The Town and Country Garden Club of Newtown will host a return visit by Lorraine Ballato as its final speaker for the 2024-25 season.

Ballato will join the club on Wednesday, May 14, at 7 pm, when she will discuss “Shady Characters.”

A shady yard can be more than a place to set up a hammock. For those who think they are cursed with shade and can’t grow anything under a huge maple tree, or wish for more colors than green in a shady area, Ballato’s talk will help attendees see shade as the treasure it is: an area to take an evening stroll, to escape the heat of the summer sun, a source of calming beauty, or just a place to gaze at from a deck or kitchen window.

Featured plants can include perennials, flowering shrubs, annuals, bulbs and flowering vines.

As an expert horticulturist and hydrangea expert, Ballato’s love affair with plants comes through in her lectures, social media writings, magazine articles and photographs, which can be found in Connecticut Gardener, Edible Nutmeg, and elsewhere. She is an instructor at New York Botanical Garden, where she is regarded as the resident hydrangea expert.

She also teaches classes in the Connecticut Master Gardener Program as well as for the Federated Garden Clubs of Connecticut. In her role as an Advanced Master Gardener, Ballato works with a sizable team of gardeners of all levels in a 3,000 square foot organic fruit and vegetable garden in Fairfield County. Each season, they grow and donate over 1,200 pounds of produce to homeless shelters and food banks.

She also helps train master gardener interns and assists the gardening public on a weekly basis. It’s work she enjoys immensely.

The program with Town & Country Garden Club will take place at Newtown Senior Center, 8 Simpson Street. All are welcome and the program is free.

For additional information about the club or the program, send email to hilljo107@gmail.com.