GARDENERS SHARE BLOOMING HOBBY

George Wilmarth cracked a smile as he held a hanging basket planted with an ivy geranium, its pink flowers peeking out from beneath green leaves.

"I love the flowers," said the Cape Girardeau man, one of many customers who took advantage of the SEMO Master Gardeners' plant sale at Arena Park's Conservation Department shelter Saturday to build up their gardens and decorate their porches and homes.

Spring is Wilmarth's favorite season. "It is just the greatest time in the world," he said. "This is kind of what I live for."

Wilmarth's yard is full of vegetables and flowers. He also grows Concord grapes. He made his first batch of wine last year. "This stuff is only eight months old and it is already tasting good," he said.

Wilmarth said he's looking forward to taking a SEMO Master Gardeners' course and joining the group.

The organization is affiliated with the University of Missouri Extension Service and operates a telephone hot line from April through September.

The gardening group has about 250 members spread across eight counties of Southeast Missouri. About 75 of the members live in the Cape Girardeau area.

Don Koehler of Cape Girardeau has been with the group since its inception seven years ago.

"Our purpose is to educate people," said Koehler. "We go through a 13-week training course." Members attend monthly meetings.

Koehler, who retired from the Army and the National Guard, began growing herbs in 1981. He has a garden at his Cape Girardeau home, but also grows herbs, vegetables, fruit trees and bamboo on a 76-acre tract he owns near Fruitland.

"You can eat bamboo," said Koehler. "It is like asparagus,"

Koehler even loves dandelions. His wife makes a pale-yellow jelly out of them.

Koehler isn't alone in his love of gardening.

"More and more people are finding it is a satisfying hobby," said Debbie Naeter, who lives near Egypt Mills in Cape Girardeau County and heads up the Southeast Missouri chapter of Master Gardeners. Naeter's garden keeps her supplied with fresh vegetables.

Anne Foust of Cape Girardeau is also a Master Gardener. Like Naeter, she spent her morning working at the plant sale, a fund-raising event for the gardening group.

The plant sale began at 7 a.m. and lasted throughout the morning. Foust said some customers showed up at 6:30 a.m. just so they could have the first shot at choosing from among the hundreds of flowering petunias, geraniums, ferns, hanging baskets, and herbs such as sage, rosemary and thyme.

Some geraniums are scented. "They come in apple, lemon, mint and rose," said Foust, who loves digging in the dirt. She finds it relaxing.

"There's nothing more therapeutic than chopping weeds," she said. "It's a hands-on hobby."

NEED GARDENING HELP?

Call Master Gardeners Hot Line, 243-3581.

The service is available every Thursday through September, from 4-8 p.m.