Garden Club

The Ferndale Garden Club has a reputation for presenting entertaining and educational demonstrations at their annual Christmas show. This year's theme will be an "Old-Fashioned Christmas."The show is scheduled to take place on Thursday, Nov. 15, at the Ferndale Elementary School, Packard Avenue at Hollins Ferry Road starting at 8 p.m. Tickets are $3 and can be purchased at the door.Floral designers for the evening will be Bill Noon of Flowers by James in Annapolis, Marty Baikauskas of Cedar Hill Florists in Brooklyn and Tom Medicus of Hilton Florists in Catonsville.

This reporter wishes to apologize for two mistakes in last week's column.Adam Brewington won an award for his music, titled "The Real Me."Also, the Church of the Resurrection counts approximately 3,300 families in its parish, not the number erroneously reported without the last zero.ON EASTER Sunday, Jesselyn Johl, known as Jesse, experienced the joys and sorrows of gardening in a public space.Johl is president of the Longfellow Garden Club, which planted a 450-square-foot garden in Millstone Park to honor Ellicott City's 225th birthday last year.

CELEBRATING 25 years and going strong, the Long Point Garden Club is sponsoring its annual flea market Oct. 9 at the Brumwell flea market on Mountain Road, starting at 8 a.m. and continuing until all items are sold.The sale is an opportunity for the club to raise money for community projects and to get other gardeners interested in joining.The club, a member of the Maryland Federated Garden Clubs-District 2, meets at 10: 30 a.m. the third Wednesday of each month at the Long Point Hall on Long Point Road.

Oriental masterpieces were brought to life with flowers at the eighth annual Art Blooms at the Walters. Thirty-one garden clubs created splendid floral interpretations of a variety of artworks at this gala event, presented by the Walters Art Gallery Women's Committee.I stopped by the museum for the preview party, where guests were greeted by Walters director Gary Vikan and Art Blooms co-chairs Berthe Ford and Ann Woodward. Cocktails and dinner, by Gail Kaplan, were set up on the Charles Street side of the Walters, but guests left that area to wander through Hackerman House as well as the 1904 palazzo building, to see the exhibit called "The First Emperor: Treasures from Ancient China."

For an hour or so next Tuesday evening, the ladies of the Ferndale Garden Club will be whisked away for a tour of England.Carol Wagner, club member, and Anne Wolfe, a Ferndale resident, are planning an exciting program highlighting English gardens for the 8 p.m. meeting at the Ferndale Senior Center.Wagner and Wolfe took a two-week trip to England in May with another garden club and have lots of pictures and experiences to share with the Ferndale group.They went to the famous Chelsea Flower Show, the world's largest, and toured the English countryside and the city of London.

FOR GARDENERS, it's a daily battle against Japanese beetles, weeds and unpredictable weather.The flower bud that seems days away from flowering suddenly pops open in the morning sun, reaching its full potential unexpectedly and leaving the gardener to search for another to take its place.That's the dilemma facing some members of Mount Airy Garden Club as they prepare for the club's first flower show in years. The event, "A Novel Idea," will be held Thursday at Mount Airy branch library.Hundreds of annual and perennial flowers are needed to fill arrangements.

No doubt you've seen some of the Greenbriar Garden Club's handiwork. Members pool their efforts to care for a plot at Whipps Cemetery. They arrange greens at historic Waverly mansion and help decorate the place at Christmas. They have planted and cared for a therapeutic garden at Harmony Hall, Columbia's retirement community.Two members, Viola Barth and Diane Kowalski, planted dogwood trees at the A.M.E. Church cemetery in Daisy, Maryland.And if you haven't seen their group efforts, certainly you've admired the beautiful gardens surrounding Ellicott City homes, some of which belong to Greenbriar members.

Wild flowers, art, 4-H projects, the Wye Oak, conservation and herb gardens are a few of the subjects on the agenda of the Cattail River Garden Club this month. Concerned about vanishing wildflowers, the group has sent part of the proceeds from its fall dried flower sale to the Wild Flower Seed Court in Austin, Texas.The Wye Oak, a 400-year-old white oak in Wye, may soon die, but the CRGC and others are trying to insure that its progeny live on.Members have donated seedlings to Bushy Park, Lisbon and West Friendship elementary schools, Glenwood and Mount View middle schools and to Glenelg High School.

Gray Norton Worthington Salmons, an environmentalist and gardener, died Tuesday of complications from a stroke at Upper Chesapeake Medical Center in Bel Air. The Churchville resident was 82. Born in Charlotte, N.C., she moved to Baltimore when she was young. She graduated from Forest Park High School and earned a bachelor's degree from Maryland Institute College of Art. She met John D. Worthington III during World War II before she graduated. Although Mr. Worthington was not called to duty, the war forced the bride to be resourceful in pooling ration stamps for their wedding reception at the Baltimore Country Club.

Don't be fooled by the Garden Club of America woman. Beneath her prim gardening apron and polite smile lies a passion for earthy delights, a penchant for pushing the boundaries of accepted horticulture and, yes, even a streak of political activism.And you thought it was all white gloves, big hats and little wedge-shaped sandwiches."We're not just pretty flowers anymore," said Ann Cherry of Baltimore, a member of the Guilford Garden Club. "We're realigning our thrust more to the environment and conservation."