Encouraging stewards of the environment
By Anita Stein
The Great Neck Garden Club awards a scholarship for distinguished academic performance in a horticulture-related subject to an outstanding graduating senior from Great Neck North, Great Neck South and the Village School each year. The winners had to participate in an activity consistent with the club’s dedication “to preserve the environment, learn about horticulture and engage in sound gardening practices.”
This year’s winners were James Bares from Village School, Irene Ji-Inpark from South High School and Malka Lohmann from North High School.
Integral to its mission, the Great Neck Garden Club shares all aspects of horticulture, gardening and artistic floral design. The club raises awareness of environmental issues and ways to deal with them at monthly meetings that are open to members and nonmembers.
In crowded urban environments, green spaces, as small as indoor terrariums and as large as public parks, can provide oases for calmness and reflection, appreciation for nature and places for play and recreation.
Horticulture, a branch of agriculture, has broad reach and implications, encompassing the science, practice and art of growing plants for food, medicinal uses and aesthetic appeal, stewardship of public parks and private lands to nurture and conserve them, integration into urban planning for green space development and, importantly, environmental protection, such as by identifying and controlling invasive plants, re-vegetating and restoring land disturbed by natural disasters and human interaction, and helping protect and preserve our air and water supplies.
Founded on May 24, 1954, the club also gives back to Great Neck and the surrounding communities through its philanthropic programs, including the scholarship awards to graduating high school seniors for noteworthy achievements in horticulture, participation in Meals-on-Wheels, care of the Rose Garden at Great Neck Village Green and other programs.
The public is welcome at the next Great Neck Garden Club meeting on Monday, Oct. 23, from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. at Great Neck House, 14 Arrandale Ave., when the topic will be floral design. Presenter Eileen DeRicco has been a National Garden Clubs master flower show judge, environmental master consultant and landscape design master consultant.
At this program, floral art mechanics and the differences between traditional and creative designs will be explained in accordance with the National Garden Club’s Handbook for Flower Shows, which covers growing, staging, exhibiting and judging. Finished designs will be presented and others will be created, such as fresh rose arranging in a vase. Design categories will include traditional-mass design, traditional-line design, traditional line–mass design, creative–line design, spatial–thrust design, parallel design, synergistic design, roses in a glass vase and grouped mass design. DeRicco enjoys conducting design workshops and seeing others’ creativity emerge as they work. She will answer attendees’ questions.
For information about programs or membership, call 516-305-5251.
