Southbury Garden Club 

To Host Victorian Gardening Program

SOUTHBURY — The Southbury Garden Club will launch its 2011 season on Friday, March 4, with a talk and slide show on Victorian Gardening by Marie Hayes, proprietor of Gardens Unlimited.

Ms Hayes, former head gardener at White Flower Farm in Litchfield, has specialized in perennial borders and cutting gardens for 25 years. She is a master gardener and a professional garden consultant, with clients all along the East Coast. Her presentation will encompass horticulture during the period 1863-1901.

A business meeting will take place in the Kingsley Room at Southbury Public Library, 100 Poverty Road, at 12:30 pm. The program will begin at 1:30. Interested area residents are invited to attend; a $3 donation is requested.

This year marks the club’s 52nd year of involvement in the community. Ongoing civic projects include holiday wreaths at Southbury Town Buildings; garden therapy baskets to residents of Safe Haven; floral design demonstrations at area nursing homes; awards to local businesses for outstanding landscaping, and an annual Sunflower Growing Contest co-sponsored with the library’s children’s department.  The club also maintains five public gardens in Southbury parks.

The club also holds a popular annual spring plant sale featuring many unique plants especially suited to local growing conditions. This year’s sale will take place on Saturday, May 21, at gazebo in Southbury Green, 775 Main Street South.

The garden club meets at Southbury Public Library on the first Friday of the month from March through December. The club sponsors speakers, design workshops, and field trips to destinations of special interest to gardeners.

Prospective members are welcome. Further membership information is available from Faith Moss, 203-264-0183.