Gulf Hills Garden Club, Ocean Springs, MS, Christmas in July?

Gulf Hills Garden Club, Christmas in July?

Well it's not quite Christmas in July, but it is Christmas ornaments in July.

The Stavros family of eight children: Austin, Rebecca, Rachel, Zachary, Mark, David, Joshua, and Samuel are from Pensacola, Florida. 

For years now the family has come to the Gulf Hills hotel with their parents for their summer vacation.

This year with Pat, a Gulf Hills Hotel employee, They took on an arts and crafts project using a "ton" of glitter!

They made 20 plus over-sized Christmas tree ornaments, that will be hung from the trees of the memorial garden in Gulf Hills for this coming holiday seasons annual Christmas tree lighting in December.

We would like to thank these talented and energetic crafters for their excellent contribution to this years Christmas tree lighting ! Truly a job well done!

The wooden ornament cut-outs were generously donated to the our garden club by Pat DeHaan and the Gulf Hills Hotel.

All are invited to attend the lighting ceremony in December. 

Please check this blog in December for date and time of the lighting ceremony.

Gulf Hills Garden Club December Silent Auction, Luncheon, Christmas Tree Lighting

The Gulf Hills Garden Club held its Annual December Silent Auction and luncheon.  Our hostess Molly and her crew, Michael, Doris, Tem and Brenda provided a sit down meal of roast pork, wild rice and a warm pear salad. There were petite fours and crème puffs for dessert.  The goal for the auction was met and surpassed by $300.00.  Proceeds will be used to maintain the Memorial Garden.

The Annual Christmas Tree Lighting was enjoyed by the club members and many neighbors.  Sue and her garden committee decorated the trees with the help of Lee Vance, who can climb any tree, and Bob Manley, who provided lovely handmade lighted orb decorations.   Molly and Margaret provided the Christmas Cheer and table decorations.  Other club members provided tasty cookies and holiday treats.   It was nice to meet so many of our new neighbors that joined in the festivities.  The lights received an overwhelming round of “oohs and ahs” of approval from the group.  If anyone would like to donate lights or decorations, please contact a club member.
The Gulf Hills Garden Club wishes everyone a very Merry Christmas and much happiness in the New Year.

The Gulf Hills Garden Club of Mississippi Presents Aleurites Fordii The Tung Oil Tree

Have you ever seen such wonderful flowers!

The elegant flowers in the image below are from a Gulf Hills Garden Club member, who is fortunate enough to have a small grove of graceful Tung Oil Trees growing in their garden.

 The Tung Oil Tree(Aleurites fordii) is also known as the Chinawood Tree and this is the tree that tung oil comes from.

The large (poisonous) seeds of this tree are pressed for the oil, which is then used in the manufacture of lacquers, varnishes, paints, linoleum, oilcloth, resins, artificial leather, felt-base floor coverings, and greases, brake-linings and in cleaning and polishing compounds.

It is said that during World War II, the Chinese used tung oil for motor fuel.

This tree has a very long history, having been cultivated in China for at least 2,000 years and more recently in modern times traveling all the way to the Gulf Coast of the United States.

Tung oil has been a major industry here on the Mississippi Gulf Coast as can be testified to by an article about tung oil on the website of the Biloxi Historical Society.

For more information on tung oil take a look at the Tung Oil entry at WikipediA

Our Tung Oil Flower images were taken back in April of 2014.