Garden Club Program Preview—

Artistic Designing Can Be Fun! 

On Tuesday, October 10, June Klofer will be doing a presentation on flower design for the Town and Country Garden Club of Newtown. Her program, to be presented at the senior center, 14 Riverside Road in Sandy Hook, will begin at 7:30 pm.

Admission is free and open to nonmembers.

Ms Klofer is a master gardener, an accredited Federated Garden Club Judge, and serves on the Board of Directors of the Federated Garden Club of Connecticut. She has also taken courses at New York Botanical Gardens and been in charge of floral decorations at the Lockwood Matthews Mansion in Norwalk.

Ms Klofer has also been the president of Rowayton Gardeners for two terms and is presently the civic beautification chair for the club, meaning she is in charge of several garden areas in the town.

In a recent interview, Ms Klofer discussed the changes she has seen during her years of involvement with garden clubs. Times are different, she said, clubs are involved in their communities in a hands-on manner. Many groups promote garden therapy where club members visit nursing homes and senior centers.

Garden clubs are now, more than ever, becoming a venue for educating the public in a variety of ways. Even flower shows serve many purposes besides education.

Floral designs can be considered sculptures; some of them are works of art. Shows provide an artistic outlet where the designer as well as the audience can gain new perspectives. Shows are also where all different ages and backgrounds work together to foster a common interest.

Even the image of a gardener has changed, she said. No longer can a garden club member be conceptualized as a lady wearing white gloves and a large, decorative hat; now she or he wears gardening gloves and the hat offers protection from the sun.

The purpose of Ms Klofer’s program is to make people comfortable with flower design in order to engender confidence in arrangers. She will design four or five different arrangements with the emphasis on having fun while creating.

For additional information call Liz Arneth, 426-5359.