April Newsletter 2017
The History of Ornament in Gardens
Barbara Keathley
Our April speaker, Barbara Keathley, ASLA, is the Principal of Barbara Keathley Associates. Her firm specializes in residential design.
Barbara is a graduate of the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, with a Masters in Landscape Architecture.
She has been in Memphis since 1963. She is married to Roy Keathley, has two children and two grandchildren.
Upcoming Events
April meeting: Tuesday, April 4th in the Goldsmith Room at the Memphis Botanic Garden, 6:30 pm
Please bring a friend and a dish and to share with members and friends!
May: Hanna Underhill
June: Picnic & Movie
July: Dr. John Byrd
Aug: Caroline Brown
President’s Letter
by Martha Garner
March’s First Ever Rare Plant Sale was an outstanding success. We had over 60 plants to be auctioned and every plant was sold. We are still working on the numbers from the plant sale but total sales were over $2400. A big thank you to everyone who worked so hard to make this a very successful event. Special thanks go to Melissa and Robert for chairing this event. It took team work to make this event wonderful from the hospitality ladies, to members working the check-in tables, members working the auction tables, and our treasurer taking payment. Thank you again.
Also our corporate membership is increasing. I hope to announce our new corporate members at our April meeting and we are working to have our corporate members listed in our newsletter. I ask our members to support our corporate members and also businesses that donated plants to our plant sale.
April will be our plant exchange month. The board is looking at a few changes to our plant exchange. So please bring a plant to share for the April meeting. We will vote at our April meeting to amend our Bylaws to include a Second Vice President position.
History of the Easter Bonnet
“A hat is a flag, a shield, a bit of armor and the badge of femininity. A hat is the difference between wearing clothes and wearing a costume; it’s the difference between being dressed and being dressed up; it’s the difference between looking adequate and looking your best. A hat is to be stylish in, to glow under, to flirt beneath, to make all others seem jealous over and to make all men feel masculine about. A piece of magic is a hat.” – Martha Sliter
If a hat is a piece of magic, one can only assume the otherworldly qualities of a bonnet. Composer Irving Berlin brought the Easter Bonnet into American pop culture in 1933 with his ballad “Easter Parade,” a chronicle of the annual Easter Sunday pilgrimage from St. Patrick’s Cathedral, down Fifth Avenue in New York City.
In the English tradition, the notion of getting new clothes on Easter to signify inner growth and renewal dates back to Shakespeare. Following forty days of Lent, filled with drab outfits reflective of a collective “abstention,” Easter Sunday lifts the fog not only in spirit, but also in our wardrobe.
In the States, it wasn’t until post-Civil War society, towards the latter 1870s, when women and children marching in Easter Parades replaced dark-colored mourning smocks with brighter clothing. By the early twentieth century, Americans became more and more invested in the Easter outfit—the hat, in particular. Because Easter coincides with seasonal fecundity, women garnered fresh flowers to wear in their hair and in their bonnets. Lilies, daffodils, azaleas with their red, pink or even crème colored blooms, Hyacinths, purple and white, as well as pussy willows and red tulips are considered traditional Easter flowers.
If fresh flowers weren’t available, women would adorn hats with flowers made from paper, as well as ribbon, fabric feathers, sea shells and pine cones. The popularity of the Easter Bonnet peaked in 1948 when Judy Garland serenaded Fred Astaire with Irving Berlin’s “Easter Parade” in a film by the same name. In this number, Garland, who dons a white organza Derby Hat with pink and violet rosettes, makes there seem no place as grand on Easter Sunday as Fifth Avenue in New York City. By now, the Easter Bonnet has become a relic, albeit a delicate and artisanal one, of cosmopolitan splendor.
Easter Bonnets can be whimsical, fantastical, with a hint of fabulist narrative, whether religious, seasonal or cultural, all adding to the magic of the hat.
Scrape’s Trivia
- April starts on the same day of the week as July in all years.
- April 1st was used to celebrate the birth of Christ up until 350 when Pope Julius I declared that the birth of Christ would be celebrated on December 25th.
- Anglo-Saxons called the month Eastre Monath or Eastremonath. The name of the Christian Festival of Easter comes from this word.
- April’s Full Moon is known as the Full Pink Moon because it heralded the appearance of wild ground phlox or moss pink, one of the first spring flowers. It is also known by many other names that announce the arrival of spring, including the Sprouting Grass Moon, the Egg Moon, and the Fish Moon.
- How the origins of April Fools’ Day are uncertain, but many agree that it may have started in 1582, when France switched to the Gregorian calendar and moved New Year’s Day from March 25 back to January 1. Prior to this change, the New Year’s celebration had begun on March 25 and ended on April 1. Those who were unaware of the change were called April fools.
- In the USA a list compiled by the Social Security Administration in 2009, found April to be the 353rd most popular girl’s name.
- April is known as Keep America Beautiful Month, along with Garlic Month, BLT Sandwich Month, Grilled Cheese Month, Lawn and Garden Month, National Humor Month, Pecan Month and Confederate History Month, just to name a few.
Quotes Worth Quoting
“The first of April is the day we remember what we are the other 364 days of the year.”
—Mark Twain“Anyone who has a bulb has spring. Bulbs don’t need much light; they don’t need good soil; and they don’t need cosseting. They are, in fact, the horticultural equivalent of cats; self-contained, easycare, and supremely suited to living in New York.”
—Author Unknown“I love spring anywhere, but if I could choose I would always greet it in a garden.”
—Ruth Stout“Every spring is the only spring – a perpetual astonishment.”
—Ellis Peters“Poor, dear, silly Spring, preparing her annual surprise!”
—Wallace Stevens“I think that no matter how old or infirm I may become, I will always plant a large garden in the spring. Who can resist the feelings of hope and joy that one gets from participating in nature’s rebirth?”
—Edward Giobbi