The Jaffrey Civic Center was filled with flowers with an artistic flair on Tuesday, as entrees into the Garden Club of America’s “Monadnock Rhapsody” flower show showed off their flower arrangements, natural photography, and specimens from their garden.
Presented by the Monadnock Garden Club, the show was also a celebration of the MGC’s 100th birthday.
Robin Turnbaugh, president of the Monadnock Garden Club, said the club was founded in 1925, and along with cultivating gardens, has a legacy of environmental conservation and beautification.
The show, which had an overall theme of “Monadnock Rhapsody,” was open to all members of the Garden Club of America, with entries coming in from across New England, in various categories.
Floral arrangements had four categories, each based on a piece of media with the word “rhapsody” in the title.
Turnbaugh said she, herself, entered multiple categories, including photos of Mount Monadnock, and a floral design based on the son “Bohemian Rhapsody,” which she created with riotious colors.
Jeanne Henriques of Peterborough with her floral display, based off the imagery in the T.S. Eliot poem “Rhapsody on a Windy Night.” ASHLEY SAARI/Ledger-Transcript Credit: ASHLEY SAARI/Ledger-Transcript
Monadnock Garden Club President Robin Turnbaugh shows off her floral arrangement piece. ASHLEY SAARI/Ledger-Transcript Credit: ASHLEY SAARI/Ledger-Transcript
Rhonda Fowler with her display about the importance of pollinators, and how gardeners can encourage them. ASHLEY SAARI/Ledger-Transcript Credit: ASHLEY SAARI/Ledger-Transcript
Garden Club member Jeanne Henriques entered a floral arrangement along with fellow club member Amy Meyers of Jaffrey, and based their arrangement on the poem “Rhapsody on a Windy Night” by T.S. Eliot. Henriques said they were particularly inspired by the lines
“In our case, we looked at it as a moonlit New England Summer night,” Henriques said. “Everything came from my garden, from Amy’s garden, her mother’s garden, or Rosaly’s [Garden in Peterborough], so all local plants.”
A floral design by Mary Ellen O’Brien, based on “Rhapsody on a Windy Night” by T.S. Eliot. ASHLEY SAARI/Ledger-Transcript Credit: ASHLEY SAARI/Ledger-Transcript
A display by Monadnock Garden Club member Jane Kennedy, with a color palette as an ode to Monadnock’s “purple majesty.” ASHLEY SAARI/Ledger-Transcript
Horticulture entries into the Monadnock Rhapsody flower show. ASHLEY SAARI/Ledger-Transcript Credit: ASHLEY SAARI/Ledger-Transcript
As is a requirement of Garden Club of America shows, the show also featured an educational display, put together by Rhonda Fowler of Langdon. Her display was about encouraging pollinators. The display included information about habitats, shelter, tips for creating a garden that encourages pollinators. It also included information about a specific conservation story about the Karner Blue Butterfly, New Hampshire’s state butterfly, which is an endangered species.
Ashley Saari can be reached at 603-924-7172 ext. 244 or asaari@ledgertranscript.com. She’s on X @AshleySaariMLT.
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