was our Treasurer for about 40 years. The Malbys joined the Reeds at the International Rhody Conference about this same time last year held in New Zealand. Since it was NZ's spring, they were immersed in flowers the whole trip, while we, here in Oregon, were raking leaves and staring at leaf-bare bushes and flowers. New Zealand has about the same land mass as Ore-gon, but it's long instead of square. It's a very hilly country with a temperate climate and its own "type" of people and plants. Their main industry is lumber production from Monterey Pine. Although they have sanctuaries for deer and such, they still don't hold a very high regard for animals. And although they

speak English, it's not any English that Dana or Tammy could understand, except perhaps, about one word out of five.

The Conference was held in Fielding, north of Wel-lington, about half-way up the island. It featured 3 days of all sorts of tours. Since their spring had been a wet one, and now was finally "dry", it pro-duced brilliantly-colored plants. Among their tours, was one to a windmill farm, which generates enough electricity for 45,000 homes. Other tours included Omhari, Chadsworth, Spring-vale, and Heritage Park. Springvale featured mostly older hybrid rhodys. Linsdale, one of the largest gardens, had all sorts of plants and trees including HUGE eucalyptus trees. Heritage had more rhody species. One place featured a waterfall that oper-ated when you pushed a button! At Cross Hills Nursery, they were all warned that it was easy to get lost there. So, of course, Dana did. After several unproductive attempts to find and board his bus, they and he realized it was a bad scene. And he couldn't phone Tammy to let the buses know he wasn't ON a bus, because she wasn't on the tour...she was shopping. Dana was finally "found" by two NZ boys who asked if he was the "American with a plaid shirt." He was, and the boys were very happy about it. Their Dad had sent them to look for Dana, for which they got paid! After sev-eral more "adventures" , Dana caught up with his bus. Dana's telling of this story was hilarious...I'm not doing it justice here. After the Conference was over, they went to other flowered areas of NZ, including the site where the movie series, The Lord of the Rings, was filmed. For a fee you could have your photo taken inside a hob-bit's hole...or house. Following the filming, the site was preserved as a park, which employs about 300 gardeners. They also went to Sydney and the Blue Mountains. Apparently, the latter had been in sun-shine for about 100 days, but when they got there the fog appeared. It was a fun program and loaded with rhody photos and many, many photos of beautiful and colorful

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THE FIGHT AGAINST RHODODENDRONS (Even rhodies have a bad apple so to speak)

Don’t be fooled by its beautiful flowers... rhododen-dron is Scotland’s most threatening invasive non-native plant. Rhododendron ponticum was first introduced into Britain in the 1700s as an ornamental plant. No one could have guessed the damage it would cause. It forms dense thickets and shades out native plants. If left uncontrolled, rhododendron will eventually dominate the habitat to the virtual exclusion of all other plant life. Its extensive root system and leaf litter is toxic to many other plants. Worse still, it harbours Phy-tophthora, a fungus-like pathogen that affects many other trees and plants.

Eradicating rhododendron In 2010, we set out our vision to remove rhododen-dron from the National Forest Estate. We estimated that nearly 50,000 hectares of the Estate was af-fected, and calculated it would take £15.5m and ten years to eradicate. Since then, we’ve been using chainsaws, herbicides,

heavy machinery and considerable human muscle power in the battle against this unwelcome alien. Often, follow-up treatment is required when stumps start to regrow or seedlings take root. We work with neighbours, such as the National Trust for Scotland and the John Muir Trust, to eradicate the seed source. The worst affected areas are in the west, where the climate is warmest and wettest – perfect conditions for rhododendron. However, we’re working hard to record all sites so we can prioritise our resources and keep track of progress. Since 2011, we have treated nearly a quarter of rho-dodendron sites, but the work is difficult and can be dangerous: At Garry Falls, large bushes grew on vertical crags and contractors had to use ropes to stay safe whilst working on clearance. Today, rare lichens and bryo-phytes are making a recovery. Near Carradale on the Kintyre peninsula, rhododen-dron is particularly widespread. Contractors have to make many repeat visits to kill regrowth from cut stumps, layered shoots or new seedlings.

Himalayan balsam – This attractive plant is a gar-den escapee and can often be found along river-banks, where it outgrows native grasses and other plant species. Himalayan balsam – This attractive plant is a gar-den escapee and can often be found along river-banks, where it outgrows native grasses and other plant species.

plants. Dana apologized for not remembering the names of all the rhodys they saw...truthfully, if it had been me on the trip, I wouldn't have done any better with the names. Rhodys are beautiful no matter what the name is. There was nothing (NOTHING!) to raffle, so we closed and finished up eating cake and buying cal-endars. Respectfully submitted, Mary Crofts - Secretary - WCARS

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Giant hogweed – A single plant can grow up to 5 metres tall and produces thousands of seeds that get dispersed on the wind. Sap from the plant can cause skin blisters. Children are particularly at risk.

Forestry Commission, Scotland

75TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE AMERICAN RHODODENDRON SOCIETY CELEBRA-

TION. PORTLAND, OREGON, APRIL 30 TO MAY 3, 2020.

PLAN AHEAD FOR THE FUN. The American Rhododendron Society was formed in 1945 in Portland, Oregon and is incorporated as an Oregon corporation. The 66th Anniversary of ARS was held in Portland, Or in 2011 with a wonderful program and Spring tours. Harold and Nancy Greer and Mike and Maria Stewart organized an out-standing event. The Greer's and Stewarts are again organizing the ARS 75th Anniversary event for April 30 to May 3, 2020 with a wonderful hotel and ex-ceptional speakers and tours. Mark the date on your calendars or in your mind, and be ready for the fun.

Wally Reed - President

SADLY, MORE PASSINGS – TAMMY MALBY Tammy Malby passed away Saturday, November 10th. Tammy had cancer for a number of years and she and Dana have been living life to the fullest. The were in Milwaukee, Wisconsin attending a Green Bay Packers game at Lambeau Field. Enjoying Packers games were on Dana’s bucket list and he had ar-ranged a surprise tailgate party for Tammy. Sadly, Tammy suffered a major trauma event related to her cancer and passed away before the game. Dana and the family are doing as well as they can under the circumstances, and Dana presented a talk to our WCARS November 14th Chapter Meeting on the fun Tammy and Dana had had in New Zealand last No-vember at the New Zealand Rhododendron Associa-tion conference. Dana is a Charter Member of our Willamette Chapter ARS from 1978. Tammy was a wonderful supporter of our Chapter and of Dana, especially when he became our current Treasurer. Tammy is greatly missed and fondly re-membered. All our love to Dana and the Malby fam-ily.

There will be a celebration of life at Belcrest Memo-rial Park, 1295 Browning Ave. south in Salem Ore-gon, on Saturday, December 1st at two o'clock. Dana and Tammy’s home address is: 3910 Brooks Ave. NE Salem, OR 97303-4024 T h e i r p ho n e a nd e - ma i l s a r e : 50 3 - 3 9 3 -64 6 3 tdsamal@msn.com

Wally Reed - President

SPRING 2019 CHAPTER FIELD TRIPS Keith White is organizing field trips for our Wil-lamette Chapter ARS for this coming Spring 2019. The first one being planned will be to the Bishops Close in Portland, OR, the Episcopal Bishops residence. That trip might be combined with visits to Crystal Springs and Smith Garden. Stay Tuned.

2019 RHODODENDRON SPECIES BOTANICAL GARDEN CALENDERS $15

AVAILABLE DECEMBER 2ND AT THE WCARS POTLUCK.

Greetings: From Keith White, chairman of the RSBG Photography Committee. Every year we produce a calendar. Below are comments of Britt Board, in charge of volunteers, marketing et al general coordi-nator of everything at the RSBG. I am forwarding this on to you in the hope that members of your chapter will order some calendars to help support and publicize the RSBG. Please pass this on to your chapter members. (Last Tuesday the Tualatin Chap-ter purchased 15 calendars) To order phone RSBG at 253-838-4646 ext. 110

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gift shop open Thursday through Sunday. Or just 253-838-4646 if no answer at the gift shop. Or Email at: info@rhodygarden.org The calendar features rare plants, photos of plant hunting adventures, garden landscapes, and lus-cious macro shots of rhododendrons. All of the pho-tos are courtesy of talented volunteers and staff. Order yours over the phone or pick one up at the Visitor Center of the RSBG. 100% of the proceeds support conservation and education, the corner-stones of the RSBG’s mission. Thanks again, Keith,

If you love rhododendrons, you’ll love Bergen, Norway.

The King of Shrubs loves the acidic soil and fre-quent, but gentle rainfall here. The second most populous city in this Scandinavian coun-try, Bergen receives about 77 inches of precipitation a year, spread lightly over 230 days. Winters are much milder than one would expect when thinking of Norway, and the summer sun, which lasts up to 19 hours in June and July, makes for an exceptional growing climate. The flowers and gardeners love it.

The first botanical garden was established as a part of the Natural History Museum at the University of Bergen in 1887, long before many cities in the U.S. had paved streets or indoor plumbing. It was used as a teaching and research tool with just about 700 plants in the early days. Today, the Museum Gar-den, as it’s known locally, has about 3,000 species, many collected in the wild from throughout Norway

and around the world. The focal point of the garden is a square pond filled with water lilies, surrounded by rhododendrons, hostas and seasonal ornamentals. Perennials, such as honeysuckle, English ivy and climbing hydrangea cover the lattice work on the sides of the historic buildings.

Among the interesting aspects of the Museum Gar-den is the burial site of Gerhard Armauer Hansen. The name doesn’t mean much to gardeners, but Hansen is renowned in the medical community as the researcher who identified the cause of leprosy, more accurately known today as Hansen’s Disease. A native of Bergen who did much of his research at the university, Hansen was president of the Univer-sity Museum at the time of his death, thus his grave, surrounded by pink miniature rose bushes, is in this garden. On the second floor of the museum with a lovely terrace overlooking the garden is the Christie Café, named for Wilhelm Christie, considered the father of the University of Bergen. The café serves a light lunch, lovely pastries and coffee and includes a fire-place for those days when the Bergen skies bring a chill. At just 3.5 acres, the Museum Garden was quickly surrounded by the city of 275,000 people and expansion became necessary, but impossible in

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Merry ChristmasMerry ChristmasMerry ChristmasMerry Christmas

its current setting. Fortunately, the University Arbo-retum, established in 1971, about 20 minutes south of Bergen near the village of Milde, has plenty of acreage for an expanded botanical garden.

Here you’ll find the world’s largest collection of Nor-dic rhododendron and Norway’s largest collection of roses, along with dozens of trees and shrubs show-casing the botany of many of the world’s countries. Dedicated areas include a Japanese garden, alpine garden, heather garden, useful plants, and a sunny meadow that features summer annuals. It’s a gor-geous destination with 125 acres of walking paths, lakes, ponds and a view of the bay beyond. The Blondehuset Café is open only on weekends. Take a picnic if you visit during the week. It will be a highlight of your visit to Norway. WHEN YOU GO: The Museum Garden is about a 20 minute walk from the cruise ship port (Vaagen), past a city park and pond called Lille Lungehardsvant, up the hill via a street known as Christie’s Gate. As you walk, look for the small garden behind the public library on Stromgaten. You’ll need to rent a car, or take public transporta-tion or Uber to reach the Arboretum and Botani-cal Garden at Milde. It is open 24 hours a day with free admission. Although Norwegians speak English quite fluently, most of the signage at the Museum Garden is in Norwegian. However, at the Arboretum, signs are in multiple languages, including English. In addition to the Museum Garden and Arboretum and Botanical Garden, you can’t leave Bergen with-

out having visited the Bryggen World Heritage Site. With buildings dating to the 14th century, this site documents a lifestyle and time when Bergen was a center for international trade. It’s an open air attrac-tion with free admission. Be sure to explore back through the alleyways of the heritage site to find some wonderful little restaurants and gift shops.

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ONLINE SHOPPING AND THE ARS STORE

A REMINDER TO HELP FUND THE ARS Anytime you shop online for just about anything, please consider first going through the American Rhododendron Society Online Store. The ARS Online Store is reached by

the link: http://arsstore.org/ On this site you will find a very wide range of merchants who have agreed to give the American Rhododendron Society a referral fee of 4% to 25% on each sale "referred" by ARSStore.org. Just use a link from the ARS Online Store site to go to a merchant’s site and buy something like you normally would. You get the same low price and help the ARS. Wally Reed - President

MONTHLY EVENTS EUGENE CHAPTER

Campbell Senior Center 155 High Street, Eugene, OR Second Thursday Oct to May at 7:30 pm

SIUSLAW CHAPTER First Presbyterian Church 3996 Highway 101,

Florence, OR Third Tuesday of the month at 7 pm.

PORTLAND CHAPTER All Saints Episcopal Church

4033 SE Woodstock Ave, Portland, OR Third Thursday, and the program begins at 7 pm.

SALEM HARDY PLANT SOCIETY First Tuesday of the month 7:00pm

Salem Heights Community Hall 3505 Liberty Road S.

OREGON TRAIL IRIS SOCIETY Center 50+

2615 Portland Rd. NE Third Tuesday of the month 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm

TUALATIN VALLEY CHAPTER First Tuesday of the month at 7 pm Washington County

Fire District 2 31370 NW Commercial Street North Plains, OR 97133

DISTRICT 4 CHAPTER WEB SITES Arswillamette.org

eugene-chapter-ars.org rhodies.org (Portland)

siuslawars.org sworegonars.org

tuatitinvalleyars.org All other web sites can be found on

rhododendron.org Under chapters under web sites

All ARS Bulletins are now available on line at:

http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/JARS/

Willamette Chapter Officers President: Wally Reed.........…...503-588-3666 V-President: Programs Chair: Keith White ……….…..503-363-2815 Secretary: Mary Crofts….… .…...503-838-4122 Treasurer: Dana Malby ……….... 503-393-6463 Librarian: Dick Lundin .......…...503-585-8439 Newsletter: Editor: Dick Lundin .......……503-585-8439 Print. & Mail: Dick Lundin .......…...503-585-8439 Board Members: Tom Bailey ........…...503-364-7741 Bill Vagt ………………..503-581-8654 Susan Doellinger …..503-838-4884 Greeter Susan Doellinger…...503-838-4884 Past President: Chuck Dehn.......…...503-362-9217 Web Site

Vulcan Predominate Flower Color: Red

Flower/Truss Description: Flower openly Funnel-shaped, vivid red, unmarked. Held in dome-shaped trusses of about 10 flowers. Several different clones

sold under this name. Fragrant: No

Bloom Time: Late Midseason Foliage Description/Plant Habit: Leaves 43/4” long, acute apex, cuneate base, dark green. Mounding

habit. Afternoon filtered light is preferred. Height: 5 feet in 10 years.

Cold Hardiness Temp: -15F (-26°C) Parentage (Seed Parent x Pollen Parent): Mars x

Griersonianum Elepidote (E) or Lepidote (L): E

Hybridized or Selected By: Waterer, J.