Boston Flora

Tag: Garden Club Federation of Massachusetts

  • Thursday, October 8, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm – Wrapping Up Your Garden

    The calendar says October, but it doesn’t mean your work in the garden is done. There are four areas you need to concentrate on. Betty Sanders calls them the ‘Must Do’s’, ‘Should Do’s’, ‘Could Do’s’ and ‘Don’t Do’s’.

    Garden writer, lifetime Master Gardener, and President of the Garden Club Federation of Massachusetts Betty Sanders offers a Massachusetts Horticultural Society program on Thursday, October 8 from 7 – 8:30 at Elm Bank that will ensure your garden gets off to a great start next spring. Register at http://goo.gl/UhG3tV

    $10 Mass Hort Members, $15 Non-Members.  Image from www.dailymail.co.uk

  • Monday, September 7, 10:00 am – 12:00 noon – Back to Basics: Designing Principles in Floral Design

    Join the Garden Club Federation of Massachusetts for a series of interactive programs with distinguished Massachusetts designers, demonstrating how to create designs, on Mondays, October 6, November 3, and March 23, at The Espousal Center, 554 Lexington Street in Waltham. The classes will be held from 10 – 12, and the total fee for all three sessions is a mere $30. Make check payable to GCFM, Inc. and mail it to Diane Bullock, 456 Shore Road, Cape Neddick, ME 03902, along with your name, address, telephone number, email address, and Garden Club name.

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  • Monday, July 20 – Sunday, July 26 – Kids’ Games, A Standard Flower Show

    Monday, July 20 – Sunday, July 26 – Kids’ Games, A Standard Flower Show

    The Garden Club Federation of Massachusetts, Inc. Southeastern District presents Kids’ Games, A Standard Flower Show, at the Barnstable County Fair at the Cape Cod Fairgrounds, Route 151, East Falmouth, July 20 – 26.  Fair Hours Monday through Thursday, 4 pm – 10 pm, Friday through Sunday, noon – 10 pm.  For directions, visit http://capecodfairgrounds.com/events/barnstable-county-fair/

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  • Saturday, May 16 – More Plant Sales

    You may have been busy last weekend, but it’s not too late to patronize local Garden Clubs while acquiring good plants for your summer season.  On Saturday, May 16 The Hull Garden Club will present its Annual Plant Sale offering a wide array of succulents, flowering plants and vegetables from 10 am at 3 George Washington Boulevard in Hull.  The Fairbanks Garden Club will offer annuals, perennials, vegetables, house plants, shrubs and garden art at Fairbanks House in Dedham from 9 – noon.  The Boxford Village Garden Club will have over six hundred plants for sale at 2 Elm Street in East Boxford from 9 – 2, and finally the Garden Club of Norfolk will do the same from 9 – noon at Norfolk Town Hill and Gazebo.  For more information visit http://gcfm.org/Calendar-News/Calendar/tabid/77/sortBy/cf7/currentpage/2/Default.aspx. Heuchera image from www.homenursery.com.

  • Saturday, May 9 – Three Plant Sales of Note

    Saturday, May 9 will be a good day to shop.  Beginning at 8:30 am and running until 11:00 am, the Marblehead Garden Club will present its 84th Annual Plant Sale at The Gerry 5 VFA, 210 Beacon Street in Marblehead.  From 8:30 – 2:30 you may also visit the Littleton Country Gardeners Plant Sale at the Common at the intersection of Rtes 110 and 119. Items include perennials, annuals, herbs, vegetables, Mother’s Day Gifts, Fairy Gardens, rock garden plants, moon garden plants, plants native to Massachusetts, cemetery arrangements, Ikebana supplies, attracting bees, butterflies, hummingbirds, and gift certificates to a local farm stand, Larsen Farms, located on Russell Street in Littleton. All proceeds from the Plant Sale are used for year round plantings at 13 civic sites in Littleton, garden therapy projects for senior citizens, garden related workshops, annual third grade Arbor Day programs (each third grade student gets their own tree), Littleton High School Scholarships, and more. And finally, from 9 – 1, the Norwood Evening Garden Club will hold its Annual Plant Sale at Hawes Pool Park next to the Coakley Middle School. Washington Street in South Norwood.  Details of all three events may be found at http://gcfm.org/Calendar-News/Calendar/tabid/77/sortBy/cf7/currentpage/2/Default.aspx. Image of ‘Hardy Blues’ perennial geranium from www.vernonplants.com.

  • Wednesday, May 21, 10:00 am – Floral Fantasy with Marie-Francoise Deprez

    The Garden Club Federation of Massachusetts, Inc. Ruth A. Wallack Fund presents Floral Fantasy with Marie-Francoise Deprez, internationally acclaimed designer, author, international judge and world renowned teacher, on Wednesday, May 21 at 10 am at the Regis College Fine Arts Center in Weston, Massachusetts.  There is limited seating so don’t miss out.  Send a stamped, self addressed envelope with a check ($20 per person) made out to the Garden Club Federation of Massachusetts to: Helga Frazzette, Box 853, Eastham, MA 02642.  For more information email Helga at frazz@comcast.net, or you may email Sue Kaplan at suekflowers@yahoo.com, or Diane Bullock at dbull29441@aol.com.

  • Wednesday, April 22, 10:30 am – 1:00 pm – Metro District Annual Meeting and Luncheon

    The Metro District of the Garden Club Federation of Massachusetts, Inc. will hold its Annual Meeting and Luncheon on Wednesday, April 22, from 10:30 – 1:00 at the Wellesley College Club, 727 Washington Street (Route 16 West), Wellesley.  The featured speaker is Noah Wilson-Rich, Ph.D, Founder and Chief Scientific Officer of The Best Bees Company, LLC.  Parking is available adjacent to the Club, just inside the College’s rear entrance off Route 16.  Additional parking is available in the lot across Route 16, and elevators are available to the 2nd floor dining room.

    Noah Wilson-Rich founded Best Bees Company in his Boston apartment while getting his Ph.D. at Tufts University. Best Bees supplies gardeners and any other interested parties in the Boston area with beehives, as well as the resources, materials and appropriate consultation for their upkeep. This service is a nontraditional means of raising money for research to improve honey bee health. Profits from installing and managing these honey beehives goes to fund Wilson-Rich’s research into bee diseases.

    Dr. Rich will speak at 10:30, followed by lunch at noon.  The menu is butternut squash bisque, chicken Caesar salad, sorbet with fresh fruit, coffee and tea.  $38 per person.  Reservations are due by Wednesday, April 1.  Please make check payable to Garden Club Federation of Massachusetts (GCFM) and mail to Jean McCarthy, 24 Tubwreck Drive, Dover, Massachusetts 02030.  Please note the name of your Garden Club on the check.

  • From the Archives: Flower Arranging

    From the Archives: Flower Arranging

    The Garden Club of the Back Bay is not known as an “arranging” garden club,  although we have always boasted many talented floral designers among our members.  Our primary Club emphasis is tree care, and flower shows are something of a side line activity.  Delving into our Archives, however, we find members have a long history of providing arrangements to local events.

    The Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay gave a supper party for Boston’s City Counselors at the home of Lawrence Perera on Marlborough Street in 1968, and the Garden Club filled the home with bouquets.  During a subsequent Neighborhood Association house tour, Garden Club members decorated the home of host Kitty Winter for the tea associated with the tour.  Mrs. Melvin Johnson created a “particularly interesting flower arrangement” for the Women’s Educational and Industrial Union, formerly located on Boylston Street.  Our presence at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston at Art in Bloom also dates to the event’s inception, and members participate in the Garden Club Federation of Massachusetts competitions at the New England Spring Flower Show.

    This year, guests at our Twilight Garden Party on Thursday, June 4 at The Chilton Club will enjoy more bouquets created for the event by The Garden Club of the Back Bay.  We hope to see you then.

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  • Friday, November 7 – Sunday, November 9 – Autumn Joys: A Standard Flower Show

    The Central North and Central South Districts of the Garden Club Federation of Massachusetts, Inc. present Autumn Joys: A Standard Flower Show, at Tower Hill Botanic Garden, 11 French Drive in Boylston, on Friday and Saturday, November 7 and 8 from 9:00 am – 5:00 pm, and Sunday, November 9, from 9:00 am – 4:00 pm. Free with Tower Hill admission.  Garden Club members will present 60 floral designs, unique botanical arts and crafts, and educational displays.  This show will feature examples of award-winning plants grown in New England gardens and homes.  For more information visit www.towerhillbg.org.

  • Tuesday, October 14, Tuesday, January 13, and Tuesday, April 14, 10:00 am – 12:00 noon – Designing Workshops

    The Garden Club Federation of Massachusetts will present a three part design workshop in 2014/2015, on Tuesdays, October 14, January 13, and April 14, in the Hunnewell Building of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society’s Elm Bank, 900 Washington Street in Wellesley.  The fee for all three sessions is $135, which includes all materials and instruction.  If a registrant cannot make any workshop, he or she may designate another to take his or her place, or may send someone to take the flowers and container home.

    All attendees will need: clippers or floral snippers, a notebook, a box to carry the arrangement home, and a clean-up bag.  If Wellesley schools are closed for snow, the workshop will be rescheduled to the next day.  Mail your check, made out to GCFM, Inc., to Fluffy Winner, PO Box 457, West Falmouth, MA 02574.  Include your name, address, Garden Club name, telephone number, and email address.