The Garden Club of Newtown has programs and workshops to promote interest in floral design. Throughout the year, members of all skill levels have the opportunity to learn and practice the basics of floral design. Monthly meetings, programs, and workshops teach and demonstrate the Principles of Design, as well as many Traditional and Creative Designs. Each month a club member creates an original design to be raffled at our general club meeting. Each year, club members exhibit designs at the Fine Art & Flowers Show, sponsored by the Wadsworth Atheneum, the New Britain Museum of American Art and Flower Show and the FGCCT state Flower Show in Hartford, CT.
Our accredited flower show judges participate in the Connecticut Judges Council, Creative Arrangers of Connecticut, Flower Show Schools and Symposiums; and judge numerous flower shows each year.
The Federated Garden Clubs of Connecticut (FGCCT) offers workshops and courses throughout the year and they are open to all club members. Flower Show Course I is scheduled for June 8- 10, 2022 at the Kellogg Environmental Center in Derby. CT. Flower Show School II is planned for October 12-14, 2022. These courses teach basic Floral Design and Horticulture based on the guidelines of the National Garden Club, Inc. (NGC).
Flower Show Awards
The Federated Garden Clubs of Connecticut, Inc. sponsors a Standard Flower Show at the CT Convention Center in Hartford, Ct. Each year, club members exhibit Designs and horticulture in many different classes. The club has also entered club competition Floor Designs.
2023
Educational Display for the CT Flower Show School
Educational Division Award
First Place Blue Ribbon
- Created by Peggy Townsend
2022
“Rhythm and Blooms” the 40 Annual Flower & Garden Show
Peggy Townsend won a First Place Blue Ribbon; the Section Designer’s Choice Award: rosette of purple ribbons; and the NGC Division Award: Award of Design Excellence for her multi-rhythmic Flash Dance Design.
Deb won a third-place ribbon for her Mama Mia Design. This Creative Design featured branches with natural- growing lichen; moss, and flowers on an antique metal structure.
2020
“Spring into Connecticut” the 39th Annual Flower & Garden Show
Deb Osborne won a Blue Ribbon, the Designer’s Choice Award, and The NGC Award of Design Excellence for her Floor Design entitled “Kent Falls”.
The club won a Blue Ribbon, The Nell McGuiness Award, and The Club Competition Award for their Vignette entitled “Following the Connecticut Antique Trail. The vignette was staged on one fourth of an 8-foot circle and featured antiques and accessories staged on a mannequin, hat rack, and suitcase.
2019
“April in Paris” the 38th Annual Flower & Garden Show
Peg Townsend won a Blue Ribbon for her Underwater Design entitled “The Ocean’s Song”. Each vase was 30 inches tall and supported on an angle with natural driftwood.
2018
“Breath of Spring” the 37th Annual Flower & Garden Show
Joyce DeWolfe won a Blue Ribbon, and the Petite Award, for her Petite Design entitled “Marching Ants”
Peg Townsend won a Blue Ribbon for her Design entitled” Butterfly’s Drunken Dance”
Deb Osborne won a ribbon for her creative design entitled “Sparkling Ponds”
“Fine Art & Flowers”
“Fine Art & Flowers” is sponsored annually in April by the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, CT. Designers are asked to create a design that was inspired by a specific museum piece of art.
2022
Marcia Cavanaugh was inspired by the colors of the sky in Albert Bierstadt’s 1862 painting, “Toward the setting Sun”. Three feathers in the center of the arrangement represent the tepees in the painting.
This Creative Design entry from Peg Jepsen was inspired by a 1913 painting by Mardsden Hartley entitled “Military”.
Peg Townsend created a Cascade Design to compliment John Trumbull’s 1808 painting of “Niagara Falls from Below the Great Cascade on the British Side”.
2020
Peg Townsend created a Parallel Design featuring white and blue curly sticks from Zimbabwe that was inspired by the collection of Five Baroque Vases.
Deb Osborne created a design inspired by a landscape painting with a distant horizon.
2019-2018
Kerri Williams was inspired by a bronze sculpture of an energetic ballerina.
Deb was inspired by a large, ornate floor sculpture.
Peg Jepsen was inspired by a portrait of a lady in a blue turban holding a feathered quill.
Peg Townsend‘s design was inspired by the 1936 painting “Wooden Horses” by Reginald Marsh.
Kerri Williams created a design inspired by a 1875 painting by William Merritt Chase entitled “Boy Smoking (The Apprentice)”.
