FLEUR DE LIS GARDEN SOCIETY
Volume 5, Issue 21
www.fleurdelisgardensociety.org
Sept. 30, 2012
Calendar
President’s Corner
There are a number of great articles that the
University of Missouri sends out by email to
Master Gardeners.
Here are some of the topics with links:
October Gardening Calendar
Pansies are always in bloom somewhere
See you in the garden,
Elaine
Inside This Issue

President’s Corner, Calendar of
Events,

Tuesday, Oct. 2, 2012, 6:30 pm “Birdseed Cakes”
At this workshop you should bring a large mixing
bowl, spoon and bundt pan/jello mold. Birdseed and
materials will be provided.
1
Thursday, Oct. 4. 2012, 10:30 – 11:30 pm &6:30 –
7:30 pm, Adult Education Series “The Dark Side of
Gardening” A slide show of black flowers and/or
foliage. Register at: www.youranswerplace.org/adults
Officers, committees; Meeting
Photos and Plant it Pink planter 2

The Meadows; Garden Therapy

Birdseed Recipes
3
Saturday, Oct. , 2012, 9 am “5th Annual tree Tour
– Bellfountain Cemetery. Carpool from the St
Charles Police Dept.
4

MCD Invitation to Fall Meeting

Community News
5
Thursday, Oct. 18, 2012, 9 am till 1 pm – Mid-Central
District Fall Meeting in Sullivan, Mo. We will pick up
members who are going at 8 am.
6

The Gateway Gardener

St Charles Adult Education;
Region Awards

Central Region Awards

“A Few Unusual Birds of the
7
Central
8
9
Happy Halloween!
Saturday, Oct. 20, 2012, 8 am – 2 pm; Chestnut
Festival Forest Keeling in Clarksville/Pumpkin
Farm Tour. Carpool from the St Charles Police
Dept.
Sat., Oct. 27, 2012 11 am – 3rd Annual “Mud Ball
Party” after the St Peters Clean Stream event at the
south parking lot behind the old city hall.
http://www.stpetersmo.net/clean-streams.aspx
World”
10 – 11

Clean Stream Event with
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Fleur de Lis Garden Society
SEPT 2012
OFFICERS
President: Elaine Fix
elaine.fix@ingfp.com
Vice President: Jeanne Davis
jkd1030@sbcglobal.net
Treasurer: Charlene Barton
mscbar@yahoo.com
Secretary: Helenna Santurri
hmmmph@gmail.com
Parliamentarian:
OPEN
COMMITTEES
Arbor Day:
OPEN
Birds: Cathy Murphy-Maijer
camm25@charter.net
Bluebird Trail: Don Miller
retireddonmil@yahoo.com
By-Laws:
OPEN
Budget: Charlene Barton
mscbar@yahoo.com
Helena Santurri
hmmmph@gmail.com
Cards/Flowers: Charlene Barton
mscbar@yahoo.com
Citations: Pat Halle
phalle17@hotmail.com
Conservation: Helenna Santurri
hmmmph@gmail.com
E-Newsletter: Elaine Fix
elaine.fix@ingfp.com
Floral Design:
OPEN
Garden Tour: Amy Haake
aghaake@sbcglobal.net
Historian: Frank Dvorak
frdstl@att.net
Horticulture: Frank Dvorak
frdstl@att.net
Membership: Jeanne Davis
jkd1030@sbcglobal.net
Plant it Pink:
OPEN
St. Charles Co. Tree Tour: Pat Halle phalle17@hotmail.com
Trivia Night:
OPEN
Ways & Means:
OPEN
Plant it Pink Sept. 14, 2012
See the drip irrigation!!!
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“Sept. 4 Meeting Photos”
The Meadows in Lake St Louis
Garden Therapy with The Center for Head Injury Services Sept. 13, 2012
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Spooky Pumpkins
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“A Few Unusual Birds of the World”
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Horticulture Report - Arabidopsis: The Model Plant
By
Frank Dvorak, 2012 Horticulture Chairman
Arabidopsis thaliana is a small dicotyledonous species, a member of the Brassicaceae or mustard family. Although closely
related to such economically important crop plants as turnip, cabbage, broccoli, and canola, Arabidopsis is not an economically important plant. Despite this, it has been the focus of intense genetic, biochemical and physiological study for over 40
years because of several traits that make it very desirable for laboratory study. As a photosynthetic organism, Arabidopsis
requires only light, air, water and a few minerals to complete its life cycle. It has a fast life cycle, produces numerous self
progeny, has very limited space requirements, and is easily grown in a greenhouse or indoor growth chamber. It possesses a relatively small, genetically tractable genome that can be manipulated through genetic engineering more easily and
rapidly than any other plant genome.
Arabidopsis, like all flowering plants, dehydrates and stores its progeny at ambient temperature for
long periods of time. This fact, together with a newly developed means of creating gene knockout
lines, has made many basic biologists realize that Arabidopsis may be the best model system for
basic research in the biology of all multicellular eukaryotes. A complete knockout collection of Arabidopsis seeds can be housed in a room no larger than a closet (see photo); to create and store a
similar library of knockouts for mouse, flies and worms would be much more laborand space intensive. All together, these traits make Arabidopsis an ideal model organism for biological research and
the species of choice for a large and growing community of scientists studying complex, advanced
multicellular organisms.
Arabidopsis versus plants of economic significance
Why Arabidopsis? Why not concentrate our research efforts and resources on a species
that will actually provide food for our world or useful products for industrial uses? In order to
make the strides necessary to increase crop production in a relatively short time, we have
to be able to move forward quickly and spend the available human and financial resources
as efficiently as possible. This is the advantage of a model system: an organism that is
easily manipulated, genetically tractable, and about which much is already known. By studying the biology of Arabidopsis, the model plant, we can gain comprehensive knowledge of
a complete plant. In the laboratory, Arabidopsis offers the ability to test hypotheses quickly
and efficiently. With the knowledge we gain from the model plant thus established as a reference system, we can move forward with research and rapidly initiate improvements in
plants of economic and cultural importance.
One advantage offered to the plant researcher by Arabidopsis is its relatively small genome
size. Many crop species have large genomes, often as a result of polyploidization events
and accumulation of non-coding sequences during their evolution. Maize has a genome of
approximately 2400 Megabase pairs (Mbp) – around 19 times the size of the Arabidopsis
genome – with probably no more than double the number of genes, most of which occur in
duplicate within the genome. The wheat genome is 16000 Mbp – 128 times larger than ArPhoto credit: Luca Comai,
abidopsis and 5 times larger than Homo sapiens – and it has three copies of many of its
University of Washington, USA
genes. The large crop genomes pose challenges to the researcher, including difficulty in
sequencing as well as in isolation and cloning of mutant loci.
Photo credit: Mike Sussman,
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Evidence from the rice genome project suggests that the Arabidopsis genome may be missing some homologs of genes present in the rice genome. Despite this, most of the difference in gene number between Arabidopsis and crop species appears to result from
polyploidy of crop species’ genomes, rather than from large classes of genes present in crop species that are not present
in Arabidopsis. Therefore, the genes present in Arabidopsis represent a reasonable model for the plant kingdom. However,
it is clear that Arabidopsis represents a starting point rather than the finish line for utilizing the full power of genomics for
crop improvement.
University of Wisconsin
Read the rest of the article at http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2002/bio0202/model.htm
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Fleur de Lis Garden Society Minutes (Amended)
August 7, 2012
The meeting of the Fleur de Lis Garden Society was called to order by President Elaine Fix at 7:05 pm at the new Spencer Road Library.
In attendance were Charlene Barton, Jeanne Davis, Rita Surgeon, Frank Dvorak, Cathy Murphy-Maijer, Pat Halle, and special guest Diane
Kaufmann.
The group pledged allegiance to the flag.
Elaine thanked Cathy Murphy-Maijer for being the hostess at the meeting. Many of the delicious items were made with the vegetables from
Cathy’s garden.
Treasurer Charlene Barton gave the Treasurer’s report. The balance in the treasury is $3,196.84. The total includes money from the sale of the
pot kids and Nan raffle tickets. The club has not reimbursed Elaine for some receipts yet, the check for $ 5.75 monthly website charge has not
cleared yet, and $18.22 was spent for pots. Also, a receipt has not been received from Frank yet for the mortar bit used for the pot people.
Copies of the July Executive Committee minutes and meeting minutes had been distributed. The minutes were accepted as printed. It was
noted for the record that there were no meeting minutes reported for the June Society meeting.
The topic of “What plants are doing best in your garden?” was answered by each attendee.
All of the meeting attendees gave their hybridizer reports which will be posted on the FDLGS website.
The pot-people fund raiser was discussed. Nine of the kids are remaining. Some have been taken to Daniel’s Farm & Greenhouse to be sold
there. Frank had been to the Meadows last month and thought there was a good turnout of booths and customers for the FDLGS to consider
having a booth there on a Saturday morning. After further discussion, Rita moved and Jeanne seconded to have a booth at the Meadows
Saturday, August 12. Motion passed.
Elaine started the discussion on Garden Therapy. She met with Lynn Cruse, Recreation Therapist, at the Head Injury Center in the Westport
area. Possible dates were discussed for working with them on a craft project. Decision will be made at the September meeting.
Frank Dvorak gave the horticulture report. His talk was concerning how the drought impacts plants.
Elaine showed an article in the Suburban Journal about the rain garden FDLGS members had planted in St. Peters. Elaine and Charlene had
talked with Bill Malach and Russ Batzel at St Peters about the Clean Stream event and making the mud balls with the children at the event.
Also, Bobby Norfolk would give his presentation as part of the day’s activities. Since Bobby’s fee is $350, Elaine will see if Doug Baur at
Pizzo would be receptive to contribute to the fee. Since the FDLGS received four $ 25 awards, Elaine suggested that the Society pay $100 of
the cost to have Bobby present at the event. Elaine will discuss the timing and location of Bobby’s talk further with St. Peters.
The September 4th FDLGS meeting will be held at the Kisker Library.
Upcoming events include the Butterfly education series at Kisker Road Library on August 9th in the afternoon 2:30 – 3:30 p.m. and in the
evening from 6:30 – 7:30 p.m.
Federation Day is August 15 at
the Missouri State Fair and Jeanne and Elaine will be taking entries.
Adopt a road has been postponed to a later date due to the heat.
The meeting adjourned at 8:30 p.m.
Respectfully submitted
Pat Halle, 2012 Acting Secretary
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