Turning 85 is a big deal for people. For garden clubs, it’s a huge milestone. Some clubs fold as soon as the founding group
loses interest. Many clubs ‘age out’ as
community demographics change; younger would-be members take a look at the
gray-haired ladies at meetings and go elsewhere. When a club makes it to 85 it is a bona-fide,
enduring institution.
Members of the Brockton Garden Club at project site |
Last evening I had the opportunity to be part of
the Brockton Garden Club’s special 85th anniversary
celebration. For the occasion, the club
had invited elected officials, representatives of area civic groups and presidents of garden clubs
in neighboring towns. It was, to say the
least, a Big Deal.
The Brockton Garden Club has a lot to be proud
of. For those reading this from outside
the region, Brockton is a city roughly half-way between Boston and
Providence. It is an old city with many
of the problems endemic to such communities.
The garden club there is neither insular nor aloof from the surrounding
area. It plants and maintains downtown
sidewalk planters as well as city gardens and traffic islands. It provides scholarships and camperships and,
of note, established and maintains a memorial garden at the city’s public
library. It is, in short, going strong with major civic involvement credentials.
Tony Todesco |
When you turn 85 and have that much to celebrate, you want to do something special
and, last evening, the club brought in a Big Gun. While the Brockton Garden Club is thought of as a horticultural group (aka "dirt gardeners"), they elected to invite in a speaker who is widely known for arranging flowers rather than for cultivating them.
An aside before I continue: amateur floral design is a subject about
which I write in this space occasionally but I have never attempted to put what
goes in in Massachusetts into a larger perspective. Let me correct that now. Massachusetts, by common consent, has a major concentration of gifted creative designers; one of the larger groups in the country. Some of those are “amateurs” in the same way
that the U.S. Olympic basketball and hockey teams are amateurs. They operate flower-related studios and
businesses but, when they sign up for a show, they’re competing against other talented amateurs for nothing more than a ribbon
and bragging rights.
One of Tony's designs |
Tony Todesco is a legend within this already
rarefied group. While he does not strut
his résumé, he is a Master Flower Show Judge and served as the chairman of the National
Garden Club Flower Show Committee on New Design Development from 2001 to
2009. He has developed five new design
types that can be found in the NGC’s Handbook for Flower Shows. He is currently one of a small, select group
re-writing that handbook, which is the ‘bible’ for both novice and experienced
designers. As curriculum vitae go, this is high octane. I first came to know Tony during my years as Chairman of
Blooms! at the Boston Flower & Garden Show, where, when he wasn’t
designing, he would be the lead judge for the ‘top awards’ panel.
... and another... |
It takes one set of skills to be a top designer
and another, very different set of skills to be a top judge. It requires a completely different aptitude
to stand up on front of a large group of people and create ‘wow’ designs
without putting an audience to sleep.
Tony gets an Award of Excellence for showmanship in this last category.
A floral designer hired by a club is expected to
put together four or five arrangements in about an hour, explaining what
they’re doing as they go along. Tony did
seven stunning designs in about 70 minutes.
He made it look effortless. And
he told stories.
Stories are an integral part to winning over an
audience during a floral design or container gardening demonstration. They’re part of a ‘patter’ that both
establishes a rapport with an audience and fills in the blank spaces that
punctuate the execution of a design (you can only say, “I’m going to add some
more plecanthus in the back to draw
the eye to rear of the design” so many times before people doze off).
... and another. |
But you can tell them about your cat named
Montgomery and how he came to be named for your favorite wholesale flower supplier
in Northborough, or that while he is a stray you took in, you gladly spent a
thousand dollars to repair Montgomery’s chipped canine. You can tell them about your thirty-something
son who has come home to “take care of you” and refuses to get the hint that it’s
way past time to get a place of his own.
You can regale your audience with tales of having purchased land in then-far-away
Sudbury at the age of 18 for a pittance, and that your parents were convinced
there were still raiding parties from the King Philip War lurking. These were some of Tony’s stories, and they
kept the audience’s attention: entertainment coupled with education.
It was a great evening made all the more memorable
because the event commemorated a milestone for a worthy organization. My lone regret? I have to follow Tony as the Club’s speaker
at its April meeting and, while I’m not doing floral designs, comparisons are
inevitable. I guess I'd better brush up my tales of my own T.R., another cat with expensive dental issues.
Having lost my sense of smell, I now stop to look closely at the roses and other flowering bushes. Not that I grow them well; I appreciate the talents of others. Not all arrangements are appreciated as art, and not all art is appreciated as having been arranged. I admit, I don't often understand The Far Side humor, or the fascination with Picasso. But then, I find wildflowers in their natural setting absolutely beautiful. I will send you a poem I wrote about my simpler favorites.
ReplyDelete