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Garden Club to hold show at Cape Coral Library next weekend

5 min read

By TAMMY WHALEY, twhaley@breezenewspapers.com

Calling all greenthumbs and lovers of horticulture … the Garden Club of Cape Coral is holding its “March into Spring” garden show at the Cape Coral Public Library, March 28-29.

The club, which hasn’t held an event like this in two years, is excited to share its love of gardening with the public and to be a part of the month-long series of events known as Celebrate Cape Coral. The special celebration is designed to highlight special events in the community and promote hometown pride.

“We love gardening,” said Marty Ward, Garden Club member. “And all of the members are excited to share this love with the public, and since we haven’t had a show here in two years we are really excited.”

The “March Into Spring” show will feature a wide variety of horticulture exhibits such as landscape designs, flower arrangements and educational exhibits covering conservation issues and environmental awareness put together by the club.

The Garden Club of Cape Coral got its start in 1997 and, according to Ward, its purpose is to promote civic beautification and work with the youth of the community on environmental awareness.

“We also promote friendship among our fellow gardeners,” said Ward.

The club, which has 45 members both male and female, is a part of the Federated Garden Club of the state of Florida. This means the group is able to participate in any state program hosted by the federation.

“We are also part of the National Garden Club and can participate in functions on a national level,” said Ward. “On the state level the federation encourages us to work with groups like Habitat for Humanity with landscaping at new homes and on a national level we sponsor two children to attend the Wekikava Nature Camp.”

Some of the other environmental projects the Garden Club has undertaken around the community include plantings at the Cape Coral City Hall and extensive tree plantings in the Cape area.

The Garden Club also worked in conjunction with Friends of The Cape Coral Library to help build and maintain the butterfly garden, and it is currently working with the Shell Factory in North Fort Myers to help refurbish the plantings in the animal park.

“We also participate in the Florida Yards and Neighbor-hoods program, which is done through Lee County, which encourages the planting of Florida friendly and native plants in the community,” said Ward. “We also perform canal watches and perform samplings throughout various canals.”

The group conducts the samplings to help keep the water healthy and normal and to keep track of the clarity, sediment levels and the depths of the water.

The group also travels on several educational trips throughout the year to such places as the Botanical Gardens in Sarasota, Butterfly World in Fort Lauderdale and the Bamboo Gardens in Punta Gordon.

“The trips are wonderful and we get a chance to see work from other gardeners in different areas,” said Ward.

At the “March into Spring” show, members of the club will have a chance to show off the arrangements they have been working on.

Floral arrangements will be one of the featured exhibits and exhibitors are asked to enter their submissions in the following categories:

_ “Wearing Green,” where arrangements will have an emphasis on green plants.

_ “Lunch on the Lanai,” where exhibitors with set up their arrangements on a table setting for two

_ “‘Time to Work in the Yard,” where exhibitors are asked to incorporate garden tools into their arrangement.

“All of the arrangements will also have emphasis on flowers and foliage and will have four entries into each class,” said Ward. “Each of the classes are judged by accredited flower show judges.”

A “Horticulture Division” will be another highlight of the show and will feature members of the club exhibiting containers with both foliage and flowering.

“Some of the kinds of entries in this division will include stuff like fern plants or flowers in bloom,” said Ward.

The last feature of the show will be the “Cut Specimen Division.” This will feature cut flowers such as birds of paradise and blooms. Cacti and succulents in containers and cut trees and shrubs will also be part of this exhibit.

“All this will be is branches, blooms and shrubbery judged for the cut of it’s horizontal perfection,” said Ward.

The Florida Yards and Neighborhoods projects will have an educational booth set up where representatives can talk about their projects and give out literature on the organization as well as displaying education environmental posters.

The Garden Club of Cape Coral meets once a month on the second Wednesday of the month at the Episcopal Church on Del Prado Boulevard at 7 p.m.

“Membership is open and if anyone is interested in joining or to see what we are about, all they have to do is show up to a meeting,” said Ward.

The hours of the garden show are 4-8 p.m. March 28 and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. March 29 at the Cape library, which is located at 921 S.W. 39th Terrace. The event is free and open to the public.

“This is going to be a great event for people who are interested to see examples of plants and flowers specific to Florida, or for people to come down and just appreciate the beauty of it all,” said Ward. “It is a nice family event that I think everyone will enjoy.”

For more information on the event, contact the Cape Coral Public Library at 542-3953. For more information on the Florida Federation of Garden Clubs, visit the Web site at www.FFGC.org.

To go

What: “March into Spring” garden show sponsored by the Garden Club of Cape Coral

Where: Cape Coral Public Library

When: March 28, 4-8 p.m. and March 29, 9 a.m.-3 p.m.

Cost: Admission is free