Well, I’m sure all you garden club followers – or just those that love gardening – have loved the wonderful spring weather we have had lately.
It’s been one of those months that you love working in your yard. But when the weather gets us too hot and sweaty or too wet and rainy to do so, and we still want to work with flowers, then you need to look into the art of designing with flowers.
If you think you might like that, then you should’ve been at the Hammond Garden Club meeting in May to watch Donna Moran, a master flower show judge, and Kim Banek, who is both a Master Gardener and design show winner. Both are members of Covington Garden Club and were speakers and designers at our meeting.
They brought three examples of how to follow the principles of design. There are 44 possible designs for horticulture and botanical art which uses both fresh and dried plant material, never artificial of any kind.
According to the Handbook for Flower Shows, the principles of design include balance, contrast, dominance, proportion, rhythm and scale. According to Moran, each entry begins with 100 points. All designs are judged by conformance to design principles.
Banek, Covington Garden Club’s incoming president, showed two designs she brought to demonstrate how she approaches a theme while following design rules. One design used yellow daisies and goldenrod and a piece of driftwood she found at the beach. The yellow flowers against a three-sided backdrop provided a monochromatic color scheme.
Her second design used an orchid stem attached to a seed pod from a Canary Island date palm and was accented with a small tractor seat (Ligularia) leaf. If you know anything about design, this one is similar to an ikebana arrangement.
Moran said winning entries are often simple and elegant and communicate the beauty of nature. Plant material should always be fresh and able to withstand several hours of a show.
After hearing what they spoke about and designed, don’t you wish you had been a guest at this and many other Hammond Garden Club meetings with other speakers I’ve told you about?
Before the speaker/designers told us about all the beautiful arrangements and designs we could create, President Pat Graves asked Dona Calcote, Garden of the Month chair, if she would offer the opening prayer in Chaplain Mary Thornhill’s absence.
In her own words Dona led a prayer of gratitude for the beauty of the earth and the joy of growing things, the long spring we have enjoyed, and the recent rains; it was quite beautiful!
She also introduced the winners of the Garden of the Month recipients, Jerry and Paula Hymel, who live on Magnolia Banks in Oak Creek Subdivision (even the name of the street sounds like it’s beautiful). I hope you saw the story of the Hymel’s gardens in this paper earlier in the month.
Then it was time to have Mary Monteleone’s wonderful buffet (and some ordered from the menu). As usual, you couldn’t beat her fried chicken or any of the other delicious extras, including a fantastic salad bar and several different desserts. She and her crew at Oak Knoll Country Club do an awesome job every month!
Getting down to business with very full tummies, Pat announced that she received a request from the Downtown Development District to submit names of gardeners within Hammond city limits for a future article for the DDD website. So our own Dona Calcote and Mona Crapanzano will have their gardens featured on the DDD website as well as on Facebook. Congratulations, ladies!
The Link Award Chair Linda Ross said that Rocky’s Premier Auto Wash, 1350 SW Railroad Ave., is the recipient of the monthly award for landscape beautification. This award also was featured in this paper.
There were reports from Treasurer Phyllis DiBenedetto, and Vice President Karen Nelson announced that all renewal forms need to be submitted, as the yearbook is in the process of being formatted and anyone wanting to change their picture needs to send it to her ASAP.
Prayers were requested for those that have been sick or in the hospital to have surgery, and Dona gave special thanks to President Pat Graves for recommending gardens for the Garden of the Month Award and presented her with a celosia plant as a token of appreciation. She also thanked members for bringing seed packets for our involvement in the Library’s Seed Packet Program.
Two new members were unanimously approved – Jennifer Sharp and Alicia Kornick. Door prizes were won by Donna Moran, Phyllis Mire, Jennifer Sharp, Carolyn Todd and Linda Ross.
The membership voted unanimously to adjourn for the summer months. Happy summer! We’ll see you again in August!
May the Lord hold you in the palm of His hand ‘til we meet again.
Linda Broussard lives in Hammond, America.