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06/22/2016 08:30 AMLois Nichols likes bugs, and she has a degree in entomology (the study of insects) from Penn State to prove it. She also holds a master’s degree in biology from Brown University, and worked at Yale, Wesleyan, and Pfizer as a molecular biologist until she retired in 1999. Lately, she’s been putting that training (and some other talents) to work educating state gardeners about their insect allies.
The Madison resident has lived in town since 1963 when her late husband Alan’s job as an analytical chemist for the Olin Chemical Corporation brought them to the Connecticut shoreline. Lois and Alan met as students at Penn State.
Their daughter Karyn lives in Virginia with Lois’s two 20-something grandsons, Nicholas and Eric, and their daughter Kirsten lives in Texas.
After retirement, Lois joined the Garden Club of Madison and continued sharing her passion in a different way.
“I do have that [scientific] side to me,” Lois says. “I also have a creative side, and I’ve been very active in design, actually, since I joined—I’m also a gardener, so I exhibit horticulture.”
It started when Lois attended one of the garden club’s flower shows in town and was invited to a general meeting in the fall of 1999, when she became a member. She took her involvement a step further by attending flower show school to stand on the other side of the exhibitor table as a National Garden Club accredited master judge.
Flower show school’s curriculum is geared toward prospective flower show exhibitors and judges as well as anyone interested in flower design and horticulture.
After a fruitful decade or so, Jacqueline Connell, then-president of the Federated Garden Clubs of Connecticut (FGCCT), the state’s branch of the National Garden Clubs, appointed Lois as chairman of special projects for 2013 to 2015. Her topic of interest was native pollinators and bumble bees.
“What she didn’t know at the time is that my undergraduate minor was entomology, and when she found that out, she was just jumping up and down,” Lois says with a chuckle.
Lois researched and wrote monthly articles about pollinators for the FGCCT newsletter for two years.
“I’ve also got a slide presentation I’ve shown to garden clubs,” she adds. “I call it the Buzz about Pollinators.”
A necklace Lois designed featuring a real dragonfly, and a necklace and earring set featuring real bees, are featured in the National Garden Clubs, Inc., Vision of Beauty calendar, which showcases the artistic abilities and talents of National Garden Clubs members, and the organization’s magazine The National Gardener. The jewelry is for show only, Lois says.
“There’s a division of flower shows called artistic crafts, and you use all-plant material to, in my case, make jewelry. In some cases you decorate an object. It could be a hat, it could be a box, something like that, or a shoe. It just depends on the theme of the show, what they’re asking for. I’ve had other designs published over the years, but most recently it’s been the jewelry.
Lois’s refined design chops were honored by FGCCT when it appointed her the design committee chairman for the 2014 to 2016 term. She plans to teach flower design at her church, St. Andrew’s in Madison, but details are still being finalized. She also was an exhibitor at the 35th annual Connecticut Flower & Garden Show this past February at the Connecticut Convention Center.
When asked her favorite kind of flower, Lois replies, “Whatever’s growing in my backyard. I don’t have a favorite kind. I love day lilies. I’ve got a vegetable garden, about 30- by 40 feet, and then I’ve got flower beds all over the property. It’s an acre lot, but it’s not all under cultivation.”
Lois has made a life out of working with insects and plants, but she also handles animals pretty well.
“I’m active in dog show competitions,” she says. “I do obedience competitions. Right now I just have one dog, my German shepherd, Nikko. He’s 7.”
Lois is passionate about pollinators, but doesn’t keep any as pets. However, she gets plenty of bees as visitors.
“I don’t have beehives,” she says when asked. “With the dog, that just wouldn’t work. Because of all the flowers and vegetables and things that I grow, there are bees in the yard all the time.”
For more information about the Garden Club of Madison, visit www.gcmadison.org. To learn more about FGCCT, visit www.ctgardenclubs.org.