Norchester Garden Club Meeting - April 7, 2016

Norchester Garden Club Meeting with speaker Bob Patterson from Southwest Fertilizer Lawn and Garden

Please join us for the next Norchester Garden Club Program on April 7, 2016 at 9:30 a.m. at the Norchester Activity Center, 13439 Jones Rd, Houston, TX 77070.  

All are welcome. Our garden club membership include those from Norchester, Tower Oaks Plaza, Lakewood Forest, Hunters Valley, Anderson Woods, Cypress Forest Estates and Tomball.   

Bob Patterson from Southwest Fertilizer Lawn and Garden will be speaking on organic gardening. He will also answer questions on house plants and tree care (pruning, diseases).

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Welcome Spring

It's wonderful to have a nice back yard in Houston.  We are thankful.... and for the one whose care makes it beautiful.

Program for Children's Groups

One of the on-going projects of the Norchester Garden Club supports our purpose to develop, maintain, and promote the Matzke Park Butterfly Garden. The Children's Program was created to provide a no-charge, hands-on learning opportunity for young children's groups such as: school children, day care children, and children with special needs..  As a registered Monarch Butterfly site and staffed with our volunteers from Norchester Garden Club, children will be able to walk or wheelchair through the garden, listen to a story on the Monarch's life cycle, participate in a scavenger hunt of butterfly life stages and learn to be a good steward of the garden.

 Listen to a story of "Catherine the Caterpillar" (life cycle of Monarch Butterfly).

Available Dates are:  

April 21  9 a m

May 6     9 a m

May 6     11 a m

Please contact Joan at 281-469-3173 for more information and scheduling a time for your group.

Not Monarchs

This information is from texasbutterflyranch.com.  And we thank them.

While we’re waiting for Monarch butterflies to leave their roosts in Mexico and make their way through South Texas, let’s take a moment to appreciate Red Admirals, a striking member of the Linnaeus family.



They show up early in the butterfly season. They host on pellitory and members of the nettles family. In the caterpillar stage, they appear blackish-grey with white flecks and harmless spikes.  Their chrysalis looks like a twisted, gold-dusted dead leaf.

Red Admirals also have a reputation as one of the “friendliest” butterfly species. “Unmistakeable and unforgettable,” reads the description of Red Admirals in the National Audubon Society Field Guide to Butterflies of North America. “The Red Admiral will alight on a person’s shoulder day after day in a garden.” Stories of the small butterflies landing on shoulders, hats and fingers, “riding” with humans are not uncommon. If you think you might enjoy raising Red Admirals at home, check out the free tutorials on how to do so made available by the Association for Butterflies, an educational organization for hobbyist and commercial butterfly breeders.