Members of the John’s Island Garden Group and their guests celebrated the group’s 25th anniversary with a Pictures and Posies Floral Show Cocktail Party last Monday at the golf club that showcased their many talents.
Unlike judged shows, this one was strictly for fun. Interpreting their own photos, paintings and sculptures, members designed floral arrangements and in some cases whole tableaus. Judging from their creative artistry and impressive uses of color and texture, many of the pieces could easily have won prizes in a formal show.
Guests wandered the room, listening to music from Ray Adams and Dave Mundy of Soulfege, and learning the stories behind the imaginative displays. Roughly 30 members participated, some pairing up to create about 20 delightful designs.
One of the more whimsical pieces was fashioned by Diane Feeley and Trish Mulvoy, with significant help from Chips Feeley, whose sculpture and painting provided the impetus for the design. With “apologies to Degas,” Diane Feeley explained that the male figure reminded her of a Degas dancer, so they dressed him in a floral-adorned tutu. She added with a laugh, “He normally wears a little Speedo because he’s anatomically correct.”
Membership in the Garden Group has grown from an initial 26 in 1991 to 120 today, with ladies meeting monthly to learn about horticulture and floral arrangements, take day trips and hear from speakers on a variety of topics, occasionally joining forces with the John’s Island Garden Club, their community’s earliest one.
“The other group [Garden Club] was full,” said Jill Kaneb, first president of the Garden Group, explaining why they decided to establish a second club. “Many of us were transplants to Florida and knew nothing about Florida horticulture.”
“Through the years there has been excess funding, and even though it was not set up as a philanthropic group, we have made donations to the community,” said current President Jeanne Manley.
In 2007 they created a memorial garden at the VNA Hospice House and each Christmas, working with the Indian River County School District and the Vero Beach Book Center, members purchase books for the library of a school chosen by the school superintendent for all the children at the school to enjoy.
In 2013 and 2014, utilizing the expertise of landscape architect Elizabeth A. Gillick, they created and continue to maintain an atrium garden at the Indian River Shores Town Hall. Now, to commemorate the 25th anniversary, they are contributing additional improvements to the Town Hall complex.
“We thought that the front area around the flagpole and the anchor needed to be enhanced. They were just stuck in the grass and we wanted to make the American flag more visible and give it more prominence,” said Manley. After calling again on Gillick, the group implemented her design, which consists of new plantings and small walkways from the sidewalk on A1A to the flagpole.
“We pay someone to maintain the atrium garden and now we’re going to include the maintenance of this new landscape area, so it’s not a burden on the town,” Manley said, adding that they are also contributing to the cost of new benches in the atrium and by the anchor.
