The Garden Club Federation of Massachusetts invites you to its 97th Annual Meeting at the Andover Doubletree Hotel, 123 Old River Road in Andover, on June 13. Keynote speaker is author Patterson Webster, whose topic is Learning to Look: The Art of Garden Observation. For registration details and complete information visit www.gcfm.org/
The Framingham Garden Club presents a Zoom program on April 30 on what garden therapy is and how an organization can begin its own program. Learn how to:
• Set up a program in your community to teach floral, herbal, or other arrangements to people with medical, physical, cognitive or social needs
• Expand club member’s knowledge of floral design by teaching others
• Create a positive learning experience for others in your community using the power of flowers.
Free to members of any Garden Club Federation of Massachusetts Clubs. Register at https://www.gcfm.org/events-1/garden-therapy-webinar-hosted-by-gcfm-1
FUNdamentals of Floral Design, formerly known as “Back to Basics” with the Garden Club Federation of Massachusetts, is back in a new location, the first floor meeting room at the Plymouth Library (the Fehlow Meeting Room). Demonstrations are led by experienced floral designers, who are National Garden Club (NGC) Flower Show Judges.
Instructors teach mechanics of creating a design in an appropriate container. Demonstrations emphasize the principles and elements of design. Learn about traditional and creative designs. Understand what judges look for in a design, and how they award ribbons (we know it’s not just about the ribbons but let’s be real, winning is fun.) Gain confidence and insight of how to enter a flower show. FUNdamentals is a series of three demonstrations for novices, or for anyone who wants to recharge skills, or pick up tips from experts. The dates are October 2, April 17, and June 26. Sign up for all three or for an individual session. $60 for the series, $25 for single class. Mail check payable to GCFM, Inc. (old school, here) to Nancy Costa, 130 Knott Ave, Sandwich, MA 02563. Include your name, address, phone number, email, and Garden Club affiliation. Not a member of a GCFM Club? Consider joining The Garden Club of the Back Bay
The Garden Club Federation of Massachusetts will conduct a Flower Show School Course II: Growing, Staging, Exhibiting, and Judging, on April 12 – 14, featuring one of our own members, Kaye Vosburgh, along with Cathy Felton, as instructors. The event will take place at the DoubleTree by Hilton at 11 Beaver Street in Milford, Massachusetts.
Kaye Vosburgh has a B.S. in Biology and a Masters in the Art of Teaching. She is an NGC Master Judge and a Design and Procedure Instructor. Kaye has chaired several award winning Standard Flower Shows and won numerous awards in the New England Spring Flower Show. She is a member of 3 garden clubs, including the one she started with her Master Gardener co-workers. Kaye is a Sogetsu Ikebana Instructor of the highest rank, Riji. She has demonstrated throughout the Central Atlantic Region, at CFAA in Florida and in Ecuador. Kaye’s favorite activity is sharing creative moments with other designers and students.
Cathy Felton has a B.S. in Zoology and has studied at the former Landscape Institute of Harvard University, but a love of horticulture led her into the garden club world which now includes lecturing and teaching. She is a Garden Club of America Horticulture Judge; American Daffodil Society Judge; and Chairman of the American Daffodil Society Judging School; and a Master American Hosta Society Judge. Cathy has served on the National Garden Clubs, Inc. (NGC), national board as Horticulture Chairman and Vice Chairman of Gardening Study Schools. She is also an NGC Master Flower Show Judge and Horticulture Instructor for flower show schools, and a member of both the Hamilton-Wenham Garden Club and the the North Shore Garden Club in MA.
To register, contact Ruth Gorman at Ruth.Gorman3@gmail.com.
The Garden Club Federation of Massachusetts presents Nancy Costa with Holiday Designs for Your Home on December 10 at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, 320 Boston Post Road in Weston. $10, which includes a lucky raffle ticket. Register at www.gcfm.org. Nancy will demonstrate two fabulous holiday designs you can do at home.
Nancy Costa is a National Garden Club Flower Show Judge. She has exhibited at Art in Bloom at the MFA Boston, and Heritage Museum and Gardens in Sandwich. She is a member of The Garden Club of Hyannis and the Norwood Evening Garden Club.
Contact Margo Yie at margo_yie@verizon.net to confirm availability.
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.
The Garden Club Federation of Massachusetts will hold its Annual Meeting on Tuesday, June 5 at the Holiday Inn, Mansfield, 31 Hampshire Street, Mansfield, Massachusetts. The day will begin with registration and coffee from 7:30 am. Registrants may select one workshop to attend from 8:15 – 9, either How to Take Minutes and Write Reports, taught by Nancy Donaldson, GCFM Parliamentarian pro tem, or How to Develop Your Club’s Web Site and Service It, instructor to be announced. At 10:15 the Acton Garden Club will present Problems with Lyme Disease, and at 10:30, Nancy Brennan, Executive Director of the Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy, will speak. President’s Certificates and Club Awards will be announced at 11:30 am, followed by a social hour and boutique shopping. Lunch will be served at 12:45, and the 2012 Life Members will be introduced. At 2 pm, there will be a floral design program, with four GCFM floral designers honoring four major visionaries of New England’s cultural landscapes – Frederick Law Olmsted, Fletcher Steele, Charles Eliot, and Beatrix Farrand. Following a registration report, the meeting will adjourn.  Below, Heidi Kost-Gross is presented the Landscape Design Council Award for Excellence by Joan Butler (right) at the 2010 meeting.
To register (please mail registration before May 29), send your name, address, telephone, email, and Club affiliation with a check for $55 ($50 if you do not intend to attend the workshop) made payable to GCFM,Inc. to Linda Yuele, 38 Nevins Road, Methuen, MA 01844. Please indicate also your luncheon menu choice preference of chicken marsala, grilled salmon, London broil, or eggplant parmesan. Any questions may be sent by email to denlinyuele@comcast.net.
The “Rose Man” Irwin Ehrenreich, noted rose expert, former surgeon, and nursery owner from Carver, Massachusetts, will speak on Roses for the Sustainable Garden at a Horticulture Morning sponsored by the Garden Club Federation of Massachusetts on Monday, March 19, from 10 – 12 at the Espousal Center in Waltham. The snow date for this program is Tuesday, March 20. A $5 donation is suggested. For more information, visit www.gcfm.org. Photo courtesy of Cape Cod Magazine.
The Garden Club Federation of Massachusetts will hold its Gardening Study School, Course II, Series 9, on Thursday and Friday, April 7 and 8, from 8:30 am to 3:30 pm at Tower Hill Botanic Garden, 11 French Drive, Boylston, Massachusetts. The exam will be given Saturday, April 9, from 8:45 am – 12 noon. Subjects covered will include Container Gardening, Growing Vegetables, Understanding Plant Diseases and Garden Pests, Tough Plants for Tough Places, How New Plants are Developed and Evaluated, and Techniques for Growing Lawns and/or Lawn Alternatives. Required text is Living with Plants by Donna Schumann, 2nd edition. You must have a subscription to the National Gardener to register. Contact Lillian Cohen at 781-721-2888, or email her at lilandbud@verizon.net, if you need to subscribe – the subscription cost is only $18 for 3 years. For further information about the course, contact Caroline Nijenberg at 781-862-4465 or email carolinen@rcn.com. Course fees are $110 for Federated Garden Club members, $100 for refresher course, and $140 for non-member of Federated Garden Club. Deadline for registration is March 31.
The Garden Club Federation of Massachusetts’ Landscape Design Council will sponsor a free lecture and slide program entitled Edith Wharton: A Genius for Gardens, on Thursday, November 18, beginning at 10:30 am at the Wellesley Free Library, 308 Weston Road, Wellesley. For more information, log on to www.gcfm.org.
