Julia Turnipseed opened wide the doors to her sunlit home for the Plantation Garden Club March meeting with co-hostess and mother Judith Mitchener.
Some business notes of interest: PGC will be touring the Sky Lake Boardwalk near Belzoni to view very large ancient Cypress trees. A lovely lunch has been organized for our group, and you will hear all about that next month.
Our new president for 2025-26 will be Sara Flautt Wilson, and vice president will be Letitia King.
We were exceedingly proud to vote in two new members Sydney Turnipseed and Ana Tyner, both residents of Sumner.
Our very own Maude Schuyler Clay, well-known photographer and author of “Delta Land” and “Delta Dogs,” introduced her husband and our speaker, Langdon Clay.
To say Maude and Langdon need no introduction reaches far beyond the Delta to museums in Paris, New York and just about anywhere you can hang a beret. They have made their mark, equally yoked, so to speak.
Langdon presented the garden club with a fabulous slide show of photography from his early years when working throughout the globe for such publications as Home and Garden, Architectural Digest, House Beautiful, Southern Accents, Traditional Home and more.
Langdon shared some behind-the-scenes stories of a magazine photo shoot. As with all photography, lighting and the message you want to convey are key. This requires early morning and late evening shots.
The shoot editor arranges the day and staff. It may take several days’ work for one location and magazine issue.
One lovely photograph of a garden brought a memory to both Julia and Judith when they said they recognized the garden having been there and, in fact, the owner had asked about Langdon! Such a God wink moment I attribute to our deep Delta artistic roots
In Langdon’s travels, he has met many garden designers and stressed the number of women garden designers who were well- known for their art across the country. Serious students of garden designers will recognize the names of Edwina Von Gal, Ngaere Macray, Florence Yoch and Eudora Welty.
Of all the slides shown, I picked the one that made me smile; Ladew Topiary Garden, Monkton, Maryland. It’s of dogs running around. Can you imagine the work? Somebody mows my yard and cuts my box woods and that’s it, folks.
