Spring is already in the air for the Heatherwood Garden Club.
‘Our Blue Ribbon winners are at it again!’ said Honey Brook’s Heatherwood Retirement Community Marketing & Sales Director Heather F. Goodno. ‘Our Garden Club is kicking off their annual entry for The Philadelphia Flower Show with a Pancake Breakfast.’
The Breakfast will be held Saturday, Feb. 8, from 7 to 10 a.m. at their retirement community, 3180 Horseshoe Pike, Honey Brook. There is a cost per person.
This – the winter to end all with its snow, ice storms, and frigid temperatures – is being shooed away as the local Garden Club is busy with final touches of design and careful nurturing of plants and flowers that they have been have preparing for this year’s entry since last spring. This club has been a Blue Ribbon winner for the last several years.
‘The Heatherwood Garden Club claims the distinction of the only retirement community to compete every year for the past 15 years at the annual Philadelphia Flower Show,’ said Jennifer Hacker, Activities Director and Master Gardner. Held at The Philadelphia Convention Center in early March, ‘It is the world’s longest running and largest indoor flower show in the world with over 250,000 annual visitors.’
This years’ Garden Club members include residents Millie Alexander, Lynn Rankin, Jean Garrison, Gloria Zlupko, Joanna Varley and Peggy Darling.
Club members Susan Cacioppo, General Manager; Jennifer Hacker, Activities Director; Jeff Tobelmann, Maintenance Supervisor and his assistant Jeff Reed will do the heavy lifting and put up the display at the convention center.
‘The club’s mission is to enrich the residents by keeping them in touch with gardening and is both therapeutic and educational. The theme of the show for 2014 is called ARTiculture,’ said Hacker.
According to a Philadelphia Flower Show release, http://theflowershow.com/, ‘The fusion of art and horticulture will be celebrated in ‘ARTiculture,’ an extraordinary presentation of the PHS Philadelphia Flower Show on March 1 to 9, 2014, when guests will be inspired to let their inner-artist bloom in their own gardens. An unprecedented collaboration of Flower Show designers and the nation’s great art museums will turn the exhibition space of the Pennsylvania Convention Center into a 10-acre living canvas of exquisite landscapes, gardens and floral arrangements. The entrance exhibit of ‘ARTiculture’ will be inspired by the paintings and dynamic sculptures of Alexander ‘Sandy’ Calder, a member of the historic family of artists whose works are found throughout Philadelphia, and will feature a remarkable vertical dance troupe who will perform above and within the multi-dimensional display.’
‘The residents researched different artists and designs on the web that we printed out,’ said Hacker. ‘They were inspired by the work of Pol Ledent, an upcoming Belgium artist who works with vivid colors. We are creating a unique, colorful living vertical wall garden that can be recreated at your home.’
Club members work in raised beds at the retirement facility and are aided by Meadowbrook Farms in Abington, who force grow the plants in greenhouses so they are ready in time for the show.
‘We also grow vegetables, herbs and edible flowers,’ said Hacker. ‘We created a French balcony scene with all edible flowers for last year’s show.’
The community motto is ‘Live Among Friends.’ Heatherwood invites community members to come out and support the Garden Club at the Pancake Breakfast, as well as visit the Philadelphia Flower Show and see their exhibit.
For more information, visit www.heatherwoodretire.com.
The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society is the sponsor of the Philadelphia Flower Show. For more, visit http://theflowershow.com/.
