Welcome Our New Member!
The photo of the butterfly and white alyssum was taken by Barbara Crum in her garden.
For a printable copy of the overview of the club given to all new members, click here.
Get to Know New Member, Barbara Kapustka
Barbara and her husband have lived in Houston since the early 80’s but is originally from Nebraska. They have 2 grown children and 2 grandchildren. She and Barbara Crum are friends from church. Barbara K loves to be outside gardening with her flowers and succulents. When she lived up north she grew roses. She loves to do crafts: basketweaving, tole painting, and more. Joined February 2024.
Say Hello to Sharron Schlomer
Sharron is originally from Fort Worth, but has lived in Houston for over 40 years. She met her husband, Lee, and had her 3 children here. She is a member of DAR. She is relatively new to gardening, but is interested in learning more. Barbara Durr invited her to come to our meetings. Sharron and her husband love to travel in their travel trailer. She loves being outdoors-riding her bike, walking the dog, and weeding the garden. Joined January 2024.
Give a nod to our new member Anky Rittenhouse
Anky (pronounced Awwwnky) originally from The Netherlands. She met her Air Force pilot husband, Ray, in Germany in 1972. They came to Houston in 1981. They have 2 twin grandaughters who live in Texas. She is an artist and has taught various forms of art for over 40 years. Anky is currently leading a creative sewing group. She met our members, Margo Propst at the Y and Marilyn Bullen at the sewing guild. Take time to get to know our interesting new member at our next meeting. Joined January 2024.
Welcome our new member, Helen Dixon
Helen has been in Houston since 2007. Her son and two teenage granddaughters live in Lakewood Forest. Helen is in Tomball at Lakewood Park Villas. She is originally from southern California so is having a hard time keeping plants healthy in the Houston climate. She is best with potted plants. In her earlier years she has worked for the telephone company and was flight attendant.
Helen was encouraged to join our club by Harriett Bedenbaugh who she sees at the YMCA. She is active in her church and spends as much time as possible with her grand daughters. Joined September 2023.
Greeting to new member, Sherry Mack
Sherry was encouraged to join our club by Gabriele Klopp. She has been in Houston since the ‘70s. She used to be in the title business, and still helps when needed. Her ‘baby’ is a black pomeranian, named Cody. Since she is in a wheelchair she is not able to do a lot of gardening but heard what a nice group of ladies we are and wanted to get to know us. Sherry is very active in volunteering. She has worked with CAM, is making crocheted baby blankets to donate at Christmas and willing to do anything that is needed. She is anxious to volunteer for our club as well. (She knows computers, ladies!) Joined 2023.
Say Hello to our new member, Bobbie Washburn
Bobbie was encouraged to join our club this summer by MaryEtta Wood and Brenda Lauderdale. She lives in Rock Creek. Bobbie is widowed but has 2two daughters in the area and two granddaughters, aged 2 and 6. She says she is a novice gardener, but would like to learn more. Bobbie loves anything to do with fabrics. She has been quilting for over 20 years and even smocks. She loves decorating and doing crafty things. She walks every morning for at least 2 miles and does yoga. Joined Summer 2023.
Say Howdy to our new member, Mary Windemiller
Mary is a native Houstonian. She, her husband, and 7 year old daughter moved to Lakewood Glen last October. She was raised by her grandparents in Oak Forest. Mary has always loved gardening, especially butterfly gardening. She also loves animals (they have a Great Dane and a kitten) and volunteering at her daughters school. Joined 2023.
Say Hello to Debbie Jones
Debbie has lived in and out of Houston most of her life. (Her dad was in the air force.) She and her husband, Jack, have 2 grown children who are married, and have 5 grandchildren. She is newly retired (last December 2022). Debbie has a cactus garden, a butterfly garden, a lily garden and loads of plumerias. She also has plenty of feeders and baths for the birds. She met Barbara Crum at a retreat and talked about gardening and birds. She loves working with her church and loves to go to their house on the bay. Debbie joined us in the spring and already feels at home and welcomed in our club. Joined Spring 2023.
Greetings to Our New Member, Jayne Wilson
Jayne is originally from the UK, but now lives in Albury Trails Estates in Tomball with her husband. She learned about garden club from Barbara Crum through Houston area Monarch butterfly enthusiasts. She enjoys gardening for the birds, bees and butterflies by maintaining an organic garden, without the use of chemicals and pesticides. Jayne makes good use of plants native to this area so her garden is able to sustain itself without too much interference from her in the summer, allowing her to sit in the shade and enjoy the view. She also enjoys various artistic fields – watercolor, acrylic, art journaling. Joined Spring 2023
Welcome to new member, Susan Hull
Susan is originally from Wales but has moved around a lot, from California, Washington DC, Maryland, Alaska, France, London and 25 years in Scotland. She has been in Houston for 8 years to live near her son and grand daughter. After losing her first husband she remarried a native Houstonian 2 years ago.
Susan gardened wherever she lived, even in Alaska. She had over 200 rose bushes in Scotland. She likes to plant vegetable (especially items she can’t buy at the grocery store), herbs, and butterfly/hummingbird gardens. Some of her other interests are cooking and reading. Susan was a pilot for many years, and owned a four seater aircraft in Scotland, and flew all over Europe.
Joined Feb 2023
Say hello to new member, Patty Haddadin
Patty lives in Longwood with her husband, Russ, and 2 teenage sons. She is originally from Mexico, but has been in the US since she married in 2004. She loves flowers, including plumerias, cacti, succulents, and veggies and would like to learn what varieties do well in our area. Patty is also interested in organic gardening, specifically pesticides and fertilizer. Barbara Crum invited her to join.
Joined Feb 2023
Give a big HOWDY to Denise Lovelace
Denise is originally from Buffalo, New York, but has been in Houston for almost 30 years. She and her husband, Michael, have 3 children aged from a junior at A&M to a 13 year old. She has been Adrienne Juno’s hair stylist for almost 20 years. (and she is FABULOUS!) Denise LOVES anything to do with plants. Besides digging in the dirt, she dabbles in photography (at one time was her business). She and Michael also lead a couples marriage group at their church, St. Timothy Luthern. She joined our gc to be around like minded people. Denise thinks people who love plants have a positive energy about life. Joined 1/2023
Greetings to Marlo Wilson
Marlo has been in Houston since the 90’s. She and her husband Bill live in Prestonwood. They have 3 children, who graduated from Cy Creek, and have 8 grandchildren. She was born in Pittsburgh, but grew up in San Antonio. Marlo retired about 5 years ago but was a technology in math from pre-K to 8th grade school teacher. She does enjoy gardening including fruits and veggies as well as flowers. She learned about garden club through Barbara Crum and Mary Davis. Joined 12/22.
Welcome to our new member, Julie Shushko
Julie and her husband, Mike, moved to Houston and Lakewood Forest subdivision in August 2022. They have 3 boys (triplets) who are grown and living in Florida, North Carolina and Washington DC. Julie grew up in Shreveport, but has lived many places since her husband was active military for 35 years. She likes to workout, cook and collects items from the many places she has travelled. Julie claims no proficiency in gardening but is interested in the Master Gardener program. She loves Houston! Joined 11/22
Greetings to New Member, Brenda Lauderdale
Brenda is originally from Louisiana but has lived in Houston the majority of her life. She and her husband, Charles have 2 children and two grandchildren. She enjoys creating and improving her home garden and propagating plants from cuttings. She enjoys visiting gardens around the world. Brenda joined our club to share her gardening interests and to learn from fellow gardeners. Joined in Jan 2022.
Say Howdy to our newest member, Rica Brock
She has lived in Huntwick Forest for the past eight years but prior to that she raised her daughter, Sara, in Lakewood Forest. Additionally, she is a very rare, native Houstonian. Rica is a retired CPA but works part-time to fund her diy projects. She loves all aspects of gardening except weeding. Her latest gardening interest is raising succulents since she says they are hard to kill. She has many other interests including any type of craft, woodworking, traveling and loves animals of all kinds. Her latest woodworking project was a potting bench. She does a lot of do-it-yourself projects around the house. All by herself, she has remodeled two of her bathrooms in this house and renovated the kitchen in her house in Lakewood Forest. However, her best attribute is that she is Adrienne Juno’s little sister. 😉 Joined Oct 2020.
Welcome, Tammie Delforge
Please help me welcome one of our newest members, Tammie Delforge. She and her husband Dan have lived in the Lakewood Glen subdivision for 30 years. She and Dan worked in Commercial Construction Management. She has also been an event planner and done Wine Demos. They have 4 grandchildren, 3 who live in Illinois. Tammie has recently become very interested in Plumerias, specifically grafting and has a large collection. Her daughter and 3 grandkids came for a visit in March and stayed for 3 months because of the pandemic! Talk about the virus changing our lives. Tammie likes travel, cooking, reading, boating, skiing, and spending time with her two dogs and of course her grandchildren. Joined Sep 2020.
Greetings to Our Newest Member, Teri Cole!
Teri joined our club last March, 2020. She joined to get to know her neighbors and serve the LWF subdivision. Unfortunately her plans were delayed when we got hit with the pandemic. Hopefully she will get a chance to know us soon! She moved to Houston kicking and screaming when she was 10 years old to the Spring Branch School district. She retired last December as a CyFair School Administrator. Teri and her husband, Charley, have one son who has 2 daughters (Cailynn 11 & Brianna 6) who moved here in January. They both attend CyFair Schools. She is a dog lover and has 3 adopted dogs. She loves to go out to eat, design, garden, and read mysteries, books about dogs and other light reading.
Teri looks forward to learning more about gardening from our expert members. Joined Mar 2020.
Help welcome our new member, Barbara Durr
Barbara and her husband, David, have been residents of Lakewood Forest since 1991 and in Houston since 1978. They spend time between Houston, farm property near Natchitoches, LA, and a beach condo south of Dayton Beach, FL. They also love visiting with their three children and 10 grandchildren, and attending as many of the grandkids’ sports/activities as possible.
She retired in 2017 from Toshiba after working for them for 23 years, more recently as a risk management analyst. She was active in American Business Women’s Association (ABWA) and Federation of Houston Professional Women. She loves touring beautiful gardens and watching flower arranging, and reading Christian mysteries. It sounds like she was a risk taker in her past. She has enjoyed snow skiing, water skiing, wave runner/jet skiing, swimming, parasailing – even tried sky diving (tandem). Joined 2019.
Say Hello to our New Member, Gail Bramwell
Gail joined our club in February. She has been married for 28 years and been in Houston 29 years. She grew up in Jamaica. Most of her family is here, but she still has one brother in Jamaica so the family goes for visits regularly.
She and her husband Dale, have 2 girls who are single and teach in the Cy Fair school district. She loves gardening. She says she putters in her yard every morning. She enjoys crafting especially making wreaths. She lives in Schroeder Oaks subdivision. Joined Feb 2019.
Help welcome our new (returning) member, Lois Maier.
Lois is originally from Cincinnati, but has lived in Houston for 35 years. She and her husband of 58 years, Karl, are both retired after owning their own company. They have one daughter, one son and four grandchildren.
She likes all aspects of gardening. In fact, the garden club toured her garden a few years ago. She is a member of the Society for the Advancement of Floral Design
Lois also belongs to the Centrum Arts League and the Women’s Club in Wincrest Falls. Some of her other interests are canasta and bridge. Joined Oct 2018.