Date: Fri 04-Jun-1999

Publication: Bee

Author: CAROLL

Quick Words:

Barnum-garden-festival

Full Text:

ENJOY LOWER COVER: Garden Festival Will Celebrate Art Among Earthly Delights

(with cut & graphic)

BRIDGEPORT -- A festival of events to delight any garden lover will take place

in Southport, Fairfield and Bridgeport, June 11-20. "Art in the Garden of

Earthly Delights" is the theme of this year's biennial festival, which

benefits The Discovery Museum.

The festival begins with a tour of six private gardens in Southport Village

and Greenfield Hill on Friday, June 11. The tour runs 10 am to 3 pm, and

tickets are $35 each.

The gardens include an enchanting oasis with bridged fish ponds encircled by

bamboo; a country garden designed by Helen Swift Jones, a member of the

Cambridge School of Architecture; a perennial and formal rose garden

documented in the Smithsonian Archives of American Gardens; and a romantic

secret garden in the heart of Southport Village with lush specimen plantings

and spectacular flowering fruit trees and shrubs.

The six gardens have been selected because of their designers' ability to

showcase the effective blending of house and garden; the use of garden

architecture, pools and walls; and the art of plant selection that takes

advantage of climate and setting.

On the afternoon of June 11, noted fashion designer Carolyn Roehm will present

"A Passion for Flowers," a slide-lecture based on her book of the same title

that offers simple techniques to help incorporate flowers into everyday life.

Ms Roehm has been a fashion designer for over two decades, first with Oscar de

la Renta and then with her own firm. She now applies her love of color,

proportion and texture to flower arranging.

The flowers to be featured are all from the gardens on Ms Roehm's farm in

Sharon. She will also conduct a book signing after the lecture, which runs

from 2:30 to 3:30 pm, at Trinity Church in Southport. Tickets for the slide

lecture are $50.

The lecture series continues on June 12 with "The Potted Herb: A Topiary

Workshop," to be presented by the artist and author Abbie Zabar. Each guest

will create a rosemary topiary and listen to Ms Zabar discuss various ways of

using plants as decoration.

An accomplished artist whose work has appeared in The Museum of Modern Art,

The Smithsonian Institute and the Hunt Institute Collection of Pennsylvania,

Ms Zabar is the author of several books, including The Potted Herb. She will

sign copies of that book and her latest, called A Growing Gardener , following

the workshop, which runs from 10 to 11:45 am, at Trinity Church. Cost is $35.

Trinity Church will also be the site of the "In and Out of the Garden," a

collection of boutique-style booths and personalized box luncheons by

Westport's Red Curb Fine Foods on Friday and Saturday, June 11-12. The

boutique will feature more than a dozen vendors including Laura Specter of

Fairfield with handmade rustic furniture, Joyce Seymore of Wilton with nature

photographs, Dorothy Creech of Nantucket with hats, Lillian August, Pickets,

and others.

The boutiques will be open 10 am to 5 pm on Friday, and 10 am to 2 pm on

Saturday. Admission is included with a garden tour or lecture ticket, or $5

alone. Lunch will be available from 11:30 am to 2 pm on Friday, and noon to

1:30 pm on Saturday, and will cost $12.

At The Discovery Museum in north Bridgeport, an exhibit of garden-inspired art

by 20 contemporary artists takes center stage in The Simpson Galleries. The

exhibit, also being called "Art in the Garden of Earthly Delights," has been

curated by George Jordan, a Westport gallery owner, art historian and

lecturer.

The exhibition features works with realistic and fantasy themes by Sara

Cambria of Meriden, Albert Hadley of Southport and New York, Jane Sutherland

of Fairfield, Nina Bentley of Westport, and others. Floral arrangements will

accompany selected works, with the pieces created by members of the Sasqua,

Greens Farms and Fairfield garden clubs and Bridgeport House and Garden. The

exhibit runs June 13-20 and is included with museum admission.

A gala preview party on June 12 will give guests the opportunity to view the

exhibit and flower show when the flowers are at their most fragrant. The

evening includes music by the New York Swing Band, a black tie dinner, and

live and silent auctions for items including stays in homes in Palm Beach,

Fla., and Mt Bromley, Vt; watches by Cartier and Breitling; a golf package; a

Broadway night out; watercolor paintings; and summer classes at the museum.

The evening begins at 7 pm, and tickets start at $185 per person.

For a brochure and ticket order form, call The Discovery Museum, 4450 Park

Avenue in Bridgeport, at 372-3521, extension 116.