By Dagmar Fors Karppi
The only word to describe the August meeting of the Locust Valley Garden Club is “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious”. They welcomed new member Frances Cienkowski; heard the Garden Memories of Terri Swenson and about Jonathan Grimm’s collection of hand painted copy’s of 13th and 18th century antique Chinese porcelain vases.
The program was a flower show using unusual containers. It unleashed members’ creativity in both their choice of containers and their flower arrangements.
Horticulture chair Sallie McNeill Rynd said she was so proud of all the members.
“Did you notice that there were no bought flowers? They all came from our own gardens. And how wonderful that almost everyone participated in the fun?” she asked.
That meant that many of them used Rose of Sharon, Sedum, Day Lillies, Hydrangeas, and Black Eye Susans, all in bloom now.
Susan Keller used a family treasure, an antique carved Chinese cinnabar vase in which she displayed. The surprise was unopened Day Lily buds. Irene Duque chose an open sardine can, (a favorite food) with its silvery lid as a background for her flowers.
Dagmar Karppi’s display was a tribute to the Addams Family. It was a bouquet of roses, without the blossoms, a gift to Morticia from her loving husband Gomez. They were placed in an empty Black Olives can, wrapped with a black bow.
Larraine Tassis used a tomato sauce tin can holding basil, oregano, and the herbs needed to make the sauce. A white garlic bulb was the flower and red bows to recalled the color of tomatoes.
Dean Yoder’s display included a dried Lotus pod, a tea canister, a yellow bird with a brass Morrocan teapot filled with yellow flowers.
Kassie Roth designed the “piece de resistance”, using a bird cage, with birds and butterflies on the outside and flowers inside.
Photos of the floral displays are on the FaceBook page of the Locust Valley Garden Club.
As part of the program, Teri Swenson shared her garden memories starting with her father, Rocco Izzo, who worked for a landscape architect. “He learned from him so he treated our property as a formal garden, just as he worked on creating many Gold Coast Estate gardens.”
Teri showed slides of family members standing in their own gardens. Those horticultural genes have been passed along. Each generation has that love of gardening and currently that includes her four children, 13 grandchildren and six great grandchildren. That’s a lot of great gardeners making the world more beautiful. In fact, both Teri and her daughter Allyn used piggy teapots as their unusual containers in the show.
The LVGC is primarily a service club and so new members are always welcome. Currently, said President Dean Yoder, those projects include: maintaining Barbara’s Garden at the Locust Valley Library, and helping to create the new historic 18th and 19th-century garden at Raynham Hall Museum. The club also curates the display case at the Locust Valley Library where the current exhibit by Curator Kassie Roth, is on Unusual Containers.
If you want to get in on the fun, the door is always open on the third Wednesday of the month, in the Locust Valley Library Community Room. A donation of $15 includes a buffet lunch, a program and the opportunity to make new friends. For information call President Dean Yoder at 516-850-4694.
yellow bird and the yellow flowers were arranged in a brass Morrocan
tea pot (Photos by Kassie Roth)
standing behind the Unusual Container Flower Show entries
Dagmar Ford Karppi is a member of the Locust Valley Garden Club
