(Newport,
RI) A beautiful Butterfly House, and a new
competitive Photography Division are among
the highlights of the 14th annual
Newport Flower Show, June 26-28, 2009, at
Rosecliff. Presented by The Preservation
Society of Newport County and Bartlett Tree
Experts,
Glorious
Green: The Natural Path will
offer visitors many opportunities to enjoy
and learn about the beauty of our natural
world, as well as lessons on preserving and
protecting nature's treasures.
Special guests
at the show will include
David Howard,
the former head gardener to HRH Prince
Charles at Highgrove, and
internationally-acclaimed floral designer
Hitomi
Gilliam.
The
Newport Flower Show will open to the public
on Friday, June 26. Arriving guests will be
encouraged to stroll through the Butterfly
House filled with native Rhode Island
butterflies on the front lawn. The
Butterfly House will be open throughout the
weekend, until the end of the Show on
Sunday, June 28, when the butterflies will
be released following the Awards Ceremony.
The Opening
Night Party on Friday night, from 6 p.m. to
9 p.m., will launch Newport's summer season
with a cocktail buffet, live music, and
entertaining surprises.
The Show will
continue through the weekend with themed
floral exhibits, horticultural entries, and
garden designs staged throughout the elegant
reception rooms of Rosecliff, its oceanfront
terrace and lawn. Also new this year will
be a Photography Division, open to both
amateur and professional photographers, who
are encouraged to enter their nature photos
for the competition.
A Gardeners'
Marketplace offering specialty plants,
flower stalls and garden accessories will be
open for shopping on the front lawn of
Rosecliff, complementing the Oceanside
Boutiques on the back lawn, giving visitors
an exciting shopping experience.
The Newport
Flower Show will be open to the public from
10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday, June 26, and
from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on both Saturday and
Sunday, June 27 & 28. Regular show
admission tickets are $15 in advance, $20 at
the gate. A special "Bring a Friend" ticket
is available for Sunday, June 29 only,
providing 2 admissions for $24. Tickets for
children between the ages of 13 and 17 are
$6, and all children 12 and under are
admitted free.
Admission to
the Opening Night Cocktail Party and Buffet
is $125 for Preservation Society members,
and $150 for non-members.
Hitomi Gilliam, an
internationally-acclaimed floral designer
and author, will present a luncheon lecture
and an exclusive flower arranging workshop
on Friday afternoon, June 26. Gilliam has
guest-designed throughout North America,
England, Japan, Mexico, Taiwan and Hong
Kong, and has lectured on the art of flowers
and floral design at art galleries, gardens
and museums throughout the United States.
She was a 1998 recipient of the American
Institute of Floral Designers Design
Influence Award, given to individuals who
have made a significant impact and influence
with their signature design style, and the
2006 recipient of the American Horticultural
Society's Frances Jones Poetker Award, for
significant contributions to the
appreciation of creative floral designs.
Admission to Gilliam's luncheon and lecture
on Saturday is $75 per person, or $40 per
person for the lecture only. An exclusive
workshop on floral design techniques will be
limited to 20 registrants. The cost of the
workshop is $125 per person, with a
registration deadline of June 12.
David Howard
will present a luncheon lecture on organic
gardening on Saturday, June 27. Howard
served HRH The Prince of Wales for more than
a decade as head gardener at Highgrove
House, the prince's private residence. He
is a graduate of the Royal Botanic Gardens
Edinburgh, and worked as a student gardener
at Windsor Castle. His knowledge and
passion for trees and shrubs developed when
he worked for Hilliers Nursery, at the time
the largest nursery in the United Kingdom.
The cost of the luncheon lecture is $75 per
person, or $40 per person for the lecture
only.
Free lectures
and demonstrations by noted plant experts,
flower designers
and gardeners will also be presented
throughout the weekend.
For more
information and to purchase tickets for the
Newport Flower Show, visit
http://www.newportflowershow.org/, or
call (401) 847-1000.
With Newport's largest private ballroom,
Rosecliff was constructed in 1902 as a party
pavilion for one of the leading society
hostesses of the Gilded Age. This
snow-white terra-cotta mansion, modeled
after the Grand Trianon at Versailles, was
created for Theresa Fair Oelrichs, heir to
the Comstock silver lode in Nevada. It
hosted many of the most fabulous
entertainments of the period, including a
fairy-tale dinner and a party featuring
magician
Harry Houdini.
All proceeds
from the Newport Flower Show benefit the
ongoing landscape restoration efforts of The
Preservation Society of Newport County, a
private non-profit educational organization
accredited by the American Association of
Museums and dedicated to preserving and
interpreting the area's historic
architecture, landscapes and decorative
arts. Its 11 historic properties?seven of
them National Historic Landmarks span more
than 250 years of American architectural and
social development.
www.NewportMansions.org