MCMGA Annual Dinner & Silent Auction
Thursday, October 15, 2026
5 – 9 p.m.
Northside Events & Social Club
2100 E. 7lst Street (Map)
Indianapolis, IN 46220
Come spend a lovely fall evening with your fellow Master Gardeners!
We have a new location this year – Northside Events & Social Club – and an outstanding speaker, Deborah Hardwick from Columbus, Ohio.
Enjoy a tasty buffet, learn all about clematis and bid on dozens of items that will delight and tempt you!
Ticket sales begin Sunday, September 13 and close on Saturday, October 3. There are120 tickets maximum for the dinner; tickets will not be sold at the door.
Check out more information on this webpage including:
- Deborah Hardwick’s presentation topic and bio
- Dinner Menu and link to Northside Events & Social Club
- Donation form for the Silent Auction, which you can complete and submit online. Make a donation today!
Our speaker – Deborah Hardwick
“Out with the Old and in with the New!”
This program will dispel the old, tired myths that keep gardeners of all abilities from truly enjoying planting and flowering Clematis. Clematis can be used as ground cover or to add the accent of verticality that expands space and embellishes the seasons in your garden.
Best practices will be clearly defined as a path to success with this genus as well as tons of “eye candy” to jump-start your planning for spring 2027!
About Deborah Hardwick
Clematis can be intimidating, and gardeners waste much time learning the hard way…Deborah’s passion is to enable you to grow bigger, better Clematis faster than ever before and feature them in your landscape with pride.
Deborah has gardened just north of Columbus, Ohio for 25 years, with the last 20 years collecting, studying and growing Clematis. Her private collection of Clematis is one of the largest in the world, and features over 1,000 varieties of Clematis, including species from around the globe. Native American Clematis species are an additional feature of the collection, with specimens representing the geographic distribution of Clematis groups grown from wild collected seed.
Deborah welcomes any opportunity to dispel the myths about Clematis and promote easy ways to see Clematis flourish in gardens in North America. To that end, her work trialing new Clematis and evaluating Clematis has resulted in an easy-to-understand 10-point scorecard for choosing the plants that will be winners in the garden.
Hydrangeas are a new passion and she has adapted her stoplight pruning guide (green, yellow and red) to simplify communication about Hydrangea pruning.
Collecting dwarf and miniature Conifer specimens has led to communication about standardizing plant size vocabulary to promote the sales of these delightful landscape additions. Currently serving as National Vice President of the American Conifer Society, her messaging about simplifying and making things easier to understand has resonated with garden clubs, plant societies and businesses with a variety of speaking engagements.
By vocation, Deborah consults with clients on maximizing brand potential. Her recent clients include Gardens Alive and Spring Hill Nursery, where she was tasked with consumer communications to build the company’s Clematis assortment and quality.
Her lectures feature hundreds of photographs from her garden, illustrating the diversity and beauty of Clematis, Hydrangea and Conifers in the landscape (zone 6).
Some of her recent lecture venues include The Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden, Newfields Horticultural Symposium in Indianapolis, The Royal Botanical Garden and The Toronto Botanical Garden in Canada, and the Ontario Rock Garden and Hardy Plant Society.
Dinner Menu for Thursday, October 15
Northside Events & Social Club
2100 E. 7lst Street
Indianapolis, IN 46220
M E N U
Chicken piccata with a lemon caper sauce OR (vegetarian) Pasta
Au Gratin Potatoes
Green Bean Almondine
Salad of Mixed Greens with Tomatoes and Cucumbers
Caesar Salad
Apple Cobbler
Fresh rolls, coffee and iced tea
The Club’s Lounge will be open that evening, and guests can purchase alcohol and soft drinks at the bar.
For more information and directions to the club, check out their website at www.northsideeventsindy.com.
Ticket Price = $36/person
There is no fee to register on the Zeffy site, but members MUST indicate they will not make a donation when prompted on the last page. Set the donation amount to “zero” to avoid a service fee.
Ticket sales begin Sunday, September 13 and close Saturday, October 3 OR until sold out (120 tickets). No ticket sales at the door.
Look for the link to purchase tickets on this page, starting September 13.
Silent Auction
Thursday, October 15
The Silent Auction is one of MCMGA’s most important fundraising events each year. Proceeds from the auction go towards the association’s education and garden grants, as well as to other programs that benefit members.
Bidding and buying at the Silent Auction is fun and exciting! Dozens of unique, useful and interesting items will be available to bid on. At the end of the evening, you can pay for your purchases with check, cash, credit card or Square.
But before the auction, we need your donation to make all this work! Please consider donating a gardening-related item. Big and little donations are welcome. Garden tools (new or in mint condition), gloves, pots and plant center gift cards are always popular. Art, jewelry, ceramics and scarves also sell very well. You can also offer your services – to weed someone’s garden, to coach another gardener, to sharpen garden tools – for bidding. If you need suggestions, please contact Cathy Donnelly at cathy.donnelly@sbcglobal.net.
Please donate today and fill out the donation form attached. You can complete this and submit it online. If you prefer to handwrite the form, print and fill it out, then bring it to the members’ meeting on August 20 or September 14. Rhonda Angsman will take your forms at the meetings OR you can mail them to her. Contact Rhonda directly at rangsman@comcast.net.
Deadline to submit all donation forms: September 30.
Donated items should be dropped off at Shirley Fry’s home
at 6441 Holliday Drive, Indianapolis, 46260 between October 1-10.
Donation From that can be printed and filled out
(send completed form to Rhonda Angsman)