Garden Club program is growing

Goffstown Editor — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 21:12:00 GMT

The Dunbarton Gardening Club is gearing up to sell residents some bright bulbs – albeit ones that will later grow into flowers.

Club member and Daffodils for Dunbarton program member Donna Dunn said the club is in its third year of a 10-year program designed to display flowers all over high-traffic sections of Dunbarton. By the year 2015, the 250th anniversary of the town, the club’s Web site states that they hope there will be tens of thousands of daffodils in bloom.

In early August, Dunn said club members will start a mass mailing around the town for anyone interested in buying bulbs and helping that goal.

“There’s a big sale coming up with all the bulbs we’ll be ordering directly from Holland. Then we’ll get the bulbs in on Oct. 1, all the bulbs will be delivered by the truckload, and we’ll start breaking them up and sending them where they need to go,” Dunn said.

In addition, she said the gardening group is planning to go door to door and find volunteers for help planting daffodils – the club’s signature flower – around Page’s Corner and Page’s Cemetery. Dunn said the effort is always worth it when vehicles roll by.

“We’re planting flowers in areas people travel quite a bit, first. Cars will literally stop, look at the flowers, and you see them smile,” she said.

The club will also be selling two new types of bulbs, which will join the John Starks and Molly Starks of years past. One will be called the Hadley Heritage, named after Alice Hadley, a chronicler of the history of Dunbarton. The other will be known as Remembrance.

Last year’s planting was at the corner of Clinton Street and Route 77, and those flowers will be blooming again in the spring. Dunn said the planting worked out extremely well last year, and she hopes for similar results from the Page’s planting this year.

Despite the work involved in planting so many flowers, Dunn said the club hasn’t forgotten how to have a good time while doing it.

“We keep adding to this every year, more daffodils for everyone to see. We’re having fun,” she said.

Dunbarton Garden Club and kindergarteners plant daffodils

Bow Editor — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 18:47:00 GMT

By Ryan O'Connor
Staff Writer

The Dunbarton Garden Club, in collaboration with Dunbarton Elementary School, did some digging last week so the school could be more colorful in the spring.

On Thursday, Oct. 19, Donna Dunn, Nancy Rizza and Lara Routhie brought their club’s “Daffodils for Dunbarton” campaign to local kindergartners and taught the children how to plant bulbs in their home gardens.

To demonstrate this, the club and kindergartners planted “baby” daffodil bulbs in the PTO garden in front of Dunbarton Elementary School.

Kindergarten teacher Kim Belanger said planting bulbs fit right into the school’s curriculum, which teaches children about life cycles.

“I think it makes a wonderful connection between the community and the school,” said Belanger “It’s very appropriate that we have a garden that was designed through an artist-in-residence program several years ago.

“The children feel ownership to this garden and it decorates and beautifies not only the school’s property, but the garden for the townspeople as they drive by as well.”

Dunn said the garden club specifically saved the tiny baby bulbs from this season’s offerings and nicknamed the John Stark bulbs “John Jrs,” the Molly Stark bulb’s “Mini-Mollys,” while the Burnham Beauty bulbs were called “Baby Burnhams.”

The garden club recently re-energized its original 1935 objective, said Dunn.

“Some of us had never even seen it, but part of the objective was to work with the kids in the school. So, it’s appropriate that we get together with the school once or twice a year to work on a small project,” she said.

Routhier, who Dunn described as an enthusiastic new member to the garden club, has a son in the morning kindergarten class and also brought her younger son along.

“They loved it,” Routhier said. “They’re boys, so they dig dirt.”

“It’s appropriate that we planted the baby bulbs and the kindergartners are the youngest in the school,” said Routhier.

Belanger said the planting gave her students a feeling of doing something meaningful.

“They were really excited, not only to be part of something with the garden club, but also because they know that even though they are the youngest ones here, they are still part of the school community,” she said. “That’s really exciting to a 5- or 6-year-old child.”

As a special surprise, each child received a gift-wrapped package containing a larger bulb to bring home to plant with their parents.

Dunbarton news : gardening

Garden Club program is growing

Dunbarton Garden Club and kindergarteners plant daffodils