Western New York State Chapter

Contact: Veronica Dapp
4036 Willodale Avenue
Blasdell, NY 14219-2722

Regional Ivy Collection
The Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Gardens
2655 South Park Avenue Buffalo, New York 14218
Visit the Gardens call 716-827-1584

Ivy Show September 25 - October 3
The Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Gardens, above, will celebrate the facility’s Victorian heritage and display the world’s largest public ivy collection during Victorian Week and an Ivy Show Sept. 25 through Oct. 3.
The Botanical Gardens is located at 2655 South Park Ave. in Buffalo.
See Details, Click Here

News from the Western New York Chapter
By Ronnie Dapp and Betsy Moll

Between the Vines • Newsletter of The American Ivy Society, Inc. • Winter 2008 Vol. 20 No 3
Please contact AIS for content and image usage. NOT FOR REPRINT IN ANY MEDIA WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION

	Members of the WNY Chapter volunteer their time to care for over 400 ivy cultivars at the Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Gardens. Nearly 100 different cultivars are on display. If you are in Buffalo on Tuesday or Wednesday morning, stop in, ask for Ronnie, and get a tour of the entire collection.

We’d like you to meet some of the members of the WNY Chapter of the American Ivy Society in the photo. These happy volunteers meet every Tuesday morning to care for the large collection of ivy (more than 800 pots) at the Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Gardens.

Starting from the left, we have Lee Schreiner who is active in Garden Clubs in the area and is a Master Gardener for Cornell University Cooperative Extension. Lee has become our “go to” person for topiary problems. Her creativity and imagination have earned her numerous gardening awards, including ribbons at the Erie County Fair for her ivy displays.

Next is Richard Graf (our only male volunteer) whose height is a great asset to our work. Richard can reach tall places and move heavy pots. Because he is a “people person” he is great fun to work with.

To Richard’s right is Carol Porto, Lee’s friend and another Master Gardener who is expert on topiaries. Lee and Carol teach topiary classes for the Gardens.

Ronnie Dapp is on Carol’s right. She is currently serving as President of our local chapter of the AIS. Having begun caring for the ivy collection when most plants were delivered as cuttings in 2002, she keeps inventory records, monitors labeling to assure accuracy, oversees the health and well being of the collection, and makes sure that all of the other volunteers have the information and training they need.

To her right is Fran Parisi, our “quiet one”. But when Fran makes a comment (and if you hear it) it is well worth hearing, usually because it is extremely funny.

Next to Fran is Ruth Kaman whom we thank for our flashy aprons. She found them in a catalog; so, we all just HAD to order them. Ruthie takes responsibility for making sure we take our coffee break and got to lunch (typically as a group) on time.
Last, but not least, Betsy Moll is our organizer. Betsy has developed a production schedule spreadsheet to keep us on track, calculating the dates to propagate cuttings so that view will be ready on the “target dates” for sale in the Gift Shop and use in topiaries. Since joining us, she has been elected to the Board of Directors.

We have a few others who joined us after the photo was taken. Pam Borden helps when she can, traveling over an hour one way to reach us. Paula Gonsa is outspoken in her comical way bringing laughter to our group. She likes to talk to the ivy; it seems to help!! Our newest volunteer, Carolyn Witkowski finds herself hooked on ivy just like the rest of us.

The most frequent comment from newcomers is: “I never knew there were so many different beautiful ivies.” We are continually weeding, repotting, propagating, and debugging the ivy. After working with the ivy for a while there is a problem. You find you can’t stay away – which is a good thing!