MARCH 30th UPDATE:  The sign-up for hands-on participants for the April 19th meeting is closed. If you did not sign up, please come and observe!
NEXT MEETING:  Tuesday, April 19th, 1 PM, Wakeman Center in Vineyard Haven. 
Mariko Kawaguchi & Sue Weyl, Senior Floral Designers at Donaroma’s, will present a very special program for Garden Club Members:  "You Can Do It:  A Hands-On Flower Arranging Workshop."

ABOUT THE PROGRAM:
Our talented Garden Club member, Mariko Kawaguchi, and Sue Weyl, her colleague at Donaroma's, are looking forward to presenting an informal, hands-on, Flower Arranging Workshop for us. 

Mariko states: "Our visit to the Garden Club is an intro, informal, presentation to basic floral design. This will be hands on for the participant to create a simple arrangement using the techniques we will demonstrate. Our focus is to give encouragement, mechanical skills and artistic possibilities to Garden Club members. Our hope is to challenge and inspire new floral designers to participate in the next “Blooming Art.” 

Participants will go home with lovely arrangements they made themselves.

ABOUT MARIKO & SUE:
Sue Weyl and Mariko Kawaguchi have been great friends and colleagues for more than 20 years. Collectively, their experience in horticulture exceeds fifty years. 
 
Marikio and Sue have created award-winning orchid exhibits, and they have won numerous floral competitions on national and regional levels.  One of their more challenging tasks has been to illuminate the diversity of Donaroma’s at the New England Flower Show where they have created mobile retail booths that included interactive components to bring flowers and plant information to people of all ages and ‘green thumb’ levels. 
 
Sue Weyl runs the back of the house at Donaroma’s while Mariko handles the more public, front of the house, horticultural interactions.  Both Sue & Mariko are buyers of floral product, having experience in merchandising, styling and set design for events like “The Evening of Enchantment,” held annually in Edgartown.
 
Sue majored in Flora Culture in college; she has worked in the floral industry since she was a teen. Her natural fascination is the engineering of how anything works, especially flowers, and how to mechanically design an arrangement.
 
Mariko is fine arts driven, working in color, botanical textures with a deep interest in orchids. Before the Vineyard, Mariko designed exhibits for the Smithsonian, was a grant reader for the National Endowment for the Humanities, and a commercial photographer. Her pollen path then led her to the endless worlds of plants and flowers.
 
Mariko and Sue have shared years of friendship and professional dedication amongst millions of flowers in their glass palace.

SUPPLIES TO BRING:
  • a quart-size mason jar
  • clippers, shears or scissors
  • gloves (optional)

IMPORTANT:  
From October through May, all meetings will be held at the Wakeman (Conservation) Center in Vineyard Haven. Parking at the Wakeman Center is limited.  Please carpool. Click HERE for driving directions.
Driving to the Wakeman Center for the first time can be daunting. It's easier if you take Helen Avenue (not David Avenue). Click HERE for driving directions.