Now that spring has finally arrived on-Island, the Martha’s Vineyard Garden Club is blooming with exciting happenings that the community can take part in.
Club member Andrea Rogers will kick off the season of programs with a presentation on a popular topic — lavender. She will describe the dos and don’ts of growing lavender, and her favorite varieties that grow well on the Vineyard. Additionally, picking lavender, crafting with, and preserving lavender will be discussed.
Rogers has grown her own lavender and sold it at the Farmers Market and at Vineyard Artisans shows. Following Rogers’ presentation, the M.V. Greenhouse Committee will host the Garden Club’s annual plant sale at the Wakeman Center in Vineyard Haven. Attendees can also get an early start on picking out plants over Memorial Day Weekend
Admission to the presentation and plant sale is $10. The event takes place on Tuesday, May 17, at 1 pm.
In preparation for the club’s Blooming Art event, slated to take place in mid-June, the club has organized a number of floral design classes for designers, but also of interest to Islanders who enjoy designing beautiful floral arrangements for themselves or others.
The first class is scheduled for Tuesday, May 24, at 1 pm at the Old Mill in West Tisbury. Floral designer and MV Garden Club member Fawn Hurwitz will demonstrate her process of concept and design during this floral design presentation. Hurwitz moved to Massachusetts 14 years ago from New York and is a member of the Beth Shalom Garden Club, the Needham Garden Club, and the MV Garden Club. She has held almost every position with the Beth Shalom and Needham Clubs and was an assistant at the Boston MFA’s “Art in Bloom.” She also served on the Garden Club Federation of Massachusetts. She is a key designer in Needham’s Art in Bloom where garden club members are paired with artwork by talented Needham High School art students for floral interpretation. She also studies Ikebana, the art of Japanese flower arranging in her spare time. After the demonstration there will be a drawing for the floral arrangement that Hurwitz completes.
The second floral design class is scheduled for Tuesday, May 31, at 1 pm at the Wakeman Center in Vineyard Haven. Sisters and former Garden Club presidents Judy Bryant and Nancy Cabot will host an interactive floral demonstration session with the workshop featuring helpful hints for floral design. Tips will include choosing and caring for flowers, choosing containers, size and scale of arrangements, accessories, and mechanics of flower arranging. Samples of foliage from Polly Hill Arboretum will be available to show how foraged plant material can be incorporated into floral arrangements.
Both of the floral design presentations cost $10 per person and no pre-registration is required. Visit bit.ly/Floral_DesignMV for more info.
The Garden Club’s Greenhouse Committee cultivates and grows plants for the club’s annual plant which takes place in May and is open to club members and the public. The public sale will be held at the Old Mill in West Tisbury from 10 am to 2 pm, Saturday, May 28, and Sunday, May 29.
Rounding out the club’s spring events is the MV Garden Club’s biggest fundraiser of the year, Blooming Art, taking place June 17 through 19. The event showcases creations of Island artists paired with interpretive floral arrangements by MV Garden Club members under the roof of the Old Mill in West Tisbury. All art is for sale and donations to the club during this event help to benefit the Club’s Charitable initiatives, which include the scholarship fund and the Old Mill Preservation Fund.