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THE SAUGUS ADVOCATE – Friday, June 26, 2020 Page 13 Saugus gardens in the pandemic Here’s what’s blooming in town this week to make your walks more enjoyable By Laura Eisener W e associate the month of June with roses (Rosa species), but we are likely to continue seeing them as the summer goes on. Anywhere you walk in Saugus you will see gardens with roses of many kinds and colors. Red roses are the most abundant, but pinks and whites and other colors can also be found in every neighborhood. Worldwide there are probably more breeders working with roses than with any other kind of ornamental plant. Their goals vary – bigger fl owers, more intense fragrance, unusual colors, easier maintenance and better disease resistance, to mention a few. We see climbers, shrub roses and carpet roses, characterized by the growth habit of the plant. There are single, double and semi-double fl owers based on the number of fl ower petals in each blossom – single fl owers have fi ve petals. Double fl owers have a lot more than 10 – fully double flowers actually have so many petals that the reproductive parts in the center that would produce the rose hip are completely absent. Semi-doubles have a center and often can produce a fruit but have many more than fi ve petals. What gardeners would call “species” roses are those that grow wild somewhere in the world, but what most of us grow are hybrid roses, crosses between more than one speBEAUTY BLOOMS: This beautiful rose garden can be viewed from Walnut Street in Saugus. (Courtesy photos to The Saugus Advocate by Laura Eisner). cies that breeders considered an improvement over wild types. Roses can also be classifi ed by how old the variety is – any hybridized before 1867 can be considered an “Old Garden Rose” while more recent ones are considered “Modern.” European roses generally bloomed in June only and spent the rest of the summer producing the urn-shaped fruits called hips that are very high in vitamin C. Most of the popular roses in gardens today are double and semi-double varieties that can continue blooming all summer, and in our part of Massachusetts often well into December! As old fl owers fade and are removed, new buds are constantly being produced until the ground is frozen. Very few garden plants continue producing blossoms SOUNDS | from page 12 to open its new Drive-In with a family movie night, slated for next Tuesday (June 30), featuring the Steven Spielberg fi lm “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.” Doors open at 7 p.m. and show time is at 8:30 p.m. Admission is $20 per parking spot and $20 per table on the turf; guests can also bring their own blankets and beach chairs for the turf area. The Kowloon Drive-In, in conjunction with Xfi nity, features a 22-feet-high-by-40-feetwide movie screen and space for cars. A full Kowloon menu – featuring pupu platters, Saugus Wings, sushi, egg rolls, Seafood Fantasy to Kowloon Steak, along with soft drinks and signature Scorpion bowls, mai tais, beer, wine and cocktails – will be available at the outdoor dining, drive-in, turf and carhop venue. Movies will continue to be featured on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. A complete movie lineup still in the works and spanning the entire summer will be sent out soon. For a complete schedule, please call (781) 233-0077 or go to the Kowloon's website at www.kowloonrestaurant.com. “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” is the 1982 American science fiction fi lm directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Melissa Mathison. It tells the story of Elliott, a boy who befriends an extraterrestrial named E.T. who is stranded on earth. The fi lm stars Dee Wallace, Peter Coyote and Henry Thomas, and features special eff ects by Carlo Rambaldi and visual eff ects by Dennis Muren. “E.T.” was released on June 11, 1982, by Universal Pictures, and continues to be a family favorite. The Kowloon Restaurant, Car Hop & Drive-In, 948 Broadway, Route 1 North, Saugus, is open daily 11: 30 a.m. to 11 p.m. seven days per week; (781) 233-0077; www.kowloonrestaurant.com. this much of the year in our climate. Many new street trees were planted this week around town. Saugus Action Volunteers for the Environment (SAVE) in partnership with the Saugus Tree Committee received a $20,000 grant from the Foundation Trust to add trees to town sites in Saugus this year. Thirty-fi ve new street trees have been installed. They were planted and staked by Capone Landscaping, Inc. of Wakefi eld, and the Saugus DPW coordinated the project. Rocky Hill Farms in Saugus generously donated mulch for the areas around the new trees. The new trees include red maple (Acer rubrum), apple (Malus ‘Spring Snow,’) tulip tree (Liriodendron tulipifera), American elm (Ulmus americana ‘Colonial Spirit’), Sargent cherry Why bother with Zoom videoconferencing? More than 75 people showed up at Amato’s Liquor Store at 206 Lincoln Ave. on Wednesday night. I kind of wondered whether the neighborhood gathering that was organized by Board of Selectmen Chair Anthony Cogliano posed any potential health hazards to folks who weren’t practicing social distancing, wearing facial coverings or both. I guess time will tell. Or, hopefully, if somebody did catch the Coronavirus for not taking proper health precautions, we’ll fi nd out about it. And, hopefully, if there were people infected with the virus, it won’t be too serious. I don’t know about you, but I am growing weary about the Zoom meetings, especially when it’s a crapshoot as to whether low-tech people like myself are able to insert all the right punctuation, numbers and letters to be able to view the meeting online. FLOWERING TREES: These lovely Japanese tree lilacs on Lynn Fells Parkway attract many bees and butterfl ies. (Prunus sargentii ‘Pink Flair’), Callery pear (Pyrus calleryana ‘Chanticleer’) and ‘Okame’ cherry (Prunus incisa ‘Okame’). Central, Ballard and Saville Streets are a few of the places new trees have been planted. They have been outfi tted with gator bags to lighten the load for the volunteers who will be keeping the trees watered. Volunteers are still needed for some of the trees – please email Nancy Prag at nprag@ localiq if you are able to adopt one or more of the new trees for watering. Japanese tree lilacs (Syringa reticulata) are attractive fl owering trees which can be expected to grow about 25 feet tall. In addition to new ones planted this week on Elm and Central Streets, Saugus has a few older Japanese tree lilacs on Given the fact that Saugus High School has a near-traditional graduation ceremony scheduled for Saturday, July 25 at 10 a.m., I really do think the Annual Town Meeting could have been held this year at Stackpole Field or out on the lawn at Saugus Town Hall. Instead, we’re going to see one of those Zoom meetings set for this coming Monday, June 29 at 7:30 p.m. For those folks who want to do their homework in advance of Monday’s meeting, check out the two-hour-plus Finance Committee meeting by googling Saugus TV on Vimeo (https://vimeo.com/ saugustelevision) and punch into the Wednesday night (June 24) FinCom session. I wasn’t able to watch the Saugus version of “Hollywood Squares” live Wednesday because I was interested in learning more about the controversial veterans housing project for Lincoln Avenue. However, I will try to navigate Zoom so I can watch the Annual Town Meeting on Monday. I got Lynn Fells Parkway. The established trees are blooming now, attracting many bees and butterfl ies. The shape of the fl ower cluster is very much like its relative, the familiar Common Lilac (Syringa vulgaris), but in the tree species the fl ower is white and has a diff erent, less sweet fragrance. Editor’s Note: Laura Eisener is a landscape design consultant who helps homeowners with landscape design, plant selection and placement of trees and shrubs, as well as perennials. She is also a member of the Saugus Garden Club and off ered to write a series of articles about “what’s blooming in town, since so many people have taken to walking the streets in their neighborhoods as a way to get some exercise and get out of the house!” a feeling that more people attended the neighborhood gathering on Lincoln Avenue than will be watching the Town Meeting on Zoom. Stay tuned. It’s going to be a fi scal meeting Unless you enjoy reading about the price tags of Saugus Town government and estimates on how much COVID-19 is going to cost taxpayers, don’t expect a lot of excitement or drama coming out of Monday’s Annual Town Meeting. The primary mission of the 50-member body at 7:30 p.m. Monday night will be to pass a budget for the new fi scal year, which is set to begin on July 1. I always enjoy covering Annual Town Meetings. But without the traditional format that includes a number of zoning Articles on the Town Warrant, I’m sure the meeting won’t get a lot SOUNDS | SEE PAGE 18

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