Anniversary year for Flower & Garden

The Kilcullen Flower & Garden Club's first session of the autumn/winter last week was quietly special. Almost to the day it was the tenth anniversary meeting.



Although they still meet in the same place, it has changed over that decade, from a rather run-down former Girls School to the sparkling Parish Centre which the building is today.

But the interest remains the same, when the darkening evenings encourage members to get together and keep the winter at bay by discussing and learning about flowers, about growing them and arranging them.

"It's also a very sociable thing," says Mary Shortt, who has been one of the stalwarts of the club for eight of those ten years. "And it isn't just sitting and watching demonstrations, some of the most enjoyable nights are the 'hands-on' ones where
people bring their own stuff and do their own arrangements. We can compare and develop different ways of doing things."

Mary acknowledges that a significant part of the enjoyment is in the conversation over a cup of tea at the end of a session. "Everybody brings something, and the craic can be mighty for an hour or longer, with the yarns and stories and chat."

Each Christmas there's an outing for a Christmas dinner, and during the summer the group travel together to see good gardens around the county and the province.

Last week's opening meeting of the season had Carlow woman Helen Lucas demonstrating. The next meeting is the third Tuesday in October, when Marie O'Leary will demonstrate the quiet craft of posy-making.

Brian Byrne.