RED BANK – The Navesink Garden Club of Red Bank will mark 60 years of fine floral design, horticultural expertise and civic beautification with a standard flower show. “A Sixty Carat Sparkler” will take place Wednesday, Sept. 13, from noon to 4 p.m. at the Trinity Episcopal Church Parish House at 65 W. Front St. The show is open to the public.
The garden club was founded by the late Helen Langenberger, of Middletown, who convened 16 women at the Navesink Library on Kings Highway in Navesink on Feb. 18, 1947. Her love of flora and enthusiasm for sharing the joys of gardening continues to flourish into the 21st century.
In its first year, the club grew to 50 members. A Junior Gardeners group was formed, the club adopted its first civic project of beautification of the Navesink Library grounds and set up a program of speakers and field trips to member gardens.
A year after its founding, the Navesink Garden Club became affiliated with the Garden Club of New Jersey and National Garden Clubs Inc., and adopted as its mission: to provide education, resources and opportunities for adults and youth members, to expand love of gardening and floral design, which encourages active participation in civic, environmental and historic preservation projects, to protect the past and beautify the present and future.
The garden club’s current projects are many and include: maintenance of the bird and butterfly garden at the Audubon House on Sandy Hook; participation in the holiday exhibition at Monmouth Museum, Lincroft; maintenance of the butterfly gardens at the Red Bank Primary School and Poricy Park and the fence garden at the Red Bank Middle School; caring for the sidewalk planters in downtown Red Bank during the summer months; monthly garden therapy at the Care I King James Center in Middletown; continuation of successful Junior Gardener’s program at Navesink School; plant and seed exchanges for members; providing a scholarship for a college student majoring in horticulture, landscape design, or a field related to gardening. The club is completing a landscape design for the front yard of a house built by Habitat for Humanity in Red Bank.
In 2003, the Navesink Garden Club was named New Jersey Garden Club of the Year for its outstanding community involvement.
The Garden Club will host three talks in this anniversary year to which the public is invited. Oct. 10, Bruce Crawford, director of the Rutgers Gardens, will discuss “Creative Uses of Water in the Landscape” with slides; Nov. 14, Master Gardener Murray Sherman, will present “Growing Orchids – Easier than you Think”; Jan. 9, Bill Young, a wetlands and coastal consultant, will address “Rain Gardens: Conserving Water. All programs take place on Tuesdays at 1 p.m. at the Trinity Episcopal Parish House at 65 Front St., in Red Bank, following the monthly 11 a.m. meeting and lunch.
The celebratory year will conclude with a Daffodil Show on Tuesday, April 10, at 1 p.m. at the Parish House
For more information, contact Avis Anderson, president, at (732) 345-0744.