Officially Spring is here but the ponds are slow to wake up this year. I plan on starting my pumps and filters at the end of this week with the intention of shutting them down when the weather gets nasty -- like a snowstorm, which still can happen.


There is a huge amount of interest in our Association. I did a presentation to a group of interested water gardeners last Thursday at the Botanical Center and those people were crazy about the subject. I had to hold back my enthusiasm, like I normally do, so that they would not make bad decisions!!?? Anyway, most of the people there (about 20) signed up that they were interested in our Association and will receive this newsletter by snail mail. I am looking forward to seeing their faces at our meetings.


Our next meeting is only a few days away and this is the special meeting that committee member, Doug Riech, and I are working hard on. This meeting is in addition to our normal meeting schedule (the second Monday of the month) and will be held in Des Moines. We are holding this meeting so that we can determine how much interest there is in our Association in this area. We truly want to be a central Iowa group and in order to do this we need more people from Des Moines and the surrounding communities.


The date is April 2 and will be held at 7:00 PM at the Polk County Ext. Office. This meeting is open to all of our members and visitors that are checking us out. The program is on Maintaining Clear Water in Water Gardens and we will be going over my six KEYS to clear water. I have put a lot of effort into this program and I am certain you will benefit immensely from it. Please refer to Doug's invitational letter that he sent out to the water gardeners of the Des Moines area that we knew of. In an additional attempt to promote our Association, Doug and I were on WHO radio last Sunday on the Muhammud Khan's weekly gardening show from 10:00 AM to Noon. It was fun and we did get some response from the listeners, so it was worth it.


Of course, you have probably read about out next meeting on April 9 where we will have the water plant pro himself, Tom Kenney, repotting water lilies. Tom and his wife Marilyn, own Skycrest Gardens and they are easily one of the best locations to buy water plants as well as other, more terrestrial plants for your landscape. I have asked Tom to present to us that night, a list of water plants he will probably have this spring. He also mentioned that if you want a particular water plant he will place those plants on his order list. So, bring your water plant wish list. I want to mention that if you have Tom order plants for you that you are obligated to buy them. Okay?


As you will read Bill Boon's story in the new Leaping Lizzy section, it will be obvious why Bill was the winner of the first ever Lizzy award. Couldn't have happened to a bigger klutz... err rather, a nicer guy. We will be accepting nominations from the members at our April 9 meeting, so that Lizzy can be adopted by some other unlucky water gardener that night. Of course, if we can't find a suitable home for Lizzy that night then Bill will have to baby-sit for Lizzy another 30 days. How's that for an incentive for Bill to dream up or rather remember a story about one of us that will qualify one of us to adopt Lizzy.


Remember the wholesale catalog that Bill Boon brought that had the unique plaques with the fun sayings? There was enough interest in them that we decided that our Association will place an order for them. So, we started the sign-up sheet around that night. Well, it didn't get around the entire room, as a matter-of-fact it didn't even get into the second row very far. Well, we will pass it around again on the 2nd and the 9th. A couple of examples of sayings were "With Fronds like you who needs Anemones" or "Go Ahead - Dig My Clay". There a bunch of them that really are unique. Bring your membership cards so that you can refer to your membership number to write on the order form. You need to be a member to order.


Our Bylaws have been written and have been placed on the web site. So be sure to check those out -- pay particular attention to our Purpose. We are very willing to change this as well as any of the rest of the bylaws, if the membership wants to. For those that are receiving this by regular mail, a copy of the bylaws will be available to check out at the April 9 meeting.


One last item, our membership plant exchange will take place at our Monday, May 14 meeting. Kenn Outzen and Dean Koob are the co-chairs of the exchange and what they and our governing committee have outlined so far is in the Plant Exchange article. Hopefully, our Association will make a few dollars on this so that we can afford to bring in some out-of -state speakers and plan other events. The important item to remember is to save those extra plants in the next month while you are dividing and repotting.


I want to remind everybody that Lisa has a scanner so that any photos that you have of your garden can be transferred to our web site. You will want to include a story about your garden with the photos.


See you at our programs this next month -- they should be very informative and fun. Our business meetings should be really short -- the steering committee met this month to take care of a lot of the "boring" but necessary business.


Jamie -- The Big Toad Acting Like a President