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THE GARDEN CLUB OF TEANECK’S DECORATING AT SKYLANDS
short short video overview tour:
Room with a View: GCT's Holiday Display at Skylands
Photos: Pat Fromm, Aura Altieri, Robyn Lowenthal, Pat Libutti, Doug Raska.
Video: Pat Libutti.
Robyn Lowenthal and Doug Raska worked on a design for the "Breakfast Room" at Skylands Manor for their Holiday Open House, opening the first week in December.The overall theme is "A Gardener’s Holiday."
Since the room is very much in an Italianate style we chose to theme our entry "A Room with a View", after the E. M. Forster novel about English tourists in Italy. We also decided to create the feeling of winter holidays in Italy with an oleander, citrus tree, bay laurel, fragrant flowering bulbs and an array of plant material, instead of the artificial greens so much used recently in place of living plants.
Garden Club of Teaneck theme: "A Room with a View."
Garden Club members Stella Franco, Danielle Brooks, Robyn Lowenthal, Olga Newey, Pat Fromm and Pat Libutti made ornaments for the many holiday trees that were part of the room's design.
On Thursday, November 10th Members were making ornaments for the GCT exhibit at Skylands, “A Room with a View.” Materials for the ornaments used many ingredients. Vintage Italian postcards from Florence and Rome were embellished with gold: braid, rick-rack and glitter. Cinnamon sticks, pine cones and star anise were combined with dried orange slices, creating a translucent decoration that was aromatic.
The cornflowers were placed on the Breakfast Room table to signify a key passage in Forster's book. "He saw radiant joy in her face, he saw the flowers beat against her dress in blue waves. The bushes above them closed. He stepped quickly forward and kissed her."
The New Jersey Botanical Gardens/Skyland Holiday Open House is an annual event that many look forward to attending each year. Well, that time came. The dates were Thursday, December 1st to Sunday, December 4th, each day, 10 AM-4 PM.There were also two evening receptions, Friday, December 2nd and Saturday, December 3rd.
Each year, the theme for the Open House varies. It is always exciting to go through the Manor and be amazed by each organization’s interpretation of the theme.
Volunteers from each organization contribute their talents and time. This year, the Bergen County Master Gardeners, the Passaic County Master Gardeners, the Ringwood Garden Club, the Wyckoff Garden Club, the Garden Club of Teaneck, and other organizations and individuals designed one of the Manor rooms.
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| Breakfast Room before decorations were added. |
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Overview of the Breakfast Room, replete with leaded glass windows, an elaborately carved green marble lavabo, a plaster mold constructed ceiling, and a large hanging lamp, all ornamented with fresh plants and ornaments. Leaded windows extend the space into the Ramapo Mountains.
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| Orange slice decorations made by Garden Club of Teaneck members. |
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| Glass decoration seen on trees everywhere at holiday time. |
La Befana is an old woman who comes to visit children on Epiphany, January 6th.
If you were good, she brings you a gift, but if you were bad, she gives you a piece of coal.
Next to La Befana , in a wooden table top box, is a whimsical table top display of the Nativity. Two toy cars, the Alpha Romero and Ferrari, are parked outside a terra cotta crèche. The Wise Men visited in style.
A White Pine tree is decorated with hand-crafted ornaments, glass and porcelain balls, and vintage Italian postcards. The tree is surrounded with fragrant plants: Lime, Rosemary, Lemon, Oleander, Narcissus, and Poinsettias.
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Janet Austin, Garden Club of Teaneck member and Master Gardener,
finished her docent shift for MGBC and came to "smell the flowers" . In the elaborate green marble lavabo to Janet's left are Glacier Ivy, Angel wing begonias, Vick's plant, Monterey Cypress (lining the shelf), Cyclamens, and Poinsettia.
Below: The lavabo without floral decoration.
 Lavabo without plants   |
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Robyn Lowenthal and Doug Raska, designers of the "Room with a View" horticultural exhibit Skylands, Dec. 1-4, 2016. They are next to the lavabo in the Breakfast Room. Thank you, all, for preparing this beautiful display! The “Look” of this Project would never have happened without ROBYN LOWENTHAL & DOUG RASKA, who led the design and production of this project. DANIA CHEDDIE, Volunteer Coordinator, Skylands, helped to get us involved with the project. She coordinates all the volunteers from different organization's for the Holiday Open House.
Plants: Jerry Limone donated the Cypress, Gaultheria, and a Lime tree.
Plants were lent by Denise George, Rocco D’Angelo, and Sarah Jones.
Transportation/Set up: Phil Brown, Mark & Pat Fromm, Stella Franco,
Bob O'Brien, Len Schwartz, Carmin Costa & Olga Newey.
Decorations: Stella Franco, Danielle Brooks, Robyn Lowenthal, Olga Newey,
Pat Fromm, and Pat Libutti.
Photos: Pat Fromm, Aura Altieri, Robyn Lowenthal, Pat Libutti, Doug Raska.
Video: Pat Libutti.
Text: Dania Cheddie, Robyn Lowenthal, Doug Raska, Pat Libutti.
Docents: Pat Fromm, Laurie Ludmer, Victor Thomas & Yuan Hui Liu,
Anna Kurz , Anne Ediger, Robin Jackson, Annemarie Papa, Stella Franco. Aura Altieri, and Olga Newey. |
