Garden Club impresses with Architecture Pizzazz

With the surrounding architecture as its inspiration members of the Sarasota Garden Club built up floral designs for the annual flower show themed “Sarasota Architecture with Pizzazz.”

Architectural inspiration for floral designs, horticulture and photography ranged from early Sarasota landmarks of the 1920s like the Mira Mar Hotel and Southside Elementary School to modern buildings like One Sarasota Tower. 

Participants like Clare Milligan used unorthodox materials like air conditioning filters to achieve the surface of the buildings that served as inspiration. Milligan competed in the Freestanding Duo Design class for floral arrangement that required both sides of the arrangement to be separate designs. Her assigned inspiration that ultimately won her the blue ribbon was gothic-inspired Sarasota High School. 

“I thought of air filters a long time ago because I used them for something else and thought I could use it in this too,” Milligan said. “I was never so shocked in all my life to win the blue ribbon.”

“We have so many talented members. I looked around and thought I would hate to be a judge,” said C.J. Dana, Sarasota Garden Club first vice president.