Minutes – Williamstown Garden Club – August 3, 2015
The meeting was called to order by Diane Glick, Vice-President, at 2:00 p.m. at Pat Siskins’s lovely home.
Elaine Neely reported that more help was needed for Field Park. We need 4 workers on Monday at 8:30 and Thursday at 10:30.
Eja Heekin reported on the fall plant sale which will be held at the Paresky Center at Williams College on Sept. 11. There will be a planting party at Licia Conforti’s on August 24 from 1-3:00 p.m. Eja expects everyone in the club to bring plants. If you haven’t propagated them yourselves, you can buy them. Walmart is a good place to get succulents/cacti. Anything small, with a blossom, preferably, will be popular. She will email club members with these details.
A good turn out is important, especially for the transportation from Licia’s and for the first shift. She circulated a list for sign-up.
The next meeting will be Saturday, September 12 at 1:00 at St. John’s. The speaker will be talking about cooking with herbs.
Bette Craig then introduced the speaker, Tony Tedesco, who has visited the club before. He does flower arrangements for trade shows, for the Garden Club of America, for the MFA, and has an on-line studio where you can order flower arrangements.
Club members had made 9 arrangements which he critiqued.
#1. Elaine’s was a traditional design in 3 containers using Queen Anne’s lace, phlox, loose strife, Joe Pye weed, and bee balm. He commended the color integration and said the designs didn’t overpower the containers.
#2. Bette’s arrangement used lilies, amaranth, lamb’s ear, in a container which was sage colored and beautifully reiterated the colors in the plants. He felt a looser fit in the container might be helpful.
#3. Carol’s mantle design used plants picked from her garden and along Gale Road including hosta, Solomon’s seal, loose strife. He called the arrangement very Williamstown and said it had good proportions for the mantle.
#4. Rita’s orchid design on the entering table was complimented for it’s wonderful proportions for the table, but he suggested she might have included more variety.
#5. Joan’s arrangement was complimented for the clustered arrangement, but he felt the light blue hydrangea was too dominant.
#6- Rita’s sewing box of roses, chrysanthemums, and thistle leaves was complimented for the pave look which went well with the basket.
#7. Diane’s silver bowl with a crystal bowl above it was cited for it’s wonderful proportions. He suggested that the astrolemeria might be too big.
#8. Anne Tiffany’s modern arrangement with copper tubing and sunflowers was cited for its relationship with the copper pots above it.
#9. Maria’s arrangement in a yellow florist’s vase from the 1930’s- 1940’s was called a period bouquet and cited for the way the design echoed the motifs on the table cloth.
Tony then created a large arrangement all in various shades of green with Bells of Ireland, hydrangas, sedums, and other foliage which was spectacular.
The meeting was adjourned, and Tony’s arrangement was given to our hosts Pat and Maria Siskind.
Respectfully submitted, Joan Wright, Recording Secretary