For several weeks each winter, the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection’s Osborne Homestead Museum is transformed into a holiday showcase. Talented and dedicated garden clubs beautifully decorate all the rooms in this historic homestead. This year’s theme is Nature’s Friends and the Olde Ripton Garden Club Committee, chaired by Joyce Donnelly, decorated the children’s bedroom and bathroom with lemurs.
Volunteers from our Youth Gardening Program worked with students on Friday, May 31 at Perry Hill School’s Garden Club to beautify and plant flowers around school. The kids worked hard and learned a lot about flowers, the soil, plants and the environment. Proceeds from our Plant Sale go right back into the community. Bravo students for caring about your surroundings! Special thanks to Deb Tucker and her teaching staff!
On Saturday, May 18 the weather cooperated and the community turned out in force to support the efforts of Shelton’s Olde Ripton Garden Club. Perennials and Plants grown by many Club members were offered to the public as well as organic vegetables from Guy’s Eco Garden in White Hills and a delicious home-made bake sale and raffle. We were thrilled this year that students from Shelton Intermediate School joined to display their school garden club projects and plants that they grew in their classroom.
The Olde Ripton Garden Club was established in 1976 to beautify our community and is dedicated to the environment and preservation of our natural ecosystem. Our members volunteer their time, love and efforts to make Shelton a better place. Our annual plant sale proceeds fund our projects which include a high school scholarship to a student who will be studying horticulture or related field, youth gardening in our schools, senior garden therapy in assisted living facilities, design, planting and maintenance of gardens throughout the city and holiday decorating at government buildings, schools and public places of importance. We strive to work with as many other like-minded, non-profit community organizations in Shelton as possible and seek new members who are interested in the same.
We owe a special thanks of gratitude to many for the work at the Green which is still in progress. First, the Olde Ripton Garden Club Volunteers, the City of Shelton and especially Mark and Chris Hansen, a Shelton High School volunteer who came to us to perform his community service hours. Chris and his dad went above and beyond to make this renovation complete. He is a shining star and we salute him! Thank you.
The Olde Ripton Garden Club Annual Perennial & Plant Sale – many from member’s gardens, is coming to Shelton. 
Featured at the sale will be a large assortment of perennial plants as well as organic vegetables, annuals, house plants and locally made jams, jellies and pickles. There will also be a bake sale.
Proceeds from this annual event benefit the Garden Club activities including maintenance of the Shelton community gardens and scholarships.
The popular Shelton event will be held Saturday, May 18th from 9 am to 12 noon, Rain or Shine, at St Paul’s Episcopal Church Parking Lot, 25 Church Street across from the Huntington Green in Shelton.
Also on sale will be the Shelton City Flower, Rudbeckia Fulgida goldstrum, a yellow coneflower designated in 2016 by the City Board of Alderman. This item was very popular with residents last year and is expected to sell out quickly once again. For more information please visit the Club’s Facebook page and Like Us at: https://www.facebook.com/SheltonORGC.
All About “ORCHIDS”
Olde Ripton Garden Club Program May 6
The Olde Ripton Garden Club will feature a Club member as their speaker at the next meeting on May 6. Kimberly Wehger will present a colorful and informative program about “Orchids”.
Kimberly will walk the audience through an impressive array of photos and facts about the care and cultivation of “Orchids” on Monday, May 6 at Plumb Memorial Library, 10 am in the newly renovated Community Room (downstairs), 65 Wooster Street, Shelton. Members are free; visitor fee is $5 and refreshments will be served.
The Club will also present a talk by the new horticulture chair Dee Blewett
on projects for May in the Garden. Members will display flowers and arrangements from their homes and gardens of the season.
A membership drive is currently underway for the Club and new members are encouraged to join who have an interest in gardening and want to volunteer in the community. Projects include working on public gardens around town, holiday decorating at schools and public buildings in Shelton, a garden therapy program with seniors, and youth gardening in Shelton schools.
Annual dues for membership are $35 for monthly meetings (except January & February). Meetings include speakers, a light lunch, great conversation and friendly activities. Interested parties are invited to attend this meeting if they want to join. For more information Like Us on Facebook at: facebook.com/SheltonORGC.
The Olde Ripton Garden Club Annual Plant Sale on May 18 is coming up! The Club is looking for donations of perennial plants from your garden. If you want or need to divide your plants, please consider potting them 
up for our Annual Community Plant Sale. All proceeds fund the activities of the Garden Club which devotes its efforts to beautifying the City of Shelton. The Club maintains 7 public spaces in and around the City and needs your support. ORGC is a non-profit 501(c)3 organization.
We are looking for hearty perennials of all kinds and appreciate whatever you might be able to donate to the sale. Desired donations include annuals, perennials, ground covers, trees/shrubs and unusual and interesting species including houseplants. Pollinator plants are great! Digging them now and giving them plenty of sun, water and care will ensure they are healthy and happy when Plant Sale Day comes around.
If you have plants (even house plants) that you’d like to donate, please consider dropping them off at 10 am on May 6 at the next Garden Club meeting. Held at the Plumb Library in Shelton, the Club invites you to join and see what the Club is all about. If you bring a plant, visitor fee of $5 will be waived.
Meetings include a brief meeting to discuss club activities, a speaker, horticulture displays and lunch. The Club invites people who have an interest in gardening and the environment to attend. For more information, follow and Like us on Facebook at: www.Facebook.com/SheltonORGC.
The Olde Ripton Garden Club welcomes spring with a film from Martha Stewart at their next meeting on April 1. The Club will be showing a film with topics including early spring fertilizer, dividing hellebores, new herb gardens, planting primroses and arranging seasonal alliums and tulips.
The Olde Ripton Garden Club will show “Martha’s Spring Gardening” on Monday, April 1 at Plumb Memorial Library, 10 am in the Community Room (downstairs), 65 Wooster Street, Shelton. Members are free; visitor fee is $5 and refreshments will be served.
The Club will also host a talk by horticulture chair Joyce Fedorko on projects for April in the Garden. Members will display flowers and arrangements from their homes and gardens of the season.
A member drive is currently underway for the Club and new members are encouraged to join at any level of gardening – from beginner to master gardener! Projects include working on community gardens around town, holiday decorating at public buildings in Shelton, a garden therapy program with seniors, and youth gardening in Shelton schools.
Annual dues for membership are $35 for monthly meetings (except January & February). Meetings include speakers, a light lunch, great conversation and friendly activities. Interested parties are invited to attend this meeting to see if they want to join. Like Us on Facebook at: facebook.com/SheltonORGC.
IMPORTANT NOTICE: MONDAY, MARCH 4TH MEETING OF THE OLDE RIPTON GARDEN CLUB HAS BEEN MOVED TO TUESDAY, MARCH 5 DUE TO PENDING SNOWSTORM. The rescheduled meeting will be at the Plumb Memorial Library at 10 am. Hope to see you there.
The Olde Ripton Garden Club will launch its 2019 gardening season at its first meeting of the calendar year. Area gardeners and enthusiasts are asked to consider joining the Club and assist with its mission of beautifying streets, highways and grounds around public buildings in Shelton. The Club provides education and knowledge of horticulture and preservation of the environment. 
Area residents can join no matter what level of gardening they are at – from beginner to master gardener! Projects include working on community gardens around town, holiday decorating at public buildings in Shelton, a garden therapy program with seniors, and youth gardening in Shelton schools. Getting involved with activities of the Club is a good way to get to know neighbors and be active in projects related to gardening, house plants, horticulture classes, trips, landscape design, and programs focusing on pollinators, birds and conservation.
Meetings include speakers, a light lunch, great conversation and friendly activities. Interested parties are invited to attend a meeting to see if they want to join.
The first meeting will be held on Monday, March 4th at Plumb Memorial Library, 10 am in the Community Room (downstairs), 65 Wooster Street, Shelton. A nominal visitor fee of $5 is requested and helps defray costs of program, lunch, and refreshments.
The Olde Ripton Garden Club is a non-profit organization. For more information visit us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/SheltonORGC and Like Us on our page.
On December 5th a Christmas tree was decorated by members of the ORGC, led by Judy Pavone, in the upstairs reading room at the Plumb Memorial Library. Pictured are l to r: Patti Leung, Diana Wehger, Ruth Pesavento and Judy Pavone.