MGC Greens Sale Prepartions

Double click the green arrow to rerun the slide show

Everyone in the Mystic Garden Club is working diligently on the Mystic Garden Club Greens Sale. The work begins in September and builds to a frenzy of activity by the week after Christmas. Even before the week of assembly women are busy going around cutting and gathering greens from all over town. Holly bushes are trimmed, unwanted evergreens are cut down. Members fill truck beds with greenery.
Meanwhile the pre-orders are taken and organized. So on Monday morning after Thanksgiving decorators and drivers arrive to create and deliver these wreaths all around town. Gift wreaths are given to a number of places around town, including the Nature Center, the Denison Homestead and the Mystic & Noank Library.
By Day 4 it is unbelievable the amount of beautiful decorations that have been lovingly created by skilled hands.
Happily the weather is holding clear through Saturday and we are anticipating a terrific 35th Annual Greens Sale.

Wreath for the Groton Town Hall

Photo by Pamela Arguelles

Every Year the Mystic Garden Club creates an enormous wreath to hang on the Groton Town Hall. Here is this year's wreath ready for going to the town hall.

Cutler School Science Courtyard

The Mystic Garden Club donates to many worthwhile causes. Barbara Rousseau has photographed the courtyard of the Cutler School Science Courtyard
They Mystic Garden Club donates to many community organizations. The Cutler School received funds from the Garden Club for their Science Courtyard

Seasonal Decorations along with the plantings

Photos by Barbara Rousseau

MGC November Meeting

The Mystic Garden Club November Meeting was terrific. The Church Fellowship
was invited to participate. The lunch was delicious as always.

Luncheon Centerpiece Arrangement by Elsie Johnson

Our presentation was by Diane Hartlin did a terrific demonstration on holiday decorations. She began by describing all the materials she uses. She shared her secret of using an old frying pan to melt wax and dip the decorations into the hot wax rather than using picks and wires or a glue gun.

Diane Hartlin showing the centerpiece in process.

Note the frying pan full of hot wax to dip the decorations into.

The centerpieces she created were beautiful. They were raffled off and Ellie won the first one.

Ellie was our first winner!

Our Second Winner Donata Delulio!

Beautiful creations!

The Mystic flower boxes were recently cleaned out. Most boxes contained potato vines and this year was the second annual potato contest. Linda McArthur won for the largest (heaviest) potato. Nancy Noise and Kay Hill won for the longest potato. Carol Connor had the most unusual potato - it looked like it was smiling at us!

Linda McArthur receiving first prize for the largest potato.

Kay Hill receiving the prize for the longest potato

Barbara shows off the most unusual potato.

Sue Johnson shared facts on raising bromeliads.
Mary Katherine Porter and the design committee are doing a series on antique postcards. This month's gorgeous arrangement was inspired by an antique Hawaiian Postcard and created by Mary Katherine.

Garden Therapy at Mystic Manor

It's known as "Garden Therapy". Every month 8 or 10 members of The Mystic Garden Club visit Mystic Manor Nursing Home. Arms full of greens and flowers, we greeted the 20 or so residents that were assembled in the recreation room that morning. When we arrived the residents were enjoying their morning coffee while listening to the newspaper being read aloud. MGC members were filling baskets with florist foam and clipping the greens and flowers into sizes suitable for the containers.

After the morning news was over, the tables were covered with the old newspapers and the work began. Each resident received a basket to work on. Greens were distributed to the table for the basis of the bouquet.
Many of the residents are frail and some have difficulty pushing the stems into the florist foam. But every resident was intent and delighted in the color and shape of the bouquets as they evolved. Garden club members were there to supply helping hands but most residents took charge of their own creation. "I need a pink and a purple flower" I was told. So I hustled over to the table to find the desired colors. When I was admiring one woman's basket she told me she had gone to school for this. I tried to find out more but she was busy with her flowers. Another resident had both wrists wrapped and placed her stems with difficulty. But I learned that she had been in a Garden Club years ago and she had a definite sense of balance and desire to have her basket just so.


The time just flew by and the baskets took shape. It is amazing how a bunch of assorted greens and mixed flowers turns into 20 or more bouquets.

MGC Beautification Award

Each year the Mystic Garden Club presents a Beautification Award to the place or business that the club feels deserves recognition for the beautification they have brought to the community. This year the Award went to the Groton Transfer Station for their beautification which is named "Better Dumps and Gardens!" Below is a photo of the award being presented.

Pictured are Pam Arguelles, Gary Schneider and Karin Stuart.