The Florida Federation of Garden Clubs (FFGC) annually supports the Unsolicited Landscape Design Award (ULDA) program to recognize well-designed and maintained landscapes in the public or private sector in each district of the state. The meaning behind the “unsolicited” title is that the nominees are not applying for the award themselves, but someone else recognizes it is a landscape of merit and worthy of consideration.
This year, Wellington Garden Club members nominated two Wellington area gardens to receive the Unsolicited Landscape Design Award in the Private Residence category. One residence is owned by David & Rhonda Perez, and the other is owned by Brian Rau. Both properties feature lush, well-maintained and well-designed landscapes featuring unique and colorful plantings that showcase the homeowners’ love of gardening.
Candidates for this award are submitted each spring by garden club members. Applications are sent to the District X ULDA Chair for eligibility and consideration. The next step is a site visit and evaluation by garden club members who have completed National Garden Clubs Landscape Design School. The highest-scoring nominee in each category is the winner. This year both residential landscapes scored a perfect 100 as determined by a panel of three Landscape Design Consultants, and thus each was a winner in the Private Residence category.
The selection of the two winners was announced in April at the FFGC District X Spring Meeting. Soon thereafter the award was presented to the homeowners by Stormi Bivin, District X ULDA Award Chair, and Carol Ralph, WGC President 2023-25. As she presented the awards, Bivin announced, “The beauty of these gardens illustrates the motto of the Wellington Garden Club, “Gardening Makes a World of Difference”.
Wellington Garden Club, founded in 1981, is a nonprofit organization dedicated to educating its members and the public in the fields of gardening, horticulture, floral design and landscape design. For more information, visit www.wellingtongardenclub.org.
