Members Only Workshop

Please join us for a Holiday Centerpiece workshop with Cathy Ritch. The workshop will create a mini-fir tree made from Noble fir tips (a soft gray fir from the West Coast which grows best at higher altitudes). The mini tree will be about 14" high by 8 inches wide. Cathy first saw this tree in a florist shop in Paris (where she lived for a few years) and has since made them to decorate her church altar at Christmas time. Oasis is used, so the mini tree could last for a month or so if it is kept cool, watered, and spritzed often with water. Noble fir is known for good needle retention, so even if the mini tree is allowed to dry, it is attractive. Mini decorations can be added but will not be supplied. Bring your own decorations or add them later at home. An invitation will be sent prior to the workshop and there will be a small materials fee of $25. Click here to pay your materials fee by credit card or Apple pay via our secure EGC website online payment portal .

Workshop Facilitator: Cathy Ritch. Cathy Ritch is a gardener, floral designer, instructor, and National Garden Clubs (NGC) Accredited Master Judge. Over the past ten years, she’s been involved with the annual show of the Federated Garden Clubs of Connecticut Inc., chairing it for three years. A longtime member of the Long Hill Garden Club of Trumbull and Creative Arrangers of Connecticut, Cathy is happiest when she can create floral designs using material from her own gardens or foraged. Cathy created and coordinated FGCCT’s Beyond Beginning Floral Design workshops for which she won a prestigious national NGC “Award of Excellence”. She’s had photos of her designs published in NGC’s Vision of Beauty and exhibited at the New Britain Museum of American Art show, “Art in Bloom”, using plant material grown in her own gardens or foraged.