District V closed out the first term at our Annual Meeting held at Holly Hills Country Club. Right around this time concerns over Covid19 were ramping up, state universities were sending students home, gatherings of over 250 people had been banned and anxiety was rising over travelers entering the U.S. from hot spots abroad like Italy where the situation was grim. So the mood among the members of District V was a bit anxious and days later Gov.Hogan forbade gatherings over 50 people which meant there would be no Federated Garden Club Annual Meeting following in March. As cases in the state ramped up, businesses began to close down, organizations ceased to meet, including volunteers like our federated clubs and master gardeners ceased meeting. Eventually “social distancing”, a “stay at home” initiative and wearing homemade masks, gloves and experiencing shortages of particular products became the new normal. But this was not how it seemed to many people, beyond some discomfiture with what we were hearing on the news, the day of our annual meeting…
This torso and head was one of the artistic expressions displayed to the public at the Maryland Home and Garden Show in March.
District V members were asked to make table arrangements with a Ikebana flavor. Black square containers had been provided though not all made use of them.
Our speaker was Royko Royston, who gave an demonstration on types of Ikebana using her fabulous collection of containers and plant materials–including some branches that had stubbornly refused to force by the date of the meeting! She also displayed a few arrangements by her students.
Royko thinking through her arrangements as she works– display side is facing her.
Here are most of the final pieces. All the plant materials were raffled off to members to make their own arrangements.
