Crystal Garden Club
of Reading
With an active membership of approximately 35 members, the Crystal Garden Club meets on the second Tuesday of each month September through May in the Great Room at the Pleasant Street Center in Reading at 7:00 PM.
The Crystal Garden Club was organized in September 1955 by a group of Reading and Wakefield gardeners. The Club’s objectives are to study all aspects of horticulture, landscaping, conservation and floral design, and to participate in civic beautification within both towns. The Crystal Garden Club joined the Garden Club Federation of Massachusetts in 1957 and continues to be an active member.
The Crystal Garden Club’s Community Projects each year focus on the design, installation and maintenance of plantings at the Pleasant Street Center Garden and the Reading Fire Station Garden. The Club also participates in the planning and decorating of one room at the Hartshorne House in Wakefield for their annual Holiday Open House. In addition, the Club donates gardening subscriptions each year to the Beebe Library in Wakefield and the Reading Public Library, and provides centerpieces for various civic activities including the Reading Volunteer Appreciation Dinner and the Mother’s Day Brunch for Senior Citizens.
Membership Info
Members of the Crystal Garden Club serve on various club committees such as Ways and Means, Civic Beautification, Membership and Hospitality, and the Hartshorne Holiday Open House.
Active members are encouraged to serve on a Committee within the Garden Club. The work of these committees help to make our Club activities successful!
Photos
Second prize for
gardens in
Reading’s
Adopt an Island
Program
Hartshorne House Christmas celebration.
Get In Touch!
We're happy to answer your questions.
Meetings Schedule
The Garden Club meets on the second Tuesday of each month, from September through May
The club meetings are held at Pleasant Street Center
at 7:00 PM, unless otherwise noted.
General Meetings are open to the public.
Guests are welcome except where
“Members Only” is specified.
Recommended guest donation is $10.
Annual dues are $45 per year, which includes the cost of the
Garden Club Federation of Massachusetts newsletter, the eMayflower.
Dues are payable by March 30th for the following year.
The Crystal Garden Club is a member of the Garden Club Federation of Massachusetts,
Middlesex District, and the National Garden Clubs, Inc.
Meetings Schedule:
September 9, 2025 — “Backyard Treasures”
Social 6:30P / Program 7:00P
Connie Filosi of Stoneham Garden Club will create arrangements with materials from your home and backyard. She will demonstrate several styles, from minimalist to large, including table and ikebana-style arrangements and also give personalized tips. Optional: bring something from your garden or your neighbor’s garden—greenery, flowers, seedpods, etc.—clippers, and a container to practice with.
Theme: Apples / Hostesses: Sorrentino—Coordinator, Bergstrom, Bourget, Feagley
October 16, 2025, Thursday — “Guided by the Season”
Social 6:15P / Program 7:00P Members Only
Location: St. Joseph's Church, 173 Albion Street, Wakefield
Joint meeting of 5 garden clubs (Host: Wakefield G.C.)
Michael Derouin, floral artist and educator, will demonstrate floral artistry inspired by autumn, created in real time. Michael describes his creations as a “quiet conversation between design and nature—edited with purpose, composed with restraint.” Simply stated, Michael shows how floral designs can be improved by eliminating rather than adding more.
Hostesses: Fopiano, Hale, Jolly-Kay, Nemergut
November 18, 2025* — “Sweet & Petite” Floral Design Workshop with Terry Hale
Social 6:30P / Program 7:00P
Create a charming floral arrangement in a teacup using Ilex greens as a sustainable mechanic. Bring a favorite teacup (or two), floral snips, and a carrying box. Terry will supply the greenery and fall flowers. Bring your own flowers if you prefer.
*Note this is the third Tuesday due to the 11/11 holiday.
Theme: Fall / Hostesses: Cohen—Coordinator, Occhiuti, Panek, Ream
December 9, 2025 — “Unique Holiday Floral Designs” Social & Holiday Bazaar 6:15P / Program 7:00P
Guest Night — Shared meeting with Wakefield Garden Club
Location: First Baptist Church, 8 Lafayette Street, Wakefield
While creating arrangements, Mary Beth Hayes of Semper Virens Flowers will talk about floral design principles, where to source flowers, foliage and supplies, and how to take care of the arrangements so they last longer. She will be demonstrating five early winter/holiday floral arrangements: holiday centerpiece, porch pot, pot et fleur design, bud vase set and an Ikebana-style arrangement. Please invite your friends to join our gala evening.
All members are asked to donate pre-priced holiday or garden-related items for the holiday bazaar.
Theme: Holidays / Hostesses: Mastrocola—Coordinator, Landini, Redfearn, Redford
January 13, 2026 — “Gorgeous Gardens of New England”
Zoom Social 6:30P / Zoom Program 7:00P
Enjoy a visual tour of some of the most gorgeous gardens in New England by professional photographer Joanne Pearson. This lively presentation features Joanne’s favorite public and private gardens in the region as well as examples of the trans- formation from farmland to fashionable estates that transpired in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Her story includes rose gardens, Preservation Society of Newport properties, and the unique Bridge of Flowers in Shelburne Falls, MA.
February 10, 2026 — “Forcing Bulbs”
Social 6:30P / Program 7:00P
Forcing bulbs is easy and fun. In the depths winter we all long for a little color and sunshine. Forcing spring bulbs lets us enjoy the beauty and fragrance of spring a few weeks early and helps to make the last weeks of winter bearable. Kathi Garrity will speak about the history of bulbs, which bulbs are best for forcing, and how and why they are able to be forced.
Theme: Valentines / Hostesses: Chapin—Coordinator, Bergeron, Bergstrom, Bourget
March 10, 2026 — “Genetically Modified Plants”
Social 6:30P / Program 7:00P
Gretel Anspach is a Trustee of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, a Lifetime Master Gardener with the Massachusetts Master Gardener Association, and a recently-retired systems engineer for Raytheon. She won the MMGA Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016. Gretel established and maintains a 20,000 square foot food production garden that has provided fresh produce to the Marlboro and Maynard Food Pantries for the last ten years.
Her primary interest and focus is always on the science behind horticulture.
Theme: St. Patrick’s Day / Hostesses: Clopper—Coordinator, Cohen, Feagley, Fopiano
April 14, 2026 — “Pocket Forests”
Social 6:30P / Program 7:00P
Did you know that it’s possible to build a forest in the same amount of space it takes to park two cars? The “Pocket Forest” technique upends traditional planting advice, yet has proven highly effective at restoring degraded land. Lisey Good, founder of Wild Cohasset, will give examples of the amazing benefits to wildlife that these mini woodlands attract—sometimes as quickly as the first growing season.
Theme: Think Spring / Hostesses: Occhiuti—Coordinator, Jolly-Kay, Keane, Landini
May 12, 2026 — Dinner and Annual Meeting
Dinner 6:30P
Members Only
Join in a celebratory potluck dinner to conclude our season! Following the annual meeting we will view a members’ collective slide show. Please gather digital photos of
your garden or gardens that you have recently visited.
Theme: Let’s Celebrate / Coordinator: Keane
Announcements & News
No new announcements at this time.
Club Officers
2025-2026
President
Lauren Ream
Acting Vice President
Terry Hale
Recording Secretary
Michele Clopper
Treasurer
Joanne Jolly Kay
Corresponding secretary
Janice Feagley
Program Director
Cathie Keane