Re: Giving a great lecture

**M* <m*@optonline.net>**

Many thanks for all the kind words posted here.

Doreen, thanks for the tip on the GWA lecture bureau. I received my
membership package last week along with a copy of Quill and Trowel. I'm
looking forward to spending some time perusing the website after I get home
from the Philadelphia flower show. (Wed & Thurs. this week)

By the way, next year I will make sure I attend the Phily show when GWA is
meeting there.

Duane, only the native Americans? I thought for sure I'd have the hunchback
association knocking on my door too. Better never show you my slides of the
red neck windchimes (a rusty wrench with beer cans strung from it), or
Bubba's ride-on lawn mower (a rusty bicycle where the front tire was
replaced with a rotary mower blade). In actuality these slides were taken in
North Carolina so I think I'm safe :-)

Kate, you are correct about the difficulties at the home shows. I did a
lecture last year on the floor of Hofstra's flower show here on Long Island.
They didn't have a hands free microphone and my program was about turning
junk into garden art. There was no way I could sponge paint that rickety old
ladder and talk in a microphone at the same time. Quick improvisation and I
had my 13 year old daughter paint while I talked. That's where I met Darrel
Trout.

Betty & Jems, I will re-write the post and submit it to Quill and Trowel.
Thanks to Duane I will also add a second section geared towards the
demonstrative lecture.

Last year I did 7 lectures for a local nursery. All were outdoors, some in
inclement weather, dealing with the newest perennials on the market. My
first tip there would be to hide a pot for yourself before you excitedly
show off something new. Guaranteed it will be sold out by the end of your
talk.

Gene, you are so right about terrible speakers that are invited back again.
Several years ago a man gave me an unusual compliment. He said that he's
seen lots of lectures from plant experts that were not lecture experts. He
very much enjoyed my program which he described as an "great lecturer who
isn't a plant expert".

My typing was just interupted by a phone call. The Stewart Manor (?) Garden
club just booked a lecture. Margaret, you'd be happy to know that they
clearly specified a program on getting the garden ready for spring.

Off to negotiate with the Hort Dept at Farmingdale University. They've asked
me to design a children's garden and I told them I no longer work for free.

Melanie Vassallo
The former spagetti-spined gardener
melaniev@optonline.net

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