Attend a Garden Party in Winter
Nationally acclaimed creative gardening expert, author, speaker, consultant and radio show host C.L. Fornari of Cape Cod, Mass., will give a virtual tour of her floral, vegetable and fragrance/bird gardens, providing creative gardening tips along the way, during a “Garden Party in Winter” to be presented virtually by the Kenilworth Historical Society on Sat., February 26, at 2 p.m.
During the enlightening and entertaining virtual stroll through Fornari’s gardens, participants will have the opportunity to view, from the comfort of their homes, colorful combinations of annuals and perennials, acquire innovative ideas for planters and other containers on porches and decks, gain useful guidance for growing vegetables and easily preserving or cooking them with the harvest and discover creative ways to have fun with plants.
For a registration fee of $20, participants will receive an electronic link to attend, via Zoom, the approximate 50-minute virtual program and question-and-answer session. They also will be sent a recipe for one of Fornari’s refreshing garden-based cocktails (which can be made with or without alcohol) to enjoy during the garden party; a package of pre-wrapped shortbread cookies; some seed packets; and a program outline that highlights many of Fornari’s plant recommendations and gardening techniques. For further information and to register for the program, please call 908-709-0434.
Proceeds from the “Garden Party in Winter” event will benefit the Kenilworth Historical Society’s Oswald J. Nitschke House (c. 1880) “living history” museum and cultural arts center by helping defray operating expenses, including the cost of an elevator that makes all levels of the site (“living history” museum, exhibition center and cultural arts center) fully accessible to everyone.
C.L. Fornari is a master gardener and garden consultant who transformed from artist to garden communicator in 1995. She has authored eight books including, most recently, Sand and Soil – Creating Beautiful Gardens on Cape Cod and the Islands, published by David R. Godine Inc., and numerous articles for a variety of well-known publications. Fornari also is a published photographer. She is the host of GardenLine, a call-in talk-radio program aired on WXTK 95.1 FM, and co-host of Plantrama, an award-winning podcast produced with Ellen Zachos. Fornari is a sought-after speaker and educator at horticultural trade shows, garden clubs, botanical gardens and master gardener symposiums nationwide. In 2012 she was named Garden Communicator of the Year by the Perennial Plant Association, and in 2013 she won three awards from the Garden Writers Association. In 2015 Fornari launched the first annual Cape Cod Hydrangea Festival, a 10-day regional celebration of open gardens that raises funds for local non-profit organizations.
The Oswald J. Nitschke House “living history” museum and cultural arts center, which features heirloom and “teaching” gardens, is one of Kenilworth’s few remaining original 19th-century farmhouses and the former home of the late Mayor Oswald J. Nitschke (1867-1934). Notably, it is the only museum of its kind in the area to portray and interpret everyday life in the early 1900s, particularly the inspiring story of
late 19th-/early 20th-century immigrants in a developing suburb.
The Kenilworth Historical Society is an independent, volunteer-based, non-profit, tax-exempt, 501(c) (3) organization that, as owner and operator of the Oswald J. Nitschke House “living history” museum and cultural arts center, is dedicated to the research, preservation and interpretation of the historic home, local history and culture. To learn more about Kenilworth Historical Society programs/activities, please visit the organization’s website at www.kenilworthhistoricalsociety.org and follow the Kenilworth Historical Society on Facebook.
