Meg Loncharic: Garden photos provide solace during pandemic

For many months now, Glenwood Association Gardeners Club members have shared emails and pictures of the many wonderful moments in their gardens during the coronavirus pandemic. Gardeners have found comfort during this time in retreating to the outdoors to wrestle, uninterrupted, with the devastation happening in the world today and the uncertainty of what the future might hold for so many people.

Instead of in-person gatherings for meetings and garden walks, which are typically in May and June, email exchanges have been the method used due to COVID-19.

Lourdes Romano-Jana, the club’s founding member who has kept everyone together these past 14 years, discovered spectacular wildflowers along Presque Isle State Park’s bayfront walkway. She took photos to email for all to share. Romano-Jana is a retired medical doctor originally from Manila, Philippines. One of her friends, who retired to Nevada, sent her photos of cacti flowers with some spectacular sunrise pictures taken during an early prayer walk. The friend also sent a box full of bulbs she dug from her garden. Hopefully, the begonias and surprise lilies will appear in Romano-Jana’s own garden next spring.

Club member Claire Giardina included in her email a photo of her 3-year-old granddaughter, Eleanor “Edie” Foy, observing a freshly picked squash in the family garden in Seattle, Washington. The squash came from a seedling that Edie had helped plant last spring. Her grandmother said she was surprised to see that something happened.

Giardina said her interest in gardening was inspired by a summer planting project in her grade school years.

Georgiana Ely shared a picture of her granddaughter, Lila Cotterill, 7, inspecting a mushroom formation she discovered during a picnic with Grandma near West Grandview Boulevard and Wood Street.

Ely’s photo of a white arbor with a striking climbing red rose did much to perk up spirits.

Judy King sent members wonderful photos of a colorful mass of flowers and impactful messages.

Mary Thieman, a certified Master Gardener, organized an impromptu garden walk with COVID-19 protocols in place, and sent out an unforgettable photo of a swallowtail on top of an outreaching butterfly bush flower from member Tauna Hunter's garden. Thieman is looking forward to new member Trish Dahlkemper’s garden being completed for a possible future garden walk. What’s more, Thieman dug a lot of daylilies from her garden and planted them along Glenwood’s Glen Drive for a club beautification project this year.

Glenwood Association Gardeners Club members not only shared their cultivated buds and blooms via emails among members but also with faraway friends who enjoy the practice as well.

Susan Barry sent a photo of her Zen garden on Amelia Island, Florida, and wrote about her leisure walks along the beach. Clare Dana shared shots of potted garden produce from Jupiter, Florida, whereas Darlene Wawrejko emailed photos of a herd of deer searching for food at her backdoor in Pittsfield.

Established in 2006, Glenwood Association Gardeners Club lists some 30 active as well as inactive members and affiliates who relocated but kept in touch. Previously, meetings were held monthly for members at different private homes.

Surely the email contributions have served to brighten lives during the pandemic.

Watch for another column profiling an organization that is part of the Erie County Council of Garden Clubs. Fair View Garden Club is in its 92nd year of operation. I was surprised to learn that 33 of its 75 members have Erie mailing addresses. However, most appear to reside on the cusp of Fairview Township and in Erie in the neighborhoods around Kahkwa and Lake Shore.

POSTSCRIPT: Especially now when views are becoming polarized, we must work to understand each other across political, religious and national boundaries. – Jane Goodall (b. 1934), British primatologist, anthropologist and activist.

Meg Loncharic can be reached at newsmeg@aol.com.