Flowers, Flowers and More Beautiful Flowers in every innovative form imaginable will star at the “FLORAL FÊTE” – the Talbot County Garden Club’s 2025 Spring Symposium and Luncheon. This celebration of floral inspiration is designed to captivate you and your friends from 9:30 am to 3:30 pm on Tuesday, April 22 at The Oaks Waterfront Hotel in Easton.

In addition to spectacular floral displays, the day’s delights will include a délicieux plated luncheon, excellent refreshments, exciting onsite vendor boutiques, and three stellar speakers offering a range of demonstrations on floral and related horticultural topics:

• Author Linda Jane Holden: “The Art of the Possible: Stories and Lessons from a Self-taught Gardener”
  Prolific garden design author, self-taught garden historian and White House & Bunny Mellon gardens expert. Her book Nantucket Looms: A Legacy of Style will be released in March 2025.

• Floral Designer Sandra Sigman: “French Blooms: Floral Arrangements Inspired by Paris and Beyond”
  Second-generation floral designer, author of French Blooms, founder and operator of Andover, Massachusetts’s Les Fleurs, and curator of all things French.

• Artist Anne Thompson Blackwell: “Pressing Botanicals: Harvesting Nature’s Bounty”
  A trained artist and plantswoman who employs centuries-old traditions, Anne collects foliage and flowers for preservation from some of the most picturesque regions of the eastern US.

Tickets are available online at https://talbotcountygc.org. Tickets are $175 per person. A limited number of premium tickets at $200 per person may be available if tables are reserved for 8 or 10 persons. Tickets to this biennial event traditionally sell out well in advance.

As the club’s major fund-raiser for the year, proceeds will help support the Club’s good works and green projects for the Talbot County Community. These include beautification and maintenance of four parks in the Town of Easton; holiday decorations for public buildings; free gardening lectures open to the public; involvement with Young Gardeners, Meals on Wheels, Talbot Hospice, Talbot Interfaith Shelter, and The ARC and Benedictine Adult Services; and partnership programs supporting the Town’s Rail Trail Extension and U.S. Post Office grounds landscaping.

Paige Connelly and Tracy Garrett co-chair this year’s event.

For questions, contact [email protected]. 

Speakers on the menu for Talbot County Garden Club’s
April 22 Biennial Spring Symposium are:

Author Linda Jane Holden	Floral designer Sandra Sigman	Artist Anne Thompson Blackwell

Talbot County Garden Club invites you to a practical lecture by Native Bee, Bumblebee and Wildlife Advocate SAM DROEGE of the USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center. Droege’s talk is titled “Helping Native Bees in Talbot County: It’s Easier Than You Think!” His presentation takes place at the Talbot County Free Library in Easton on Tuesday, January 28 beginning at 11 am as part of the garden club’s complimentary 2025 Winter Lecture Series.

According to Droege, the bee list for Talbot County includes 187 different species of bees. New ones are discovered each year. Some are found in Easton, others in areas like the Conservation Park in Oxford, on Poplar Island, along roadsides, and on private properties. What ties these sites together are healthy populations of native flowers. Some are planted; others are simply allowed to grow. Droege will discuss how property owners, groups and municipalities can support these bees and tell some fascinating stories about collecting bees in Talbot County.

Having spent his career at the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, part of the U.S. Geological Survey’s Eastern Ecological Science Center, Droege has become expert in developing, designing and evaluating wildlife inventory programs. His team is currently inventorying and monitoring native bees, and developing tools, techniques and manuals, plus a bumblebee floral survey for citizens with online identification guides at www.discoverlife.org

The garden club’s 2025 Winter Lecture Series continues on Tuesday, February 25 with a presentation by SAMANTHA NESTORY, engagement manager at Stoneleigh, a natural garden in Villanova, Pa. Nestory will offer insights and tips for creating a modern garden that supports wildlife through native plants and sustainable landscape practices.

Questions about these programs should be directed to: [email protected]

About the Talbot County Garden Club

The Talbot County Garden Club is known for its “good and green works” that benefit the Talbot County community. The club was established in 1917 to enhance the natural beauty of the local environment by sharing knowledge of gardening, maintaining civic gardens, supporting civic greening projects, encouraging the conservation of natural resources, and fostering the art of flower arranging. Noteworthy projects include grounds maintenance at the Talbot Historical Society, Talbot County Free Library (Easton), and the Fountain and Children’s Gardens in Idlewild Park; greenery installations for Easton’s Rail Trail and U.S. Post Office; plus an ever-growing number of outreach activities. There are currently 120 active, associate and honorary members.   

Talbot County Garden Club welcomes guest speaker, Jessica Bonilla, director of Horticulture at Washington D.C.’s Hillwood’s gardens, on October 22nd  at 11 AM at the Talbot County Free Library in Easton.  The event is free and open to the public. 

Bonilla tends to thirteen acres of formal gardens at the grand estate rebuilt by Marjorie Post in the 1950s. The garden is sectioned into outdoor rooms that are designed to extend the home’s porches and terraces.  Each room is meant to complement the mansion’s interior space and offers both privacy and a connection to adjacent gardens through subtle transitional features, encouraging an intuitive flow from the French parterre to the rose garden and onto the Friendship Walk. 

Join Bonilla as she shares an insider’s view on Hillwood’s garden design, sculpture, and the plants that fill these spaces, plus the ever-evolving management of the grounds, including a deeper dive into the maturing Native Garden. For more details, visit https://talbotcountygc.org.

Talbot County Garden Club gave a check for $25,000 from Talbot County Tour funds to two historic churches in Trappe and reported that donated and discounted work valued at an additional $10,000 helped complete major restoration projects at both properties. Participating in Tuesday’s donation ceremony were (l. to r.): Talbot County Tour co-chair Zandi Nammack, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church Vestry representative George H. Meyer, Jr., Scotts United Methodist Church pastor Charles A. Bell, Jr., and Talbot County Tour co-chair Kim Eckert.

Talbot County Garden Club hosted a lemonade social at Scotts United Methodist Church in Trappe on June 16 to celebrate the success of the 2024 Talbot County Tour of the Maryland House & Garden Pilgrimage. Dedicated to the restoration and preservation of historic properties, the May 11 Tour drew more than 2,000 “pilgrims” to seven outstanding private properties. Tour proceeds from ticket sales and sponsorships – greatly amplified by service providers’ discounts and donations – will cover major infrastructure projects at two historic churches in Trappe: Scotts and St. Paul’s Episcopal on Main Street and brick ruins from the related old White Marsh Church on Almshouse Road and Route 50.

Scotts had an extensive stormwater drainage issue that threatened the church’s 225-year-old foundation. Lane Engineering, civil engineers, donated survey and mitigation planning services to address the issue. McHale Landscape Design Inc., completed the mitigation work at a huge discount. 

At St. Paul’s, the 1858 brick façade of the church and ruins of the older parish church needed repair. Tour funds covered extensive brick repair and repointing at a sizeable discount, thanks to Marth Masonry.

According to St. Paul’s Vestry representative George H. Meyer, Jr., “The Tour funds have sparked a new energy for the church. Not only do we have ‘new’ bricks, we are tackling deferred maintenance ourselves – painting inside, installing a handicap ramp and more.”

In acknowledging the donation, Scotts pastor Charles A. Bell, Jr., said, “Tour funds will help preserve our church for future generations. Without a strong foundation, this church would not stand.” 

In addition to representatives of both churches and members of the garden club, principals of the Maryland House & Garden Pilgrimage and several owners of the 2024 Talbot County Tour properties attended the celebration. 

The Talbot Historical Society Garden and Five Corners Fountain Garden, both historic sites in Easton, will share in Tour proceeds through the garden club’s ongoing maintenance programs there.

As a biennial event, the Tour will return with a different roster of distinctive properties in May 2026. 

The TCGC Talbot County Tour Committee includes (front row, l. to r.): Louise Peterson, Mary Helen Cobb, Nancy Thompson, Caroline Benson, Chloe Pitard, Eleanor Denegre; (middle row): Laura Carney, Colleen Doremus, Tracy Garrett; (back row): Co-Chairs Zandi Nammack and Kim Eckert, Carolyn Rugg, Pam Keeton, Fran Jenkins, Maxine Millar, Georgia Adler, Virginia Sappington, and Maribeth Lane. Committee members not pictured: Rebecca Gaffney, Susie Granville, Marsie Hawkinson, Pat Lewers, Rita Mhley, and Sara Robins.

An array of exciting Eastern Shore properties await your visit during the Talbot County portion of the 2024 Maryland House & Garden Pilgrimage, Saturday, May 11 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., rain or shine. The Talbot County Tour is exceptional and not to be missed!

The Tour gives you rare access to some of Maryland’s most iconic homes and gardens, reflecting the unique beauty of Talbot County: Canterbury Manor, Ellenborough and a lovely home on Hanson Street (all in Easton) plus Chloras Point Farm, Ferry Farm House, Lloyd’s Landing, and Trappe Landing Farm (all in Trappe). 

The Talbot County Garden Club, which organizes the Tour, has participated in the Maryland House & Garden Pilgrimage since its inception in 1939. As a fundraiser, this year’s Tour will support facilities preservation and restoration at two significant historic sites – Scotts United Methodist Church and Saint Paul’s Episcopal Church (White Marsh Parish) in Trappe.  Tour proceeds will also help support TCGC’s maintenance of the Talbot Historical Society Garden and Idlewild Park’s Five Corners Garden in Easton.

For Tour and Pilgrimage details, check MHGP.org / 410-821-6933.

To purchase advance-sale tickets at $40 by May 1, go to buy.stripe.com/cN2eWcc7RexN5207sO. Advance tickets are also available in Easton at Bountiful and Garden Treasures and by mail to TCGC, PO Box 1524, Easton, MD 21601 with checks payable to MHGP. Day-of tickets at $45 may be purchased at all Tour sites and at Momma Maria’s in Trappe. 

For an optional $17 box lunch menu with full ordering, payment and pickup instructions, visit talbotcountygc.org. (Advance lunch reservations are required and must be received by May 1.) For lunch questions, contact Madeleine Cohen ([email protected] / 917-434-1886).

For questions about the Talbot County Tour, contact co-chairs Kim Eckert ([email protected] / 410-703-6592) or Zandi Nammack ([email protected] / 973-476-6211).