A mega-star in the world of floral design – one of only seven recipients of the American Institute of Floral Designers’ prestigious Design Influence Awards – is coming to Gasparilla Island.
Canadian floral designer Hitomi Gilliam will be the featured speaker at the Boca Grande Garden Club regular meeting at 1 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 6, at the Boca Grande Community Center.
Hitomi’s friendship with popular 2012 speaker, Els Teunissen led her to accept the invitation to Boca Grande for her presentation “ARTflor: What’s New In Floral Design?”
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Canadian floral designer Hitomi Gilliam
Hitomi advocates “thinking to create” design with flower attributes providing the inspiration to showcase the wonder of nature.
Hitomi will show exciting uses of new varieties of flowers and foliages and the latest supplies and accessories.
She will also explain and demonstrate “the newest generation of mechanics and techniques in the field of Floral Design.”
Fact Box
To Go
Who: Canadian floral designer Hitomi Gilliam
What: Boca Grande Garden Club
When: 1 p.m. Feb. 6
Where: Boca Grande Community Center
Why: What’s New In Floral Design?
Cost: $30 for members, RSVPs required
Contact: Kay Ferland at (941) 924-7328
To Go
Who: Canadian floral designer Hitomi Gilliam
What: Boca Grande Garden Club
When: 1 p.m. Feb. 7
Where: Boca Grande Community Center
Why: in-depth workshop on floral design
Cost: $30 for members, RSVPs required
Contact: Gay Darsie at 964-0976
Hitomi, author of six books, founder of the annual New Mexico conference called “Survival of the Creative Minds,” is one of the top floral designers in the world.
She also founded the Design 358 Floral Collective, a group of individuals she selected to focus on sharing knowledge to inspire, educate and grow floral design awareness within the industry and the public. Their conclusions are published in an annual Flower Trend Summit Report.
Her program is free to members and open to the public on a space-available basis for $30. Reservations for non-members can be made by calling Kay Ferland at (941) 924-7328, then mailing check to the club at P.O. Box 1246, Boca Grande FL 33921, or bringing a check to the meeting. Advance reservations for non-members required.
Hitomi will also conduct an in-depth workshop at 1 p.m. Thursday, Feb 7, at the Boca Bay Power House: “Essential Mechanics and Techniques for ARTFlor.” Space is limited. Call Gay Darsie at 964-0976.
Nardozzi plants container garden ideas
Humorous horticulturalist Charlie Nardozzi’s fertile mind offered many ideas on planting and nurturing plants in recycled containers during a Jan. 9 talk with the Boca Grande Garden Club at the Community Center.
He described how flowers and vegetables can be combined, and identified new products for container gardens. He uses edibles in all his containers. One used rosemary, rainbow chard and edible pansies.
Other tips from Nardozzie:
To keep slugs and snails out of containers, put copper strips around the top.
Use earthworm juice as a pesticide.
Mix coconut fibers in potting soil to keep it moist, then fill the bottom of large containers with plastic water bottles with their caps on to create a foundation for water to flow through.
n Use Captain Jack’s Dead Bug Spray, an organic Spinosaid, as a pesticide.
He also demonstrated how to recycle a truck, a bicycle and an old washtub to create unique container gardens and distributed lists of salt-tolerant flowers and vegetables and heat-tolerant flowers and vegetables.
At the tea after the meeting, he took book orders while Linn Berousek of Pomello Park Nursery sold orchids. She donated a large unusual orchid for a raffle won by Maribeth Cunningham.
Vice President Diane Johnson, filling in for absentee President Nora Lea Reefe, appointed a nominating committee to search for new club leaders.
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