October Garden Club Program: Grow For Show

On Wednesday, October 12,  Ronnie Schoetzel, the State Horticultural Chairman for the Federated Garden Club of Connecticut, will be presenting a program entitled “Grow for Show” at the senior citizen center in Sandy Hook. The program is sponsored by The Town and Country Garden Club of Newtown and it will begin at 7:30 pm.

Ms Schoetzel designed this teaching program in order to help garden club members prepare horticulture specimens for standardized flower shows, which includes growing, picking, preparing and transporting.

Ms Schoetzel would like to encourage members of the public – anyone who is interested in gardening – to also consider attending because if they ever consider entering a show, this would help them a great deal. She will be bringing specimens for the demonstration.

In addition to being the FGCC horticulture chairman, she has been a member of Litchfield Garden Club for 21 years and has served in various capacities. She is an Accredited Flower Show Judge for Nation Garden Clubs, Inc., and is in the Garden Club of America Horticulture Judging program. She also writes a monthly column in the state newsletter.

Ms Schoetzel was recently a judge for The Town and Country Standard Flower Show. To become a judge, Ms Schoetzel attended a three-day flower show school in New Haven that was very rigorous and demanding. The courses helped students to design, prepare for exhibition, how to judge, and how to put on a show.

They had to not only learn all the details but they had to pass challenging exams plus put on their own exhibitions and earn five blue ribbons in a combination of horticulture and design classes.

There is no charge to attend the program in Sandy Hook. For additional information call 426-5359.