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Club Committees Arbor Day Click here for pictures or Click here for slide show. Arts in Bloom/Cultural Arts Alliance Beautification Bulb Ordering Challenge Plant December Holiday Dinner Click here for pictures or Click here for slide show. "Flora in Winter 2010", Worcester Art Museum Click here for pictures or Click here for slide show. Click here for pictures or Click here for slide show. Healing Garden Holiday Gazebo Decorating Photos TBD Holiday Library Decorating Photos TBD MLK Day of Giving Back Newsletter Plant Sale Fundraiser Click here for this year's information (TBD) Poly Arts Scholarship/Education/Grants Scholarships are available to anyone from the public who wishes to pursue this education. Contact us for more information. Senior Gardening Program Click here for pictures or Click here for slide show. Veterans' Breakfasts Wayside Inn Decorating Click here for pictures or Click here for slide show.
Committees 
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In 2009-2010, the Club will continue to collaborate with the Boy Scouts. Instead of planting a tree, we hope to eliminate invasive species that are killing local trees and then replace the plant material with native species.
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Five years ago, the Cultural Arts Alliance in Hopkinton invited the Club to interpret the artwork of award winning pieces from their annual juried art show in April/May. Since then, the CAA offers us a yearly venue for members to participate and try out their floral arranging skills. Always a hit with the artists and the public, this has quickly become an annual event.
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(Note: If you do not have high-speed Internet access, the pictures might take a while to appear on your computer screen.)
One of the most significant Committees in the Club (and the most popular) is the Beautification Committee. The beautification of Hopkinton includes three seasonal plantings at the Elmwood School, the Welcome Sign (across from Golden Pond), the Doughboy Memorial, the Town Common Water Trough, Colella's Triangle, the median strip across from the Middle School and the downtown flowerpots. This is true gardening including planting, fertilizing, watering, and weeding plants, both perennial and annual. Most new members spend some time on this Committee learning more about gardening and helping make our Town as beautiful as can be.
Photos TBD
In spring and fall members gather together to select the latest and greatest bulbs for fall and spring planting. Orders are made and received in the fall and spring, making for beautiful member gardens.
For those unafraid to take a risk and perhaps have a good laugh, every October a "Challenge Plant" is chosen. Members can choose to purchase the plant and grow it for several months at home. At the last meeting of the year, all the plants come back and a vote is taken as to the "best in show" and the "worst"!! Not for the weak of heart!! But it is great fun and members can show off their horticultural prowess.
Every December, members gather at special eateries to celebrate the Season. Always a special evening complete with decorative floral arrangements, honors are conveyed, holiday songs are sung, and food & cheer abound.
With "budding" and experienced floral arrangers in the Club, the past two years members have interpreted an art piece provided by the Museum at this annual Museum event. Last year's challenge was to interpret the oil painting Untitled, painted by Ilya Bolotowsky. Arrangers used parrot tulips, kangaroo paw, calla lilies, amaranthus. An iron structure was made as a container. The Club will participate in 2010.
Fundraisers
The Club plans a major fundraiser every year. We have had the Holiday Open House, where professional floral arrangers present anecdotal and educational information to members and guests; Garden Tours whereby the Club seeks out unique gardens around Hopkinton for the public to enjoy; and in September 2008 the Club presented its first "Kitchen/Garden Tour". In 2009, the Club will host a Holiday Open House, featuring nationally-known and Honorary Member Diane Bullock. In June 2010, the Club will host a Spring Garden Tour.
In 2009 we began discussions of and set aside money for the design and building of a Healing Garden to be located on the grounds of the Cultural Arts Alliance at 98 Hayden Rowe Street. This new committee will meet with a designer, plan and make a breakdown of specific jobs, forecast expenses and ultimately install the Healing Garden. The Healing Garden’s purpose will be to provide a pleasant respite area with multi-sensory stimulus to promote healing and restfulness.
The Veterans Memorial Gazebo on the Hopkinton Town Common provides the Club with the opportunity to help make the community a festive holiday place. Lights are hung, and greens and wreaths are strategically placed to make the gazebo beautiful. The Downtown Revitalization's Annual Holiday Walk ends at the Gazebo with hot chocolate for all.
A longstanding community beautification effort, this Committee decorates the Hopkinton Town Library right after Thanksgiving for the December and New Year holidays. Greens and ribbons abound and the public truly enjoys the scene and has often commented that this is the most memorable event that we do in town!
In January 2009 the HGC participated in the 2nd annual MLK Day of Giving Back. This event occurs on Martin Luther King Jr. Day and is a town-wide volunteer effort. This year the HGC provided clay pots for students to decorate with paint pens. The students painted positive messages and art and then planted each pot with an easy to care for plant. The pots were then handed out at the Senior Center where they were having a special luncheon. It was a great success and we plan on participating in January 2010.
The Club publishes two or three newsletters during the year to update members and the public on news, the latest gardening issues, fundraisers, and committee doings. For those who cannot attend every meeting, this helps keep members abreast of what is happening.
In order to fund our many community and educational endeavors, we hold an annual plant sale fundraiser the Saturday after Mother's Day in May. Members contribute plants from their own gardens and the Club also purchases plants for resale. The public shows up early and sales are brisk. It is the perfect time for planting.
This annual town wide event held in September on the Hopkinton Town Common provides the Hopkinton Garden Club an opportunity to share its mission with the public. In 2009, the Club prepared an educational exhibit on the "2009 late tomato blight". Membership applications are always available.
Annually, the Hopkinton Garden Club reserves funds for students, young and old, to educate themselves in some form of Horticulture, Design, Environment and/or related subjects. Last year, we gave two scholarships to graduating seniors ($500 each).
One of the Club's most well attended and appreciated programs is Senior Gardening at the Hopkinton Senior Center. This Committee provides monthly and seasonal hands-on programs to the seniors, from speakers to making their own container gardens. Also, the Club has incorporated the High School's Senior ArtReach Club in some of their programs. This makes for a very successful multi-generational program.
On the first Friday of each month, the Senior Center hosts the town’s resident veterans for a special breakfast. The Committee meets on the first Thursday of each month (from September through June) to arrange centerpieces at the Senior Center in Hopkinton. The Committee’s members take turns chairing the arranging and picking up flowers at one of the local florists or using their own plant material.
The Hopkinton Garden Club returns for its fifth year to decorate a dining room during the Christmas season at the historic Wayside Inn located in Sudbury, Massachusetts. By invitation only, the garden clubs are selected by the Sudbury Garden Club to participate in a two year interior design commitment working with a theme selected by the management at the Wayside Inn. The theme for years 2009 and 2010 is “Christmas Around The World” and the Hopkinton Garden Club will be decorating the Washington Dining Room, centrally located at the Inn, reflecting the delicate designs of the country of Japan. This committee is a terrific way for garden club members to transfer their creative talents from the garden to indoors during the winter season. The Wayside Inn is the continually oldest operating Inn in the United States of America and has been designated as a National and State Historic Landmark. The funds to decorate the Wayside Inn are now solely funded by the Inn itself and the Hopkinton Garden Club is honored to participate.
