Renny Reynolds to discuss English gardens on March 1

■ SUBMITTED BY THE BOCA GRANDE GARDEN CLUB
On Wednesday, March 1 the Boca Grande Garden Club will welcome Renny Reynolds to its monthly meeting at the Boca Grande Community Center Auditorium at 2 p.m.
He will present a program entitled “Inspiration from the English Garden,” a visual stroll through predominantly private English gardens designed by well-known English garden designers who share Renny’s outlook on the important design features of the gardens.
Renny has a wide and varied background in landscape architecture, floral design, party planning and more recently with Hortulus Farms, an 18th century farmstead and nursery operation in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.
After graduating with a degree in landscape architecture from the University of  Wisconsin, Renny opened his first shop in New York City. His career really took off when he designed a terrace garden for Bill Blass. He expanded into event design when Yves St. Laurent asked him to design the introduction of his Opium fragrance.  That led Renny to designing events at the legendary Studio 54, including events for Diana Ross, Dolly Parton, Andy Warhol, Elizabeth Taylor and Liza Minnelli.
He co-founded Renny & Reed in New York City, one of the nation’s most renowned entertaining, gardening and lifestyle experts. He also wrote “The Art of the Party,” widely known as the party planner’s “Bible.”
His event and garden designs have been featured in all major shelter, garden and lifestyle magazines, including Architectural Digest, W, House & Garden, House Beautiful, New York Magazine, Horticulture Magazine, Town & Country, and Garden Design. Clients have included U.S. Presidents Ford, Nixon, Reagan and Clinton, with events in the White House, luminaries of stage and screen, leaders of industry, countless brides, and the country’s largest and most prestigious corporations and nonprofit institutions.
In 2005 Renny left the event design business and returned to his first love, garden design, with current projects across the country. In 2008 he was awarded the prestigious “Great American Gardener” Award by The American Horticulture Society, their highest honor. Renny has served on the boards of P.S. 1/MOMA, The Brooklyn Botanical Garden, The Royal Oak Foundation, Bucks Beautiful, Fisherman’s Mark, and Heritage Conservancy of Bucks County, Pa.
A longtime member of Greater Philadelphia Gardens, Hortulus Farms was honored in 2015 by being made the second-only-in-their-history Affiliate Garden of The Garden Conservancy, giving it major new national prominence. The Hortulus Farms Foundation was created in 2000 to ensure that this historic property will continue to exist as a public place of tranquility and horticultural inspiration in perpetuity.
The program is free to members of the Boca Grande Garden Club and open to the public on a space-available basis for a fee of $30, payable at the door, by cash or check made payable to the Boca Grande Garden Club. Membership for this season is now closed, but if you are interested in joining for next season, membership will reopen on April 1 for 2017-2018.  All memberships are annual and open on a first-come, first-served basis.