Litchfield Garden Club Flower Show Returns
By Clementina Verge
Since the earliest times, flowers have lifted the human spirit with their delicate fragrances, infinite color palette, and ability to decorate and sustain life. This spring, their allure and versatility will take the spotlight at the Litchfield flower show, which will commemorate not only the beauty of blooms, but the Litchfield Garden Club’s 110th anniversary.
From striking Delphinium to elegant irises and roses, the show entitled “A Tapestry of Nature” will live up to its name, capturing the forms, colors, textures, and patterns woven to create nature’s tapestry.
Sponsored by The Garden Club of America, it will feature exhibits categorized in three divisions: floral design, horticulture, and photography and conservation. Each will capture passion and expertise, inspiring visitors by displaying standards of artistic and horticulture excellence and broadening knowledge of horticulture.
Using fresh and dried materials, floral designs will reflect inspiration drawn from paintings by artists influenced by nature—such as Georgia O’Keefe and John Singer Sargent—and natural wonders like bird migration, forest bathing, climate zones, and even nature’s “tiny gems”: ladybugs, grasshoppers, and monarch butterflies.
“Gardening brings such pleasure and joy, and the flower show will be both empowering and inspiring, helping visitors see what they can create with plant materials growing in their own gardens,” notes Drew Harlow, a LGC member serving on the flower show committee.
The exhibits will be educational and entertaining, highlighting the importance of gardens in providing not only pleasure, but habitats for countless creatures. Displays will also highlight the evolution of landscaping practices and discuss important trends such as zeroscaping, which uses the philosophy of low-water landscaping and focuses on native plants that add natural appeal while being easier to maintain.
“The combined passion for conservation, design, horticulture, photography, education, growing, and the thrill of seeing it presented in one beautiful venue,” will make the show a multi-sensory treat for all ages, says LGC member and conservation exhibit organizer Margy Miner.
From choosing the venue to selecting judges, setting display criteria, reviewing submissions, and organizing the plant sale, the show takes months of preparation and many volunteers.
This giving spirit is not new to the Litchfield Garden Club, whose members have displayed it since its inception in 1913: decorating light fixtures on the town green for the holidays, installing scarecrows in the meadows, maintaining pollinator and rain gardens at White Memorial Conservation Center, engaging in outreach educational events at local schools, and planting trees and shrubs throughout town—more than 225 since 1995.
“Our club has been an active force in the community through our commitment to civic beautification, town plantings, dedication to environmental and conservation projects, and volunteer activities, including the June flower show,” states Sylvia Abbott, flower show co-chair. “The fact that we have 110 years of volunteer work in this historic town shows our love and dedication to Litchfield and our club’s mission.”
Free to the public, the show will take place Saturday, June 17, at the Litchfield Community Center. —litchfieldgardenclub.org
