The Coral Gables Garden Club will welcome the holiday season on Thursday, Nov. 5, with a live floral-design demonstration by Mario Fernandez, owner of Belle Fleur, combining elaborate arrangements, professional design tips and piano music.
A Floral Extravaganza with Mario Fernandez begins at 10 a.m. at Coral Gables Congregational Church, 3010 De Soto Blvd. Tickets are $45, with proceeds supporting the club’s educational and community programs.
Fernandez, an honorary member and longtime supporter of the Garden Club, will create holiday-inspired arrangements before an audience, sharing techniques and stories from his career. Event designer Ivan Garcia will join him, while Coral Gables pianist Marina Berberian provides live music.
The program also includes a luncheon buffet, mimosa bar, homemade bake sale and raffle offering guests an opportunity to take home some of Fernandez’s creations.
Holiday flowers with a patriotic touch
This year’s floral designs will incorporate a patriotic theme marking the 250th anniversary of American independence, according to the Garden Club’s event announcement.
Fernandez and Garcia will demonstrate arrangements intended to inspire holiday decorating while sharing practical techniques that visitors can apply at home.
For Fernandez, the presentation continues a relationship with the club that organizers say stretches back more than 15 years.
His career began far from the elaborate floral arrangements for which he is now known.
In a March 2019 profile published by Coral Gables Magazine, Fernandez recalled moving to Miami from Nebraska at age 12 and entering the floral business by making deliveries for a woman from his church who owned a flower shop.
He subsequently worked at several floral businesses before establishing Belle Fleur on Alcazar Avenue in Coral Gables. The shop had already been operating for two decades when the magazine profiled him.
The Garden Club describes Fernandez as an internationally recognized floral designer whose work has appeared at events for entertainers, athletes and public figures. Its promotional materials identify clients including Oprah Winfrey, Jennifer Lopez, Gloria and Emilio Estefan and members of presidential families.
Thursday’s presentation offers visitors a closer look at the design process behind such arrangements, with Fernandez working before an audience rather than presenting finished pieces.
A floral tradition returns
The Garden Club introduced its Floral Extravaganza series in 2018, inviting prominent designers to demonstrate their craft while raising money for community programs.
Its inaugural guest was Sybil Sylvester, owner of Wildflower Designs in Birmingham, Alabama, and author of Fresh. The club’s account of earlier events says Sylvester drew a full house.
The following year, London-based designer Kathryn Parrish demonstrated holiday table settings, wreaths and arrangements before another sold-out audience. The finished creations were raffled, giving guests the opportunity to take home arrangements they had watched being made.
Fernandez has participated in the series before, including a 2022 presentation featuring arrangements for multiple holidays. He also appeared at the club’s 2025 centennial celebration, where he presented a program on floral design for the home.
The series reflects the club’s longstanding interest in making floral design accessible to both experienced gardeners and residents seeking to learn new skills.
Music accompanies the morning
Pianist Marina Berberian will provide live music throughout the celebration.
Born in Armenia, Berberian studied in the Soviet-Russian musical tradition and earned advanced degrees from the Yerevan State Conservatory and Florida International University, according to the organizers.
She is the founder and director of Hi Key Piano Studio in Coral Gables, where she teaches piano performance and music theory.
A 2016 report in Community Newspapers described Berberian’s arrival in the United States in 1991 and her subsequent graduate studies at FIU under pianist Kemal Gekic.
She is also a member of the Garden Club, bringing another local connection to the event.
Organizers have not announced her musical selections.
A century of gardening and civic beautification
Founded in 1925, the same year Coral Gables was incorporated, the Coral Gables Garden Club has spent more than a century promoting horticulture, conservation, environmental education and civic beautification.
Its original 35 members included Althea Merrick, mother of city founder George Merrick, and his wife, Eunice Peacock Merrick, who became the club’s second president.
Early members exchanged seeds and cuttings, experimented with plants suited to South Florida’s subtropical climate and organized sales to finance landscaping at local schools and public spaces.
Those efforts helped shape the city’s garden landscape, as the Gazette reported during the club’s centennial celebration.
The organization has grown to nearly 150 members, with projects ranging from school gardens and environmental education to tree planting, pollinator conservation and scholarships.
Thursday’s event will take place in a building with a parallel history.
George Merrick commissioned Coral Gables Congregational Church in honor of his father, Solomon Merrick, a Congregational minister. Designed by the architectural firm Kiehnel & Elliott and completed in 1925, the church became an early gathering place for civic and cultural activities.
The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.
That shared history makes the century-old church a fitting setting for a celebration presented by an organization that helped establish the city’s horticultural character.
Tickets and event information
The event is sponsored by the Marlene Kerdyk Beautification Fund, established by the Kerdyk family in 2018 in memory of a longtime Garden Club member.
Proceeds support the club’s educational and community programs.
Tickets are $45 before any online processing fees. Seating is limited, and tickets may be purchased through the Garden Club’s event page or its Eventbrite registration listing.
A Floral Extravaganza with Mario Fernandez takes place Thursday, Nov. 5, beginning at 10 a.m., at Coral Gables Congregational Church, 3010 De Soto Blvd., Coral Gables.
The morning combines floral design, live piano music, food and a raffle, with the proceeds carrying forward the Garden Club’s century-long commitment to the City Beautiful.
Author: Coral Gables Gazette News Staff
Originally established in 1996 and relaunched as a digital publication in February 2025, the Coral Gables Gazette is an independent local news organization dedicated to factual, objective and accountable community journalism. Our newsroom reports on the people, policies, institutions and events shaping Coral Gables, Florida, providing residents with timely, informative coverage of the issues affecting their community. Our reporting includes City Hall, local government, municipal elections, public spending, real estate development, business, education, arts and culture, and neighborhood affairs throughout the City Beautiful. We follow City Commission decisions, examine public records and report on the businesses, organizations and individuals contributing to Coral Gables. We believe informed residents are essential to a healthy, engaged community. Stories published under the Coral Gables Gazette News Staff byline are prepared or compiled by the publication's editorial team. We strive for accuracy, fairness, transparency and clear distinctions between news reporting, opinion and advertising. Readers are encouraged to submit news tips, corrections, editorial inquiries and story suggestions through our Contact page and learn more about our standards through our Editorial Policy.
