Garden club sells wreaths

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Garden club sells wreaths

 

The Hillsdale Garden Club's logo/Facebook
The Hillsdale Garden Club’s logo/Facebook

The Hillsdale Garden Club gave Hillsdale residents the opportunity to begin preparing for Christmas, discover their green thumb, and support beautification projects throughout the city with its annual green sale, which concluded Oct. 15.

Now that the nonprofit garden club has finished taking orders, members are beginning to construct 150 floral arrangements, wreaths, roping, and swags, which are similar to wreaths but vertical.

Orders were open for six weeks and closed mid-October so there would be enough time to procure supplies from a local farm. Members of the Hillsdale Garden Club are currently assembling bows provided with all wreaths and floral arrangements. Later in November, they will begin to arrange the orders over the course of three days. Then, several of their husbands will assist with the delivery, Connie Sexton said.

“We do this every year after Thanksgiving. We start a whole production line, and deliver on the first Tuesday after Thanksgiving,” Sexton said.

With the funds it raises, the non-profit garden club sponsors numerous beautification projects throughout the city.

“This project has a long history and it benefits the community by supporting projects such as the petunia baskets downtown, holiday decorating at the public library, and Mrs. Stock’s Park,” Hillsdale resident Helen Dokey said via the group’s Facebook page.

Nearly 200 baskets of purple petunias are on display downtown thanks to the gardening club’s efforts. Other projects include planting flowers around Hillsdale’s new welcome signs; putting funds toward a bike path; and hosting a monthly junior gardening club for nearly 30 kids.

“The green sale is our only fundraiser. All of the funds are given back to the community to build a better, more beautiful Hillsdale through us,” said Connie Sexton, a member of the club. “Our mission is to provide education, resources, and opportunity, and to try to promote the love of gardening, floral and landscape design.”

The group has won several awards, including the 2015 Diamond Club Distinction, on behalf of the Michigan Garden Clubs organization.

“We have all sorts of education programs and welcome all garden enthusiasts,” Sexton said.