Claire Smith will be the guest of honour for the ACT Art Gallery’s key fundraising event, TeaGarden.
Smith, a teacher at VanDusen Botanical Garden and who is regularly featured on the CBC as an authority on plants, will be giving a talk on the power of plants in modern day medicine.
The fourth annual event originally started off as a plant sale and has since evolved into an appreciation of nature overall.
“That seems to have resonated very well with our community. For instance, last year we had a speaker on bees. This year is Claire Smith, who’s a nutritionist and gardener and very interested in the application of the botanical qualities of plants, not just in the garden, but in the wild,” said art gallery curator Barbara Duncan.
“The breadth of her knowledge runs right through plants, to nutrition, to cooking, to gardening,” she continued.
Karla’s Specialteas and Hansel and Gretel Bakery will be supplying refreshments for the fundraiser.
There will also be a raffle of floral baskets provided by Amsterdam Greenhouses and Garden Centre, shrubs from Piroche Plants and honey from Mellifera Bees.
“It’s a really fun event. Although it’s instructional, you are sitting there enjoying very fine teas and goodies,” said Duncan.
“Smith is just an inspiring speaker. Maybe if you don’t think you are a gardener, you will be by the time you’ve heard the lecture.”
• TeaGarden takes place on May 29 from 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. at the ACT Art Gallery, 11944 Haney Place, Maple Ridge.
Tickets are $40 each, with $20 eligible for a tax receipt, and can be purchased in advance at he ACT or by calling 604-476-2787.
For more information, go to www.theactmapleridge.org.