PUBLISHED
BY
THE
GARDEN
CLUB
OF
AMERICA
SINCE
1913
FALL
2018
Child’s Play The Language of Bark GCA Medalists Plus Hort+Culture, Dashboard, and more
FOLLIES ARCHITECTURAL WHIMSY IN THE GARDEN
#gardenfollies THIRTEEN FANTASTIC GARDEN FOLLIES AWAIT YOUR DISCOVERY ON VIEW IN THE WINTERTHUR GARDEN THROUGH JANUARY 5, 2020 Presented by
and The Estate of Mrs. Samuel M. V. Hamilton. Rob Cardillo Photography
WINTERTHUR MUSEUM, GARDEN & LIBRARY I 800.448.3883 I winterthur.org/follies
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The Bulletin :: Fall 2018
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The Bulletin :: Fall 2018
The Bulletin :: Fall 2018
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Zone I Proudly Presents
HILLSHHARBORSHHORIZONS 2019 Annual Meeting Scarves and Charms THE SCARF THE CHARM
The 35” silk scarf celebrates Zone I’s New England maritime history, settlement and culture along with the GCA’s purpose and goals through nautical symbols. Available in red/white/blue and aqua/coral/gold priced at $135.
NEW for 2019 is a compass rose charm reminding us that we are not just travelers but navigators of our destiny. Made by hand in Massachusetts. Available in 14K gold ($400), 14K gold/silver ($200) and sterling silver ($80).
To order, please mail your check, item(s), and color selections to: Libby Moore, 696M West Main Road, Little Compton, RI 02837. Please add $5 to each order for shipping and handling. Make your check payable to: GCA 2019 Annual Meeting Or order online at the GCA website: READ, WATCH, SHOP link in Members Area. See full renderings of all colors. Questions: LibbyMoor@aol.com
HGarden Club of Buzzards BayHGarden Club of DublinHGarden Club of Mount DesertH
H Piscataqua Garden Club H The Lenox Garden Club H Worcester Garden Club H
HBeacon Hill Garden ClubHBennington Garden ClubHCambridge Plant & Garden ClubHChestnut Hill Garden ClubHCohasset Garden ClubHFox Hill Garden ClubH
HLittle Compton Garden ClubHMilton Garden ClubHMonadnock Garden ClubHNantucket Garden ClubHNoanett Garden ClubHNorth Shore GC of MassachusettsH
MARCH 2 – 10, 2019
THE POWER OF FLOWERS
GET UP CLOSE WITH AN EARLY MORNING TOUR $110 per person includes: • A Private Guided Tour Before the Show Opens • Access to the PHS Members’ Lounge • Free Gift Bag For group reservations contact Johanna Schoeller: 215-988-8897, jschoeller@pennhort.org
theflowershow.com
The Bulletin :: Fall 2018
Groups of 15+ save $1 0 per pe rson if booke d by Decemb er 1, 201 8
Join Us!
2018 - 2019 Aldo Leopold’s Shack
The Garden Club of America is proud to announce its second year of educational programming available to all GCA club members. Take a solo adventure, make it a club field trip, or bring your spouse! Come for the day or plan an extended stay.
The GCA’s Rare Book Collection at the New York Botanical Garden
Registration for all events is open in the Members Area of the website.
ALDO LEOPOLD’S SHACK AND THE INTERNATIONAL CRANE FOUNDATION Baraboo, WI October 26, 2018
•
BEATRIX JONES FARRAND AND THE GCA NYC, GCA HQ November 2, 2018
•
Beatrix Jones Farrand and the GCA
THE GCA’S RARE BOOK COLLECTION NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN GCA HQ & NYBG December 14, 2018
•
Longwood Gardens
GOLFING AND THE GCA Spring Island, SC February 5, 2019
•
LONGWOOD GARDENS & THE PHILADELPHIA FLOWER SHOW Kennett Square, PA March 8, 2019
•
NEBRASKA’S SANDHILL CRANE MIGRATION WITH THE AUDUBON SOCIETY near Kearney, NE March 29, 2019
•
MOUNT VERNON BEHIND THE SCENES Mount Vernon, VA April 17, 2019
•
VISIT THE BIRTHPLACE OF THE GCA A FOUNDERS FUND WINNER Philadelphia, PA May 9, 2019
•
Old Tabby Links Spring Island, SC
www.gcamerica.org OnTheRoad@gcamerica.org 212-753-8287
Sandhill Crane
PHOTOS
Stenton House Museum & Gardens
Aldo Leopold’s Shack • Photo courtesy of Aldo Leopold Foundation Abby Aldrich Garden Woodlands, Seal Harbor, ME, designed by Beatrix Farrand • Photo by Karyl Evans Old Tabby Links • Photo courtesy of Spring Island Stenton • Photo courtesy of Stenton/NSCDA/PA Rare Book Collection • Photo courtesy of the GCA Orchid Extravaganza • Photo by Larry Albee courtesy of Longwood Gardens Sandhill Crane • Photo by Mark Seth Lender courtesy of National Audubon Society Mount Vernon • Photo courtesy of George Washington’s Mount Vernon
Gardens at Mount Vernon
THE
BLUE GARDEN
Recapturing an Iconic Newport Landscape
2015 © MILLICENT HARVEY PHOTOGRAPHY
The purpose of The Garden Club of America is to stimulate the knowledge and love of gardening, to share the advantages of association by means of educational meetings, conferences, correspondence, and publications, and to restore, improve, and protect the quality of the environment through educational programs and actions in the fields of conservation and civic improvement.
Designed by Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., from 1912–1918, the Blue Garden was renowned for its unique monochromatic palette of blues and purples. By 2012, the garden was nearly lost to invasive trees, shrubs, and vines. In 2014, the garden reopened in its original splendor, thanks to the remarkable vision and generosity of Dorrance H. Hamilton.
bulletinads@gcamerica.org or go to the GCA website (www. gcamerica.org) for the ad submission form and/or media kit.
Contact:
The Garden Club of America, 14 East 60th Street, New York, NY 10022 (212) 753-8287 • bulletin@gcamerica.org On the Cover: Siri on a hike along the Jordan Pond Trail in Acadia National Park. Photo by Melanie M. Moran Contents Page Photos: Clockwise from top left, courtesy of Longwood Gardens, City Kids staff, Gay Legg, Helen Wagner Graphic Design: Laura Case GCA Staff Administrator: Paige Trubatch
Located in Newport, Rhode Island, the Blue Garden is open on Thursdays, by appointment, at 11:00 and 2:00, from June 13–October 10, 2019.
2015 © MARIANNE LEE PHOTOGRAPHY
The Newport Flower Show
Contact Sarah Vance,Director svance@thebluegarden.org
Reserve by October 15 (winter issue); January 15, 2019 (spring issue); April 15, 2019 (summer issue); July 15, 2019 (fall issue)
Advertising:
Submission Deadlines: November 1 (winter); February 1, 2019 (spring); May 1, 2019 (summer); August 1, 2019 (fall)
Now Taking 2019 Reservations
Additional showings: Thursday, June 20 at 11:00, 1:00, 3:00 Friday, June 21 at 12:00, 2:00, 4:00
Submissions and Advertising The Garden Club of America, a 501(c)(3) organization, publishes the Bulletin quarterly. The Bulletin accepts advertising from GCA clubs, club members, and relevant companies and individuals. Media kits are available on the GCA website or upon request. Additionally, the Bulletin welcomes letters and story ideas from GCA club members and other interested parties.
Contents fall 2018 Features
Up Front 15
| President’s Letter
17 | Editor’s Letter 1 8 | Dashboard
Telling Time With Flowers Your Next Front Yard Frick Expansion Plans Approved GCA Day! Perfect Earth, Perfect Programs About: Board of Associates Mountain Mint in the Landscape
22 Child’s Play
21 | GCA Spotlight
Including Nature Memories, The Necessity of Nature, Every Kid in a Park, Out of the Classroom, Seed Your Future, Leave No Child Inside, Richard Louv
Restoration Initiative
Clippings 50 | Hort+Culture
A New Approach to Fall Garden Cleanup 52 | Ms. Smarty Plants
Best Gardening Apps 53 | Read+Watch+Listen
Children & Nature
GCA Matters 54 | Zone Meetings 59 | Milestones 61 | NewsWorthy
38
The Language of Bark
Colors and textures—the natural glory of bark
42
71 | In Memoriam
GCA Medalists
Including Laura Bush, Stephen Byrns for Untermyer Gardens Conservancy, Polly Pierce
72 | Bulletin Board
Cuttings from the Calendar
The Bulletin :: Fall 2018
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The Bulletin :: Fall 2018
Unique topiary themed gifts for the Home & Gardener.
Greeting Cards, Stationery, Guest Towels, Art Prints, Lavender Sachets, Pillows & Handcrafted Soaps.
Sign up for Michelle’s email list and receive 20% off your first order! Michelle Masters Studio 888.313.0239 michellemasters.com
A Seasonal Cookbook Featuring Historic Gardens and Public Spaces $15
For wholesale and retail inquiries, please visit
www.JamesRiverGardenClub.org
Shop Online Call: 713-773-1156 Receive 10% discount with Coupon Code: GCA Needlepoint Slippers stitched by Hand with a fresh creative flair! For ladies, men and babies!
The Bulletin :: Fall 2018
Always in Season. Autumn’s Colors Now–November 18, 2018 Coming Soon
A Longwood Christmas November 22, 2018–January 6, 2019
Nestled in the heart of the Brandywine Valley in Chester County, Pennsylvania.
longwoodgardens.org
The Bulletin :: Fall 2018
President’s Letter
Executive Board
GCA and Children No less a figure than Gertrude Jekyll—who, it turns out, was a frequent early contributor to the Bulletin—understood the importance of connecting youth to nature. In 1908, she wrote Children and Gardens, outlining ways parents could connect young people with nature. “[T]o help children … to love and value a garden is to give them a pretty one ready made,” she noted practically. “It is in every way more delightful and encouraging to a child to have the lovely flowers … at once than to have to flounder through a mass of failure and mistake.” She must have been thinking of the GCA. In so many ways, we are introducing youth to the awe-inspiring potential of nature. Our recent Club Presidents’ Survey reveals that 36 percent of our clubs work with school gardens and 46 percent offer programs for youth and underserved populations. As outlined in this issue, GCA clubs are working hard to connect children and plants, with inspiring projects around the country. We’re also recognizing great educators who work with children under 16. In 2018 we presented eight Hull Awards to teachers on the front lines. We in turn presented $300,000 in merit-based scholarships to students who will be the next generation of environmental leaders. The fact is: engaging with the next generation is more important than ever. Today, young people are often more interested in their phones than phlox; more likely to recognize brand names than native plants. Although studies regularly show that connecting with nature makes us healthier and more able to engage with others, the problem of “plant blindness” is immense, as Susan Yoder relates elsewhere in this issue. That is why, on the national level, the GCA is a major player in Seed Your Future, designed to promote the power of plants with children. We are pleased to be working with co-chairman and GCA Honorary Member Paul Redman who in this issue outlines the exciting goals of this national movement. We’ll be encouraging clubs and club members throughout the year to advance this important cause. Seeding the future. That’s an apt description of The Garden Club of America.
With thanks and warm wishes,
Executive Board 2018-19
Dede Petri, President, Georgetown Garden Club, Zone VI Debbie Edwards, First Vice President, Garden Club of New Haven, Zone II Jessie Shelburne, Corresponding Secretary, Founders Garden Club of Dallas, Zone IX Mary Harman, Recording Secretary, Country Garden Club, Zone X Cindy Hilson, Treasurer, Hancock Park Garden Club, Zone XII Marilyn Donahue, Vice President, The Little Garden Club of Rye, Zone III Anne Ferrell, Vice President, Saint Paul Garden Club, Zone XI Linda Holden, Vice President, The Augusta Garden Club, Zone VII Missy Jensen, Vice President, Carmel-by-the-Sea Garden Club, Zone XII Julie Johnson, Vice President, Little Garden Club of Columbus, Zone X Fleur Rueckert, Vice President, Fairfield Garden Club, Zone II Linda Fraser, Zone Director Serving on the Executive Board, Southampton Garden Club, Zone III Jennifer Barnette Cohen, Chief Operating Officer
The Bulletin :: Fall 2018
The Newport Flower Show
TRAVEL WITH Gardens of Pasadena & the 2019 Rose Bowl Parade December 29, 2018 – January 2, 2019
audubon
Artistic
ADVENTURES
Gardens of Yorkshire & Lake District June 7 – 16, 2019
Gardens of Japan November 7-16, 2019
June 21-23, 2019 • Newport, RI Exclusive itineraries for garden clubs. Events@NewportMansions.org
NewportFlowerShow.org
To receive a trip itinerary, contact Suzanne Betts at sbetts@pennhort.org or call 215.988.8819
Editor’s Letter
It’s All Child’s Play
Bulletin Committee
Bulletin Committee 2018–19
Madeline Mayhood, Chairman, James River Garden Club, Zone VII
Mine was a childhood spent outside. My best friend Ruth Ann and I played kick the can, poked at roly-poly bugs, and fished for minnows at low tide. In the summer we were outside from sunup to sundown, and sometimes well The Bulletin Committee—outside in New York City—last spring beyond dark. Now we’re living in a time of iEverything—when kids cite video games and texting as their favorite activities. How could picking blueberries and climbing trees have lost their lure? And to a two-dimensional mini-screen, no less. This issue of the Bulletin is all about the importance of connecting with nature—especially for children. The Bulletin team worked hard to produce a collection of articles that speak to our Child’s Play theme: they’ve recalled their favorite nature memories, reported on how botanical gardens and national parks are engaging kids, and showcased a plethora of GCA club projects that make children a priority. A conversation with Richard Louv, the journalist and author who coined the term “nature deficit disorder,” rounds out this special section. Additionally, you’ll find a stunning feature on bark in all its many forms, as well as profiles of 2018 GCA medalists. The fall Bulletin means new leadership ... and an attempt to fill really big shoes. A debt of gratitude goes to former chairmen Ann Price Davis and Gina Brandt for their energy and vision, to GCA President Dede Petri, members of the Executive Board, our Liaisons, and GCA staff for their support—and to the Bulletin Committee for a job well done. You’ll see a few design “refreshes” throughout our pages. We’ve added a new Dashboard—short, topical pieces to keep you informed. Hort+Culture is all about horticulture, the garden-inspired Ms. Smarty Plants provides tips and tools of the trade, and Read+Watch+Listen showcases books, podcasts, and programs to engage and connect. And look for the ever-popular Milestones and Newsworthy sections, joined by zone meeting reports, in GCA Matters. Our purpose reminds us that in the end we are all stewards—of the land, of our communities, and of generations to come. We truly have the capacity to seed the future. We want our children and grandchildren to love bugs, pitch tents under the stars, marvel at the exquisite bloom of a passionflower, and see animals in the clouds. In a million years, how could an Xbox or a PS4 ever compete? Enjoy this Bulletin issue. Happy reading!
James River Garden Club, Zone VII
Lorraine Alexander, Vice Chairman, Millbrook Garden Club, Zone III Kathryne Singleton, Vice Chairman, Rumson Garden Club, Zone IV Gay Legg, Vice Chairman, St. George’s Garden Club, Zone VI Betsy Bosway, Vice Chairman, Indianapolis Garden Club, Zone X zone representatives Georgia Lee, Milton Garden Club, Zone I Tamera Galvin, Ridgefield Garden Club, Zone II Christa Amato, North Suffolk Garden Club, Zone III Jennifer Reading DelVecchio, The Garden Club of Princeton, Zone IV Helen Wagner, The West Chester Garden Club, Zone V Alison Schafer, Georgetown Garden Club, Zone VI Nancy Inman, Albemarle Garden Club, Zone VII Catherine Gussler, Trustees’ Garden Club, Zone VIII Ouida Drinkwater, The Garden Club of Jackson, Zone IX Debbie Corpus, Garden Club of Dayton, Zone X Lynn Steiner, Saint Paul Garden Club, Zone XI Annie O’Brien, Arizona Columbine Garden Club, Zone XII executive board liaison Mary Harman, Country Garden Club, Zone X zone director liaison Barbara Shea, Green Spring Valley Garden Club, Zone VI finance committee liaison Ellen Ball, Garden Study Club of New Orleans, Zone IX
The Bulletin :: Fall 2018
Dashboard
Dashboard Your Next Front Yard
Smithsonian Institution, Archives of American Gardens, J. Horace McFarland company collection, 1899-1974
Telling Time with Flowers Large-scale floral clocks, with their rich colors and elaborate patterns, began appearing in outdoor public spaces at the turn of the twentieth century. Some worked like sundials, relying on the sun to mark time, while others were fully functioning timepieces. One of the earliest floral clocks is in Edinburgh’s Princes Street Gardens. It was installed in 1903. Parks Superintendent John McHattie enlisted the help of clockmakers Ritchie & Son to supply the necessary mechanical parts to actually make the giant piece function. The diameter of its dial was 12 feet, and its hands were made of long, shallow troughs of sheet metal planted with flowers. It was installed on a 45-degree incline, making it an engineering marvel. A cuckoo that popped out every hour was added in 1905. On your next trip to Edinburgh, don’t miss it. Although parts have been replaced over the years, it’s still blooming in Scotland’s capital city. And Ritchie & Son still maintain it. — adapted from an article by Jessica Brode, Garden History & Design Intern
The Bulletin :: Fall 2018
Hancock Park is a historic neighborhood in the middle of Los Angeles. Developed in the early 1920s, it is known for its stunning and varied architecture—English Tudor, Spanish Colonial, Mediterranean, American Colonial—and, sometimes, for the celebrities who call it home. Originally landscapes were designed with what was popular of the period—expansive lawns, low base plantings, and a tree or two. The result was a park-like setting with wide-open views from home to home and yard to yard. But over the years with shifting tastes, new neighbors moving in, and a changing climate, Hancock Park’s aesthetic began to change, too. After 100 years, many of the once-lush lawns are now brown from drought, and design features not part of the original neighborhood plan—hardscaping, fencing, retaining walls, circular driveways, shrubs, and individual gardens within any given property— have all been added. Butterflies and birds are becoming scarce. Members of Hancock Garden Club were acutely aware of what was happening in their beloved community. They were distressed over the breakdown of their century-old neighborhood and its diminished ecosystems, so they decided to take action. They hired urban designer John Kaliski and landscape architect Takako Tajima and launched a comprehensive study. A dialogue began about possible directions for the neighborhood in this era of drought. What has been lost and what has been gained? Is there a way to encourage design continuity and still take personal choices and environmental concerns into account? HPGC then produced an illustrative booklet, Your Next Front Yard, to address the challenges of managing individual aesthetics and neighborhood character in the 21st century. Design guidelines, prototypical front yard designs, and why native plants are important are all addressed for the homeowner who is considering making changes to their front yard. HPGC hopes their booklet will make neighborhoods more sustainable, restore biodiversity of plants and pollinators and, in their case, put the “park” back in Hancock Park. For more information, visit www. hancockparkgardenclub.com.
Dashboard
Frick Expansion Plans Approved
GCA Day!
After years of negotiation, public hearings, protests, and compromise, the expansion plan for the Frick Collection, GCA Headquarters’ neighbor, has finally received approval from the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission. The GCA joined forces with The Cultural Landscape Foundation, noted landscape architects, historians, and many preservationists to express concern that the integrity of the iconic Russell Page Garden would be compromised if the latest round of designs were approved. The plans, which had been on the table in one iteration or another for decades and once included demolishing the garden in favor of a six-story addition, had undergone significant revisions. Both the GCA and TCLF concede that the Frick did listen to some concerns raised during the long review process. “For all intents,” says GCA President Dede Petri, “much of the garden has been saved, and that is to the good.” —Madeline Mayhood, James River Garden Club, Zone VII
Katie Heins, Stony Brook GC, Zone IV; event Co-chair Stephanie Hurtt, Rumson GC, Zone IV; Susan Levy, Stony Brook GG, Zone IV; and Co-chair Mary Ellen Partel, The Garden Workers, Zone V, at GCA Day 2018 at the McKee Botanical Garden in Vero Beach. Photo by Ellie Lloyd
GCA Day brings together Florida residents and snowbirds—all GCA club members and alumni who winter in and around Vero Beach—to renew friendships, learn all about GCA projects, and be inspired with educational programs that are relevant to all our lives. Former GCA president Jane Ward relocated to Vero Beach, a quietly sophisticated seaside hamlet on the Atlantic coast, and, in 2004, she saw an opportunity to connect two important pieces of her life—the recently restored McKee Botanical Garden and the GCA. Hence, GCA Day was born. Jane, who was also a former president of The
Providence Garden Club of Pennsylvania (Zone V) and chair of the Philadelphia Flower Show, demonstrated a true stroke of genius when she brought together so many ladies with a common history. Friendships have been rekindled and new ones forged throughout GCA Day’s nearly 15-year history. Sadly, Jane died in 2012; however, we owe her a great debt for establishing this much anticipated yearly event. The most recent GCA Day event took place on a crisp morning in Vero Beach in March. Eighty-five current and former members of Garden Club of America clubs, representing many of 12 GCA zones, gathered at McKee for
a lecture, lunch, and stroll through the garden to enjoy the extraordinary horticulture collection. Jenny Rose Carey, a renowned educator, historian, author, member of The Garden Club of Philadelphia, and senior director at the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society’s Meadowbrook Farm in Jenkintown, PA, entertained the ladies with her talk, “Ladies in the Landscape.” Her historical and cultural account focused on the empowerment of women, particularly at the turn of the 20th century, when women were gaining a voice in their communities. The garden club movement was a manifestation of this newfound independence. While friendship and fellowship were the takeaways, GCA Day 2018 raised over $7,000 for McKee Botanical Garden. —Stephanie Hurtt, Rumson Garden Club, Zone IV
The Bulletin :: Fall 2018
Dashboard
Perfect Earth, Perfect Programs
About: Board of Associates How do you tap the dedication, talent, experience, and knowledge of more than 450 former leaders? If you are The Garden Club of America, you create the Board of Associates. Conceived in 1935 at the suggestion of Mrs. Luke Vincent Lockwood, the BOA is comprised of former directors, officers, national committee chairmen, zone chairmen, and annual meeting co-chairmen, many of whom still hold national leadership positions.
This lawn is organically managed—good for the land, the planet, and Blue.
We’ve all heard about fabulous BOA trips, but central to this GCA board is keeping valuable club members connected and filling a need within the GCA—from advising a committee to strategic planning. BOA members have significant experience within the
Landscape designer Edwina von Gal teaches landscapers and homeowners how not to use synthetic chemicals on gardens and lawns. Her program to the Garden Club of Palm Beach (Zone VIII), “Let Nature Happen,” focused on how to create a toxin-free landscape and was featured by the Program Committee as a “perfect program” for GCA clubs. She was the speaker at an event co-sponsored by the North Country Garden Club of Long Island (Zone III) and the North Shore Land Alliance, where she offered tips for all-natural land management. In 2013 the Long Island-based designer launched Perfect Earth Project to demystify natural lawn care. The organization’s website provides info on creating lawns that are healthy for people, pets, and the planet. www.perfectearthproject.org.
The Bulletin :: Fall 2018
organization, which affords them a unique understanding of the GCA. “Their commitment and dedication,” says Linda Fraser, executive liaison to the BOA and Southampton Garden Club member, “and their willingness to accept the responsibility of carrying forward the mission of the GCA build strong bonds of friendship based upon shared experiences and common interests.” Simply put, they are a valuable resource and represent an enormous pool of talent with a great deal of leadership experience. “Two-year terms come and go,” observes Linda, “and suddenly women who have been completely devoted to the purpose of the GCA are disconnected.” With the guidance of the BOA members, GCA hopes to create and improve on BOA communication vehicles, events, and projects that continue to foster their connection to each other and to the GCA. —Tamera Galvin, Ridgefield Garden Club, Zone II
The highlight of the summer 2017 BOA trip was a visit to the East Hampton home of Ina Garten, a.k.a. the Barefoot Contessa. Photo by Barbara Bush
Pycnanthemum muticum (mountain mint). Photo from Wikimedia
Mountain Mint in the Landscape The spring issue of the Bulletin highlighted the wonderful pollinator-attracting qualities of the 2018 Freeman Medal winner, Pycnanthemum muticum. This versatile plant has a lot of attractive features for gardeners as well: • Small, pinkish white flowers appear summer through fall and are accented by fuzzy bracts, which, when massed, look like shimmery white snow—a “cooling” effect on a hot summer day. • Its soothing tones are a nice backdrop to showier purple prairie clover, blazing stars, black-eyed Susans, coneflowers, butterfly weed, coreopsis, and phloxes. • It expands to form colonies from rhizomes, making it ideal as a groundcover in tough sites or for naturalizing, especially in areas that are hot and dry. NOTE OF CAUTION: Containing mountain mint requires persistence. To keep it from overtaking its neighbors, plant it in large buried nursery containers. Or take steps to restrict the growth of rhizomes every spring by digging around the plant. Diligence is required, however: once the rhizomes infiltrate nearby plants, they are very difficult to remove. While it prefers full sun and welldrained soil, planting it in shady spots and in clay soils will reduce its aggressiveness. — Lynn M. Steiner, Saint Paul Garden Club, Zone XI
GCA Spotlight
GCA Spotlight
Restoration InitIative by Dede Petri
W
hether it is in New York, Florida, Texas, or Oregon, clubs are facing natural disasters which threaten treasured landscapes. This is not a regional problem; it is a national, even global, challenge. Numerous scientific studies document the increasing incidence of severe storms and an ever-changing climate. That’s why the GCA introduced an urgent new program in 2017, the Restoration Initiative. This national initiative brings broad-based resources to bear in the restoration process. Much like Save the Redwoods in the GCA’s first century, the restoration initiative offers a natural organizing framework in our second. Restoration requires an understanding of the interdependence of horticulture, environmental protection, and community improvement. It harnesses the ongoing work of committees and aligns with the GCA’s purpose “to restore, improve and protect the environment.” At the 2018 annual meeting, five GCA clubs became the first recipients of this new—and continuing—grant program. Two of them are featured. In different ways and in different locales, the restoration projects share a common characteristic—resilience. And they are moving evidence of the strength and vision of GCA clubs and club members. Pictures of the Cummer Gardens in Jacksonville, Florida, tell it all. The historic gardens bore the brunt of Hurricane Irma, submerged for 24 hours in four feet of water. Plants were uprooted, fountains contaminated, and the soil salinized as unprecedented flooding destroyed an array of gardens designed by such pioneers of American
landscape design as Ellen Biddle Shipman, William Lyman Phillips, and the famed Olmsted brothers firm. The GCA’s restoration grant will help Late Bloomers Garden Club fund reconstruction of the famed Italian Garden. For more than a quarter century, Magnolia Garden Club in Beaumont, Texas, Zone IX, has supported Beaumont Botanical Gardens, the oldest public garden in Southeast Texas. Immediately following Hurricane Harvey, displaced feral hogs invaded the gardens, uprooting and eating much of the plant material. Funds from the GCA will help the club and city enclose the gardens with hog-proof fencing and restore the ravaged Monarch Butterfly Waystation, Pollinator Garden, and Grandmother’s Garden.
It is about “thinking progressively about creating a more resilient landscape that is respectful to its historic significance. … [T]o honor the historic character of the site while making improvements that correct storm-related damage and better prepare the site to withstand future storm events. [We are] ….
Photos chronicle Hurricane Irma’s destruction of the gardens and grounds of Jacksonville’s Cummer Museum, August 2017. A GCA restoration grant will enable Late Bloomers Garden Club to help with the reconstruction of the Italian Garden. Photos courtesy of Cummer Museum
committed to creating a sustainable and riverfriendly landscape.” — Late Bloomers Garden Club, Zone VIII
The Bulletin :: Fall 2018
Child’s Play
NATURE I remember working in our garden
I remember discovering that if I found
during the summer with my siblings.
the perfect blade of grass, just the right
We would be rewarded with a big
width, and held it between my palms
juicy slice of watermelon, freshly
and my thumbs positioned just-so and
plucked from the vine, still warm from
blew into it, I could make a sound
the sun. I distinctly remember the
bigger than me. — Gay Legg, St. George’s Garden Club, Zone VI
The fun of digging potatoes or picking corn and having them for dinner, of watching a storm approach on the porch, of waking up and seeing a bunny in the yard, or spotting dolphin on a boat ride never failed to delight. Each experience was unexpected and magical. — Catherine Gussler, Trustees’
In our special Child’s Play section,
fairies.” We used Rose of Sharon and daylily blooms as fairy dresses, and then we’d add a bud on the top as the fairy’s head. We’d twirl them between our fingers to make them dance and spent hours playing with these little flower friends as young girls. — Betsy Bosway, Indianapolis Garden Club, Zone X
My earliest memories include poking around in tide pools around our house on the coast of Maine. I remember yellow starfish sticking to rocks, dark green spiny sea urchins, and plucky little periwinkles, all living together— albeit briefly, only between high tides—in a microcosm of the great big sea. — Alison Schafer, Georgetown Garden Club, Zone VI
The Bulletin :: Fall 2018
down my dusty arms. — Ouida Drinkwater, Garden Club of Jackson, Zone IX
The grassy back alley where we played was also where we found
our message is simple:
milkweed pods every fall. We would
gardens are good
and blow on them to scatter them to
Garden Club, Zone VIII
My sister and I used to make “flower
sweet juices running in small rivulets
for the soul. Whether you’re 6 or 60, our unofficial mantra, peonies not pixels,
spy a split pod, pull out the brownseeds with the white, fluffy “feathers,” the winds, watching the little white wisps take flight. — Debbie Corpus, Garden Club of Dayton, Zone X
When I was about 8 or 9, I remember sitting on the prow of my grandfather’s boat as we sailed through the waves. The wind was in my hair and I was getting sprayed...there were little rainbows in the spray and it was exciting and glorious and new. I wasn’t scared—it was just pure adventure and delight. — Georgia Lee, Milton
will resonate with
Garden Club, Zone I
My family moved to Florida when I
the GCA.
was 10, and my sisters and I each got to plant our own citrus tree in the backyard. A grapefruit tree, a lemon tree, and an orange tree. Three little kids happy to start a new life in a very different environment. — Christa Amato, North Suffolk Garden Club, Zone III
Child’s Play
MEMORIES We lived near a park that had several overgrown mugo pines with spreading branches. We used to pretend they were houses, making “rooms” with pine needle beds and branches for
My early years were spent in
tables and chairs, among the branches
Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina.
and playing house. It was great
My favorite thing to do was dig in the
imaginary play. — Lynn Steiner, Saint Paul Garden Club, Zone XI
My favorite memory is going with my brother and several neighbor kids to the empty, wooded lot at the end of the cul-de-sac on which we lived and creating our own private world amidst the trees. — Helen Wagner, The West Chester Garden Club, Zone V
When I was young, I climbed trees— any tree with a strong branch low enough to grab. I would go as high as I could where I could see everything, but nothing could see me. The biggest trees—hickories, oaks, poplars—were where I felt cared for and safe. Trees were my natural home.
Did you climb trees as a child? Hunt for horseshoe crabs? Catch lightning bugs? Members of the Bulletin Committee recalled their most treasured childhood “nature memories”
Our vegetable garden provided ample meals for us throughout the summers of my childhood, and the dinner table
of nature with my own children and encourage them to become “backyard ambassadors.” I know my children will always choose being outside as their
pregnant sand fiddler—underneath its shell revealed bright orange eggs. It was just as fun to watch them wiggle crawl in your hands! — Tamera Galvin, Ridgefield Garden Club, Zone II
I was ten, my mother had been ill, and we went to England to spend the summer with my grandparents. On weekends we would drive out into the countryside, leave the cars, and walk—through fields, over hillsides, and sometimes, at teatime, into hamlets. I felt secure amid the laughter and chatter as we made our aimless— or so it seemed to me—way. Having grown up in an American suburb, I have never forgotten the wonder I felt just wandering into a natural unknown and finding it so easy to be in. — Lorraine Alexander, Millbrook
as a kick off to the pages
was always adorned with freshly picked flowers. I want to share my love
sand fiddlers. The best was to find a
back into the sand after letting them
— Annie O’Brien, Arizona Columbine Garden Club, Zone XII
sand as the tide went out and find
Garden Club, Zone IV
My two favorite memories are creating
that follow.
leaf collages in the fall by ironing the collage into wax paper and making clover flower bracelets. — Nancy Inman, Albemarle Garden Club, Zone VII
favorite playground. —Jennifer Reading DelVecchio, Princeton Garden Club, Zone IV
The Bulletin :: Fall 2018
Necessity Nature
Child’s Play
THE
OF
by ALISON SCHAFER
Georgetown Garden Club, Zone VI
The Bulletin :: Fall 2018
Child’s Play
A
As teachers, academics, and parents begin to focus on what nature means for children’s health, mental outlook, diet, and school success, even the language is changing. In North Carolina what used to be called a school “playground” is now a more serious “outdoor learning area.” The phrase (not the policy) “No Child Left Behind” has spawned “No Child Left Inside,” and Richard Louv’s influential 2005 book, Last Child in the Woods, began a discussion of what he calls “nature deficit disorder” (see article, page 36). The children of the increasingly urban, deviceconnected, overscheduled developed world have lost contact with nature and the outdoors. The equation is equally precarious for the urban poor, for whom nature is sometimes present but ignored—or missing altogether. The absence of grass and trees often translates to indifference, ignorance, and a different set of priorities born out of necessity. Whether kids are privileged or poor, there is a disconnect, and a growing body of academic research underscores the peril of that disconnect. Peril not only for generations of kids who can’t identify an owl or who don’t know that hamburger comes from cows, but for the planet and its open spaces: Will people value something they ignore? Susan Yoder, executive director of Seed Your Future, an organization that aims to promote horticulture as a vital and viable career path, calls it “plant blindness.” (See article, page 33.) “We are living in a time of great disconnection with plants,” Yoder says. “Plants are everywhere—yet plants are nowhere in most people’s minds. People aren’t
seeing the plants in the world around them.” The GCA is one of Seed Your Future’s more than 150 endorsing partners. Many academics agree. Recent studies find that the best way for kids to interact with nature is the most oldfashioned: unstructured time in undeveloped green space. And there’s a solid and growing body of research outlining the importance of outdoor time:
Setting crab pots near Fox Island, MD, during the CBF’s week-long Headwaters to the Bay program for middle school students. Photo courtesy of Chesapeake Bay Foundation Previous page: City Kids uses experiential education and outdoor adventure experiences as a lab to help at-risk children from Washington, DC broaden their sense of personal possibility and build successful life skills. Based in DC during the school year, the program moves to Jackson, WY, in the summer. In the past three years, over 95 percent of City Kids have graduated from high school. In comparison, DC has less than a 65 percent graduation rate. Photo courtesy of City Kids Staff
• Studies show that schools using outdoor classrooms and other nature-based programs see student gains in social studies, science, speech, and math. • At the University of Illinois researchers find that children as young as five show a drop in symptoms of ADHD when they interact with nature. • Researchers report a link between green neighborhoods and healthy weights in children. “I think kids could really bring about a revolution,” says Rossie Fisher, a member of James River Garden Club, who with her husband, Sandy, owns Brookview Farm just outside Richmond, VA. The Fishers make Brookview available to school groups, and it’s turned into a place where many local children see their first cow. “For the future of the country,” says Rossie, “it is vital that the kids understand where their food comes from, what’s in their food, and what’s healthy.” And there’s more: Children play more creatively and cooperatively in green areas. They show reduced stress after playing outside—the wilder the terrain and the more natural the setting, whether greener views or desert landscapes, the lower the stress levels. Open nature fosters creativity, problem-
The Bulletin :: Fall 2018
Child’s Play
solving, and intellectual growth. And time outdoors even reduces nearsightedness according to a report by the American Academy of Ophthalmology. Being outdoors is beneficial for everyone. But access to the outdoors in early childhood appears to be critical according to Louise Chawla, professor of planning and urban design at the University of Colorado Boulder. Interestingly, kids don’t need the monumental nature of an American luminist painting— they benefit from urban parks, a small garden, or even slivers of undeveloped green space in many neighborhoods. Whether children choose to be outdoors or take a school trip, the positives remain. “Parents, teachers, pastors, and others who influence the development of children need to be passionate and confident advocates for nature, and they need to be introducing nature to children at the earliest age possible,” explains Paul B. Redman, president of Longwood Gardens near Kennett Square, PA. “In particular, the connection to nature has to be made by the time children reach middle-school age or we may lose them.” Under Redman’s leadership, Longwood was one of the co-founders of Seed Your Future in 2014 (see article, page 33). He is co-chair of Seed Your Future’s National Leadership Council. And so, in programs and projects all over the United States, urban planners and designers, scholars, teachers, and parents are making a fundamental shift toward incorporating what Redman refers to as “our global garden” into children’s lives. The focus is wide, from teaching kids about seeds and gardens to protecting watersheds and animals. Project Wild, a
The Bulletin :: Fall 2018
Devon, Angus, and Herefords graze on green pastures at Brookview Farm in Manakin-Sabot, VA, where many children see their first cow. Photo courtesy of Brookview Farm Longwood is known for its innovative K-12 summer camps. Photo courtesy of Longwood Gardens
member of the No Child Left Inside coalition, pushes kids to get outside to learn about wildlife. Seed Your Future is partnering with Scholastic on an initiative called BLOOM!, targeted at middle schoolers to encourage careers in horticulture. Washington, DC’s City Kids runs a summer camp and offers weekend hikes for teenagers who are mostly from households below the poverty line. Opportunities for engagement are everywhere. And sometimes victories of engagement mean accepting the reality of a generation consumed with being plugged in and working within that reality. Parker Strand, a GCA scholarship recipient, wrote an article on how Pokémon Go—a briefly faddish computer game that involves an outdoor, real-world component—brought kids and their families to Chanticleer Garden, where he works, in Wayne, PA. Alarmed by how much time children spend on screens and how little outdoors, the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) is promoting what it calls its “Green Hour Program.” It aims “to encourage parents, schools, childcare centers, park agencies, camps, grandparents, and others to adopt a goal of an hour per day for children to play and learn outdoors in nature,” according to NWF’s website. Project Learning Tree, an environmental education program delivered in all 50 states through its network of partners, teaches teachers and other adults who deal with children how to incorporate environmental learning into their work. Project Learning Tree is not new—it has been around for 40 years and has trained over 20,000 people. It also offers the GreenSchools initiative to
Child’s Play
Wild Child’s Play Happy and healthy kids are those who scamper up trees, splash in
motivate high school students to improve the environment at school and in their communities. Even the feds are ramping up. The National Park Foundation’s “Every Kid in a Park” offers all fourth-graders and their families a free pass to any national park. And America’s State Parks label kids’ lack of outdoor time a “crisis” and sets a clear goal: “To see this nation’s children and their families again fully participating in outdoor recreation activities and rediscovering their natural and cultural heritage.” The No Child Left Inside Act, which mandated federal funding for outdoor education, died in the US Senate in 2009. But the Chesapeake Bay Foundation continues to build a No Child Left Inside coalition of schools, gardens, zoos, and museums. All of this activity is driven by two parallel concerns. The first, that outdoor time is a key part of a healthy life, stands in stark contrast to this depressing fact: The average American child spends five to eight hours a day in front of a digital screen, often at the expense of unstructured play in nature. The second, larger concern has broad implications for our planet and ourselves: Loss of contact with nature is both society’s and nature’s loss. If people don’t engage with, understand, or care about the natural world, how can it be protected? What about those Ponderosa pine and pinyon pine forests dying off in the American West or the decline of deciduous trees in the Midwest? Climate change is the culprit as the world heats up, but if the dots aren’t connected by a generation who doesn’t value those forests, what does the future look like? What is the value of a pileated woodpecker for people who don’t know that such creatures—or the insects and the trees they depend on—even exist?
puddles, and eat garden-grown veggies. They inquire, they stumble, and they get dirty. So toss that iPhone! Nurture your wild child (or grandchild) and prepare to be enchanted. Nothing is more captivating to a kid than gear, so consider curating a creative collection of tools, toys, equipment, and supplies designed for having fun outside. Check out the ingredients in this easy-toassemble Wild Child Starter Kit: • A bug-keeper jar (think Mason jar), magnifying glass, binoculars • Shovel, bucket, mini-wheelbarrow (kid-size) • Old-fashioned tire swing, sandbox • Jump rope, sidewalk chalk • Telescope • Discarded appliance box (for the coolest fort ever) • Set up a tarp, tepee, or tent Mud always brings out an inner wild child. Photo courtesy of Rusty Keeler/earthplay.net
• Kiddie pool, sprinkler, squirt gun • Craft store flower press
• ID guides (i.e., Fun With Nature Take-along Guides or Golden Guides, all designed for children) • Pencils, crayons, watercolor paints • Journal or paper Activities to consider with your wild child: • Explore wild patches in pocket parks, alleys, parking strips. • Or go bigger in public parks and botanical gardens. • Watch birds from backyards and balconies. • Join a bug count or start one of your own. • Stargaze. • Collect leaves and flowers for pressing. • Stage epic rounds of Double Dutch and hopscotch. • Hunt for four-leaf clovers. • Find the fluffiest dandelion and make a wish. • Explore worm bins and composting. • Plant a garden—in a container, a pea-patch, a balcony, or in a raised bed. • Join a citizen science project: Monarch Watch, FeederWatch, the Great Sunflower Project, NestWatch. • Draw/write in a journal. —Adapted from Pacific Horticulture, “Child’s Play,” Summer 2016
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Child’s Play
F
rederick Olmsted, whose contribution to America’s urban parks remains unparalleled, ardently believed in our national parks. By the time he died, in 1903, only five of the parks in today’s National Park Service (NPS) network existed: Yellowstone, Yosemite, Mt. Rainier, Crater Lake, and Wind Cave. But the hard-won designations of the first two had changed everything, and Olmsted, harkening back to Jefferson, saw their immense promise for bringing people humbly into nature in “the pursuit of happiness.” Many of the opportunities the parks offer today are not new—camping, hiking, swimming, horseback riding, and a host of others, including my favorite, picnicking. The movement to entice children into park activities originated not, as many believe, with NPS’s Junior Ranger program but with Yosemite’s circa-1930 Junior Nature School. Relying on games like treasure hunts and field-study booklets with questions about wildflowers and the mineral composition of granite, this model didn’t catch on. The US Forest Service’s Smokey Bear fireprevention campaign, during the 1940s and 1950s, did much more to awaken children’s interest, unsurprisingly. All the while a Junior Ranger program was bravely limping along, gathering real steam in 1992, when Yellowstone signed on. Since 2005, when First Lady Laura Bush became its enthusiastic spokeswoman, the program has been revitalized. Its modus operandi remains based, however, on study booklets, Ranger-led tours, and the awarding of badges. Somewhat perplexingly, in 2007 the NPS created WebRangers, where children can “customize your Ranger Station, earn more rewards, and play new activities!” Wanting children to benefit from physical contact with nature is a GCA given, and a heightened challenge now that 80 percent of us live in cities and their metropolitan areas. An NPS 2011 survey tracking park attendance revealed another concern: just one in ten park visitors is Hispanic and only 7 percent is African-American. Figures from 2016 show Asian-Americans accounting for a scant 3 percent. The numbers for Native Americans, who live in closest proximity to the parks, many of which encompass their original homelands, mirror those of AfricanAmericans. Collectively, 20 percent of visitors to the national parks are minorities, who are 40 percent of the population. Diversity has become a big issue for the NPS, which recognizes that, as demographics evolve, ecologist Aldo Leopold’s “land ethic” needs transmitting to those who
quite literally will inherit the earth—and take on, or not, stewardship of our most wondrous places. “Every Kid in a Park,” a 2015 initiative now run by the NPS, attempts, more determinedly than ever before, to expose children, from every background, to the parks. Launched in September 2015, it guarantees free admission to hundreds of sites for all fourth-graders and their families. Why fourth-graders? Research shows that children aged 9-11 are optimally receptive to understanding the world around them and feeling positively toward nature. Anticipating an obvious hurdle, the NPS nimbly leveraged $5 million in private funding for transportation. Falling within this broadened NPS endeavor are National Awareness Months/Weeks/Days, a smorgasbord appealing to many tastes and cultures. In Channel Islands National Park (CA), paleontologists show children the fossils of extinct flying geese and giant mice. At Canaveral National Seashore (FL) sea turtles can be observed as they lumber ashore and nest. Youngsters strong and agile enough to climb ladders and negotiate uneven trails can see firsthand the astonishing cliff dwellings of Ancestral Puebloans in Mesa Verde National Park (CO). For a week in late spring (whenever the soil becomes warm enough) 600-900 people who have won Great Smoky Mountains National Park’s spring lottery gather nightly for a “synchronous firefly” spectacle, glorious fodder for entomologists and entomologists-to-be alike. New efforts to engage families whose connections to the parks have often been tenuous appear in the National Awareness calendar alongside the Christmas Bird Count and Learn to Swim Day. Acadia National Park celebrates Maine’s Native American heritage with storytelling and woodland flute music by the Nipmuck tribe. At El Paso’s Chamizal National Memorial, last year’s Latino Conservation Week included family-friendly biking through an historic barrio and free day-camping for ages 6-12. Schoolchildren visiting George Washington Carver National Monument, in Missouri, walk a ¾-milelong prairie and woodland trail, learn about farming, and visit a science lab where peanuts are made into peanut milk. Utah’s Golden Spike Historic Site is nirvana for young train enthusiasts. Here replica locomotives travel tracks laid by the 11,000 Chinese laborers who completed the first transcontinental railroad. The unforgiving terrain and climate have inspired an all-new Junior Fireman program—for little ones 3 to 5! Perhaps a revolution in fire-control technologies will fulfill the promise of this childhood experience.
Wanting children to benefit from physical contact with nature is a GCA given, and a heightened challenge now that 80 percent of us live in cities and their metropolitan areas.
The Bulletin :: Fall 2018
Child’s Play
EVERY KID
in a PARK by Lorraine Alexander,
Millbrook Garden Club, Zone III Children observe Old Faithful, the most famous geyser in Yellowstone National Park. Photo courtesy of National Parks Conservation Association
The Bulletin :: Fall 2018
Child’s Play
Out of the Classroom... Into the Garden
I
nvesting in the future. Conservation. Preserving cultural heritages. Recycling. Love and respect for nature and for our planet. All the buzzwords are there. The difference is that they aren’t just buzzwords for the many GCA clubs across the country. They’re action words. The variety of activity is as individual as each club, but the passion for interaction with children runs through every one of them. Plus there’s the energy that comes from working with children and the requirement for physical doing. Take the North Shore GC of Massachusetts (Zone I) and its method for recovering a local wetland. Using lacrosse sticks, sling shots, and their own throwing arms, children fling dried seed balls, which they have created from clay, compost, seeds, and water,
into buffer zones of moist soil. The moisture breaks down the clay, and stratification occurs over the winter, cracking open the seeds. By summer the wetlands are teeming with butterflies, birds, and bees among pollinator-friendly plants. Involvement with children recaptures a vision of America that has always been part of our collective unconscious: America as a kind of new Eden, a land of innocence and of promise. Philosopher Reinhold Niebuhr in The Irony of American History describes this vision as the “profoundly Protestant notion that America has been singled out by God as a uniquely virtuous nation.” Greenwich Garden Club (Zone II) initiated the Young Sprouts Program along with Greenwich Community Gardens to introduce Head Start children,
ages 3-5, to the joys of gardening and growing their own food. GGC members lead weekly visits and lessons in the garden from May to August, starting with early spring planting and ending with a fall harvest. Collectively we’re teaching children to be guardians of the land, not just consumers. And that’s a monumental switch in our national self-concept. America has always been the land of bounty where lush natural resources are there for the taking. Now we know otherwise. We’re discovering the discomforts of limits—limited water, depleted soil, the loss of species and grasslands. The Garden Club of Hawaii (Zone XII) is battling the mindset of America as a country where resources can be recklessly thrown away. Members have teemed up with the Zero Waste
School Hui project (ZWSH) started in 2014 by Mindy Jaffe. The project currently operates in three Kailua elementary schools where it has turned almost 1,000 students into food waste recovery specialists who recycle daily cafeteria waste. Students learn the science of thermal composting and vermicasting (using earthworms to break down organic matter), horticulture, and economics. They also learn the process of data gathering by weighing their waste collection every day and recording it. In 2017 alone 63,500 pounds of food waste were recovered and recycled into compost; that’s about 64 pounds per student. The amount of trash going from the school to the Honolulu Program of Waste Energy Recovery (H-POWER) and landfill was reduced by
Lower-school children enjoy making seed balls in Beverly Farms, MA. North Shore GC of Massachusetts project, Zone I. Photo by Karen Werner
Head Start students water plants at Greenwich GC’s Armstrong Court gardening program, Zone II. Photo by Urling Searle
Young gardeners check produce growth for use in their school cafeteria and share with others in need. Founders GC of Dallas Project, Zone IX. Photo by REAL School Gardens
It’s a blue ribbon day for this Clark Elementary student and Paducah GC member Sid Hancock, Zone VII. Photo by Mary Hunter Hancock
Clubs Tak The Bulletin :: Fall 2018
Child’s Play
by Debbie Corpus, Garden Club of Dayton, Zone X, and Christa Amato, North Suffolk Garden Club, Zone ||| 80-90 percent. About half of the compost goes back into each school’s gardens—so no money is spent on soil amendments— and the other half is sold, raising revenues for the participating schools. Yes, recycling gives back. And gardens give back. And when we engage our children in planting and sustaining a garden, we’re cultivating in them the pleasure of unselfish giving, whether by creating a beautiful garden for all to enjoy or by growing food for all to share. Founders Garden Club of Dallas (Zone IX) has partnered with the city’s Sudie L. Williams Elementary and the REAL School Gardens program to install a learning garden at this school where 80 percent of the student body is considered “at risk.” Working with Sudie L. Williams Elementary’s garden
since its inception in 2012, club members participated in its planning—a communal effort of parents, teachers, staff, students, and volunteers—and installation. The collaboration has continued more recently in a nutrition program for which students grow produce, especially potatoes, to take home or share with others. They also use the produce to supplement their school lunches. “These are students from low-income families, engaging in giving to others in need,” said Jo Marie Lilly, who first brought REAL School Gardens to the attention of her club. “When the children donate the potatoes to somebody else, they don’t feel as deprived or needy themselves.” Gardening brings rewards— and awards. Literally. The Paducah Garden Club (Zone VII) and the Talbot County
Garden Club (Zone VI) have both helped young students enter local flower shows. In 2010 Stamford Garden Club (Zone II) began The Lettuce Challenge, a classroom competition among 1,900 students K-12 that is an extension of the Stamford School District Green Initiative for Vegetables in Education program (GIVE). Students have six weeks to grow a lettuce plant worthy of a blue ribbon. At the end of the challenge, members collect the three best plants from each class for display at Stamford Government Center, where they are judged by area gardeners. The efforts of Halten Garden Club (Zone VI) were significant in Reisterstown Elementary becoming a Maryland Green School in 2011, a designation the school has been able to maintain. Through the years club members have supported
the after-school Green Club, assisting with programs such as the Importance of Pollinators, Animal Habitats, the Life Cycle of Monarchs, and the Importance of Red Wigglers in Composting. When school populations team up with garden clubs and other community groups they take bold steps toward finding solutions to shared problems. Guilford Garden Club (Zone VI) joined forces with the Friends School of Baltimore at their campus adjacent to the Stony Run stream to tackle stormwater management. In 2008 they created a garden swale, which alleviated flooding in a parking lot and later worked again with the school to prevent further issues. “We have landscape architects and landscape designers in our club,” says Kay McConnell, a founding
This diligent arranger prepares his entry for the Talbot County GC flower show, Zone VI. Photo by Cordy Tucker
The Lettuce Challenge elicits spectacular entries from students at Rogers School. The Stamford GC project, Zone II. Photo by Mary Trehan
Halten GC member Lister Bradley helps students in the school garden, Zone VI. Photo by Julie Minch
Palm Beach GC member Jennifer Lazarra with her son and another eager digger, Zone VIII. The club provides hard hats and shovels for a yearly tree-planting ceremony. Photo by Veronica Bauer
ing Action
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Child’s Play
member of the Friends School’s gardens. With guidance from the civil engineer who advises the school, they created a design including a clay model for the contractor, and the garden is now doing its job. “It’s really fun,” says Kay. “On rainy days people peer over the edge of the garden to see the water swirling among the plants. Within two days it is completely absorbed. This particular piece of land is important in the watershed because it is shaped like a bowl, funneling water into Stony Run and ultimately the [Chesapeake] Bay.” Children’s involvement with nature brings history alive. Located in the Hudson Highlands where elm trees were a staple before the Dutch elm blight in the 70s and 80s, Philipstown Garden Club (Zone III) initiated a tree-planting
program at two schools. PGC member Christopher Radko donated two disease-resistant Princeton elms, and the club developed lessons and activities to enhance the tree planting. Similarly, for 20 years, members of the Garden Club of Palm Beach (Zone VIII) have gone into classrooms to educate students on the significance of Arbor Day, culminating in students planting a tree in a public park. Members of the Garden Club of Lexington (Zone VII) distribute packets of information on the Kentucky coffeetree, including seeds that students plant yearly on Earth Day. The packets also contain the history of the coffeetree, its many uses, and planting instructions. Today the partnership encompasses thirteen schools and over 1,400 young people. Greenville Garden
Volunteers at the Build-a-Mound event for the Native American Days festival. Greenville GC project, Zone IX. Photo by Lynn Cox
Volunteers set up for summer solstice labyrinth walk. Carrie T. Watson GC project, Zone V. Photo by Mary Gail Baldwin
The Bulletin :: Fall 2018
Investing in Environmental Educators: The Hull Award The Garden Club of America’s Elizabeth Abernathy Hull Award annually recognizes the outstanding achievements of an individual furthering the early environmental education of children. This award provides $1,000 to the recipients, who honor Miss Hull’s common sense approach to environmental awareness by inspiring children to appreciate “the beauty and fragility of our planet.” Kathy Keller, chairman of the Scholarship Committee, states that “with 27 years of winners since the award was established in 1992, and each one creating positive ripples through the environmental education of children under the age of 16, the Hull Award is truly a gift that not only keeps giving but grows in strength over time as waves of people protect and nurture our environment.” Administered by the GCA’s Scholarship Committee, the Hull Award is open to GCA club members and non-members. Any member of a GCA club may make a proposal. The application forms can be found on the Member’s Area of the GCA website on the Scholarship Committee page. —Catherine Gussler, Trustees’ Garden Club, Zone VIII
Club (Zone IX) has partnered with the Mississippi Department of Archives and History for the past ten years to host an annual festival, Native American Days, at a Native American mound site it helped purchase and protect from developers. Over 4,000 schoolchildren attend this event every year. Ultimately, gardens evoke in each of us a sense of our own humanity, a response to both wonder and beauty. The Carrie T. Watson Garden Club (Zone V) solved the age-old debate— which is more beautiful, art or nature?—by combining both in the installation of a walking labyrinth 12 years ago at Lake Erie Arboretum in Frontier Park. Summer solstice is a special day at the labyrinth for children as well as adults. This
year’s theme, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” included a fairy garden nestled in the shelter of a huge willow tree, rock painting, making fairy wings and dragon wings, giant bubble making, and a prayer tree. Best of all, walking the labyrinth provided an opportunity for children to quiet themselves while enjoying nature at its finest. Sara Jorgensen, whose WoodsideAtherton Garden Club (Zone XII) resurrected a garden at a largely Hispanic school in a low-income neighborhood, notes that “The children thrive in the gardens. Even the wild ones calm down and focus.” While she was working in the garden last year, a student asked, “Do you know that this garden is the most beautiful place on earth?”
Child’s Play
Saving Our Green-Collar Economy by Paul B. Redman, CEO, Longwood Gardens, GCA Honorary Member
The United States is not alone in facing the challenge of an ever-diminishing pipeline of horticulturists, botanists, and other chlorophylloriented careers. This is a global concern. No matter where I travel—whether the United Kingdom, France, China, Singapore, or Australia—I hear the same question: where are the future plant professionals coming from? It’s unfathomable to me to imagine that some day we may not have a body of educated plant professionals caring for our global garden. Thankfully, a bold group of concerned leaders is doing something about it right here at home. Seed Your Future was established in 2014 to advance an understanding of the importance of plants and of the people who work in the art, science, technology, and business of plants. Seed Your Future, for which I serve as co-chair, has already reached over 750,000 schoolchildren with its dynamic BLOOM! curriculum. Our first campaign—this one targeted at middle school students— showcases horticulture and inspires careers in the green industry. In addition, Seed Your Future promotes green-collar careers to a wider audience, and more than a half million people have viewed career videos hosted on Seed Your Future’s YouTube channel. Seed Your Future’s efforts to ensure that the unfathomable doesn’t become reality are not finished. Imagine the impact upon the world if we fail. Who would preserve the planet’s biodiversity, the fundamental backbone of all life? Where would our food come from? Who is going to address and solve global problems like hunger? Consider the economic ramifications if this critical sector were eventually to collapse due to lack of a competent labor force. The GCA is among the many like-minded organizations represented on Seed Your Future’s advisory council. President Dede Petri introduced Seed Your Future efforts to member clubs at the 2018 Annual Meeting in San Francisco. For info visit www.seedyourfuture.org. Future green industry pros submitted their ideas to Seed Your Future’s Plant Mash-Up Contest. Photo courtesy of Seed Your Future
Teaching the Plant-Blind to See by Susan E. Yoder, Executive Director, Seed Your Future Even in the most urban environment, plants surround our lives. They are in the food we eat, the clothes we wear, the products we use to heal and enhance our bodies. They are in our roadsides, parks, gardens, and backyards. As GCA club members, you see them, you touch them, and you likely grow them. But you are the dwindling public. Perhaps you’ve read of the study that found that the average American can recognize 1,000 brand names and logos but fewer than 10 local plants. This means people are 100 times more likely to recognize a brand of shoe than the plants they are eating and (not) seeing in the world around them. This phenomenon is defined as “plant blindness—the inability to see or notice the plants in one’s own environment.” Much concern has been raised around this issue. Does it matter? For the future of this planet, the answer is “yes.” How did we get here? Sadly, most kids are not exposed to the natural world, plants, and plant careers in the ways that generations before them were. Without a future with people who understand and appreciate plants, who will fill our tables with food, create beautiful and healing landscapes, develop life-saving medicines, plant trees to cool and cleanse the atmosphere, and manage the habitats for animals to thrive? Indeed, who will know that simply by having plants in homes, workplaces, and hospital wards, physical and mental health is vastly improved? And, critical to the future, who will be at work tackling many of society’s greatest challenges, like feeding a growing world, clean water, and a changing climate? Connecting young people to the power of plants is perhaps one of the most worthy time investments we can make. In the process, we’ll seed their future and ours. All we have to do is teach them to see.
If green is all you see, and you don’t know the difference between a pine and a petunia, or a needle and a leaf—and you don’t care—how do you value either of them? Why would you be inclined to protect them? Would preserving this view be a priority? Photo at the New York Botanical Garden by Madeline Mayhood
The Bulletin :: Fall 2018
Children are naturally curious. Throw in some dirt for planting, wiggly worms, a drooling dragon, or woodland spirits, and you’ve got their attention. Welcome to children’s gardens, where the goals are simple but the environmental stakes could not be higher: children learning firsthand about nature—where their food comes from and stimulating their imaginations in a safe and healthy environment. The hope is they will become stewards of the Earth, gaining a lifelong appreciation for gardening, horticulture, sustainability, and conservation. The number of children’s public gardens has exploded over the past quarter century as people have become more interested in green spaces. For many urban youth, these gardens offer a first exposure to hands-on gardening and plant life. Families by the thousands are responding enthusiastically, interested in safe spaces where children can not only play but learn while having fun. After opening the Lena Meijer Children’s Garden in Grand Rapids, MI, in 2004, the Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park saw a 25 percent rise in membership, according to the American Public Gardens Association. Similar results are enjoyed nationwide. The mission of children’s gardens and the experiences they offer vary. Botanic gardens typically prefer a hands-on educational approach, with
The Bulletin :: Fall 2018
Worms and Pollinators and Fairies, Oh My!
Child’s Play
scheduled classes and field activities designed to cultivate a love of nature and a connection to plants. Other gardens offer children the space to “grow” their imaginations within the beauty of nature, with limited educational signage and programming. Still other gardens are playgrounds integrated within public gardens, giving kids a chance to run themselves ragged, much to the delight of weary parents. There is no right answer, only an authentic experience for each child. In Lolly Tai’s book The Magic of Children’s Gardens often regarded as a definitive reference tool, Jane L. Taylor in her foreword writes, “Children’s gardens are magical places where kids can interact with plants, see where food and fibers grow, and experience the role of birds, butterflies, and bees in nature.” The gardens provide marvelous teaching opportunities, observes Taylor, founding curator for Michigan 4-H Children’s Garden at Michigan State University. Tai’s book beautifully details design elements, goals, and concepts of 19 gardens across the nation, including the Brooklyn Botanic Garden (BBG). The BBG claims the first children’s garden (as part of a public botanic garden), dating to 1914 when innovative educator Ellen Eddy Shaw gave children a chance to plant and tend their own plots. The garden continues to offer children, from 2 to 17, age-appropriate gardening under instructional direction. The older the child, the greater the horticultural knowledge and skills imparted. “It’s a real rarity to actually grow your own food in New York,” says Elizabeth ReinaLongoria, BBG’s director of communications. Each summer young gardeners collectively take home some 4,300 pounds of harvested produce, foods as diverse as beets, kohlrabi, arugula, and tomatoes. Some teens grow foods native to their home countries but unavailable in the city markets. Several of the youth instructors got hooked tending their garden plots as children. At the other end of the spectrum are fairy gardens that spur children’s imaginative interaction. Enchanted Woods, a fairy tale children’s garden installed at Winterthur (DE) in 1998, offers children a place for “quiet play and reverie,” according to designer and landscape architect W. Gary Smith. There are no teaching signs in Enchanted Woods “because the mission is to get kids to use their imaginations and not be dictated by what they are told their experiences will be,” he says. Kids can be in a captivating environment with woodland spirits, such as Cobweb, the storyteller fairy, or Glimmer, the magician fairy; they can come back day after day, letting their imaginations lead them on different adventures, says Smith. Now designing his fourth and fifth children’s gardens, Smith also has designed the Ojos y Manos Children’s Garden at the Santa Fe Botanical Garden (NM); Lost Hollow: the Kimbrell Children’s Garden at Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden in Belmont, NC; and the Luci and Ian Family Garden at Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin, TX. “My philosophy is for them to look like they were designed by an 11-year-old but engineered by an adult,” Smith says. Plants, insects, storytelling, dance, music, and fun props such as magnifying glasses, headlamps, and gardening tools all are used to ignite imaginations. Children may explore why pollinators are important at the Doris I. Schnuck Children’s Garden at the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis. Or they may join the Critter Crawl at the Lou Glenn Children’s Garden at the Atlanta Botanical Garden (ABG) to search for honeybees, butterflies, turtles, and frogs. Or they can learn about bugs and why we can’t live without them at BUGarium, part of Albuquerque’s Children’s Fantasy Garden at the ABQ BioPark Botanic Garden in New Mexico. If the diversity of programs that connect children with nature serves to inspire, motivate, and energize impressionable minds into adults with an informed awareness of the environment, then nature wins.
Child’s Play
Top: Children explore the treehouse area with climbing nets at the ABG’s Lou Glenn Children’s Garden. Image courtesy of the Atlanta Botanical Garden Above: Scrambling around the Stumpery is a favorite for kid visitors at Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. Photo by Alysha Rainwaters
by Ouida Drinkwater,
Right: “Fairies” enjoy the Acorn Tearoom at Winterthur’s Enchanted Woods. Image courtesy of W. Gary Smith
Garden Club of Jackson, Zone IX
How Botanical Gardens Are Connecting Kids to Nature
Leave No Child Inside:
Top: A big magnifying glass helps get a close look during MBG’s Meet Me Outdoors event. Photo by Ning Ha courtesy of the Missouri Botanical Garden Above: Junior botanist sorts fruits and vegetables. Photo by Blanca Begert courtesy of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden
The Bulletin :: Fall 2018
Child’s Play
Richard Louv: TACKLING NATURE DEFICIT DISORDER by Madeline Mayhood
N
o discussion about connecting children with nature would be complete without bringing Richard Louv into the conversation. This journalist and author of nine books, including the groundbreaking Last Child in the Woods in which he coined the term “nature deficit disorder,” also has launched an international movement to connect children and families to nature. While kids today may be able to report on nature—say, icebergs melting or the geology of Mount Everest—they’re not likely to actually experience much of it. Hunting for four-leaf clovers or making wishes on dandelions are all but lost rituals of childhood. “I like to play inside cos [sic] that’s where the electrical outlets are.” So a pre-teen told Louv back when he was a columnist for the San Diego UnionTribune. And now, with even more ways to plug in, children spend more time in front of a screen than they do reading or being read to. A recent study by Common Sense Media reported that 42 percent of parents surveyed say TVs are “always on” in their homes. The statistics are plentiful, and they are suffocating. What to do? Richard Louv maintains that the answers are all around us.
The term “nature deficit disorder” defined your landmark book, Last Child in the Woods. Since its publication in 2005, how are we doing? Are we successfully addressing it or are we still waging the battle? The barriers between people and nature remain challenging. But we’re seeing some change. In the US we’re beginning to see progress among state legislatures, schools and businesses, civic organizations, and government agencies. Family nature clubs (multiple families that agree to show up for a hike on Saturday) are proliferating. Regional campaigns are bringing people from across political, religious, and economic divides to connect children to nature. In September 2012 the World Congress of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature cited “adverse consequences for both healthy child development (‘nature deficit disorder’) as well as responsible stewardship for nature
The Bulletin :: Fall 2018
Richard Louv is cofounder and chairman emeritus of the Children & Nature Network and author of Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder and The Nature Principle: Reconnecting with Life in a Virtual Age. His most recent book is Vitamin N: The Essential Guide to a Nature-Rich Life. He is currently working on his tenth book, about the evolving relationship between humans and other animals.
and the environment in the future,” and then passed a resolution titled “The Child’s Right to Connect with Nature and to a Healthy Environment.” This connection is, indeed, a human right. And the acknowledgment of that is progress. In September 2015 the White House initiative called “Every Kid in a Park” went into effect, where all fourth-grade students and their families have free admission to national parks and other federal lands and waters. In terms of cities, Cities Connecting Children to Nature is a partnership between the Children & Nature Network and the National League of Cities. It’s a major initiative working to help US municipal leaders better connect children to nature, particularly children who have had little access previously. A recent study in the US, “The Nature of Americans,” suggests that we appear to be much more knowledgeable than a decade ago about the connection between nature experience and health, but are somewhat less aware of the connection to cognitive functioning and education—and that the barriers to nature experience are still substantial. We now need to move more quickly into a mode of greater action, which goes beyond awareness, both at the family and the community levels.
Tell us about the Children & Nature Network, which you were inspired to launch after the publication of Last Child in the Woods. What are its goals, and how are you reaching them? In 2006 several good folks and I co-founded the Children & Nature Network (C&NN) to encourage and support the people and organizations working nationally and internationally to reconnect children with nature. C&NN offers the largest database of research information on this topic; it also brings people from around the world together as leaders in the movement. At our most recent annual gathering in Vancouver, BC, over 900 people from 25 countries attended. This is one of the few issues that brings people together across political and religious divides. And the movement is growing. [C&NN’s current initiatives are here: https://www.childrenandnature.org/ initiatives/]
Child’s Play
The Garden Club of America’s Bulletin reaches almost 18,000 club members all over the country; most of us are extremely engaged and invested in our own communities. What are some initiatives we can engage in to help combat nature deficit disorder? My newest book, Vitamin N, includes 500 actions that people can take to enrich the health and happiness of their families and communities. Here are some suggestions: • Start or join a family nature club. • Transform your yard, garden, roof, or window box into a butterfly rest stop. • Encourage young people to build community through service organizations. • Be a science scout. • Do water testing and other types of watershed monitoring. • Green a schoolyard. • Create wildlife and childlife corridors on private land.
Words Matter
When the publishers of the 2007 edition of the Oxford Junior Dictionary replaced words like “blackberries,” “wren,” “acorns,” “buttercup,” and others connected with gardening, farming, and animals with “celebrity,” “analogue,” “chatroom,” and “broadband,” parents, educators, and naturalists became alarmed. Thousands pleaded with Oxford University Press (OUP) to reinstate the eliminated words, arguing that a connection to nature and natural play is key to a child’s well-being. Multimedia artist Michael Namingha’s art installation “AWOL,” part of the recent Santa Fe Botanical Garden exhibit Conception, Abstraction, Reduction: The Art of Dan, Arlo, and Michael Namingha, starkly illustrated the deletion of words describing nature by creating a graveyard of those words that had been deemed no longer relevant to modern childhood. “I learned about what OUP had done and started to think of a way I could create an art piece out of that story,” says Namingha. “I thought why not include some of those words on markers that are used to identify plants in the botanical garden.” Namingha took those markers and “planted” them in an area of the garden that was barren, generating an emotional response from adults and children. As of this past July, 212,000 people had signed an online petition, #naturewords, to encourage the restoration of these valuable words in the next edition of the Oxford Junior Dictionary. Richard Louv at home. Photo by Josh Endres
—Kathryne Singleton, Rumson Garden Club, Zone IV
The Bulletin :: Fall 2018
Bark
THE LANGUAGE OF BARK by Helen Wagner, The West Chester Garden Club, Zone V
The Bulletin :: Fall 2018
Bark
The dappled shade, cool air, and scenic beauty of a stroll through a forest can evoke feelings of peace and serenity. The forest floor creates quiet with fallen leaves and mosses. Low-growing plants provide intimacy. Branches and leaves vault above, in shades of green and gray. The trees blend into the scene but emerge valiantly upon closer examination. Their bark creates individuality for each plant. We appreciate those signature differences outside the forest as well, when we observe the trees in our surroundings.
The Bulletin :: Fall 2018 ďœłďœš
Bark
No two trees have identical bark. Bark is impacted by soil, light, and moisture. Natural hazards like fire, snow, frost, lightning, and drought change its characteristics, as do insects, animals, fungi, lichen, and mosses. Human actions ranging from long-term effects of air pollution and acid rain to immediate effects of carving, arson, and accidental damage also transform it. All these factors coalesce to create a wide range of colors and textures. Shades of terra cotta emerge from beneath the ridged bark of
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Bark
southwestern white pine. Sweet bay features prominent lenticels—pores that facilitate the exchange of gas between the atmosphere and tree. A checkered-looking ridged pattern is prominent on the common persimmon. Passers-by pause when encountering the smooth texture and mottled colors of the bark of crape myrtle. Whether on a city street or in a forest, our world is enhanced by the natural glory of bark. Photos on pages 38, 39, 41 by Helen Wagner Photos on page 40 by Madeline Mayhood All captions on page 70
The Bulletin :: Fall 2018
GCA Medalists
GCA Medalist Laura Bush:
Lifelong Conservationist
Laura Bush co-founded Texan by Nature in 2011 to unite business and conservation leaders. Texas and bluebonnets, an iconic state treasure, go hand-in-hand. Photo by Gary and Sue Price courtesy of Texan by Nature
The Bulletin :: Fall 2018
Laura W. Bush received the 2018 GCA Achievement Medal in recognition of her efforts on behalf of America’s environment and natural resources. She has championed action to protect, preserve, and enjoy our nation’s treasures. As first lady, she initiated many conservation-oriented programs: Preservation America to safeguard and restore cultural and natural resources; First Bloom to introduce knowledge of native and invasive plants; and the Marine Debris Initiative to help clean up our waterways and oceans. Returning to Texas in 2009, she served as the chair of the design committee for the George W. Bush Presidential Center, located on the campus of Southern Methodist University in Dallas. She worked with Robert A.M. Stern Architects for the construction of the building and partnered with Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates to develop the 15-acre urban park that surrounds the center. The Bush Center is the first presidential library to achieve LEED Platinum certification under new construction. In 2011 she founded Texan by Nature, which promotes Texan-led conservation efforts with individual landowners, businesses and industries, health care organizations, schools, and faith-based communities. In 2015 Laura Bush and then-First Lady Michelle Obama served as the honorary co-chairs of the National Park Service Centennial celebration. The former first lady recently shared her insights and inspirations with Jessie Shelburne and Sarah Jane Francis. All three women are Founders Garden Club of Dallas members.
GCA Medalists
Your commitment to environmental stewardship, conservation, and restoration is truly extraordinary. Clearly you have a passion for and love of the land. How did this start?
Founders Garden Club of Dallas member and former First Lady Laura Bush with an American kestrel in the Native Texas Park at SMU during the GCA’s Visiting Gardens spring 2018 trip to Dallas. The trip included a private tour of the park with Laura Bush. Photo by Garrett Scales
Like many GCA club members, I was inspired by the gardeners and naturalists in my life. As an only child growing up in West Texas, I spent summers with my grandparents in El Paso, watching and helping my Grammee for hours in her garden. She grew flowers in the center of stray, recycled tires, and taught me how to keep asparagus, yuccas, ocotillos, and pomegranate trees thriving in the harshest of conditions. In Midland, I learned to love the outdoors from my mother, who, if she was not reading, could be found outside. My mother was a knowledgeable self-taught naturalist who remembered the name of every wildflower and was passionate about birds. Her fascination with bird-watching began when I was 10, and she volunteered to be my Girl Scout leader, which involved helping us earn our bird badge. We would sit Indian-style with binoculars and wait for birds to swoop by. Each year thousands of birds fly through Midland, and it was then that I learned my city sits along a north-south migratory path. My mother became a devoted bird-watcher, and as we drove around town together she would point out the painted buntings or hawks as they floated in the sky. For as far back as I can remember, on spectacular summer nights, she would grab a blanket and we would go outside to lie on the ground and gaze at the stars in the sky. And as we lay together on the hard grass, she would say, “Look up, Laura, look up.” And it was then, as a bright-eyed girl, that I began to look up—and to look out across vast landscapes—to not miss the beauty of the world around us.
It has been said that the 15-acre park is one of your favorite parts of the George W. Bush Presidential Center. Why is this? I’m interested in conservation and in the use of native plants in the environment, so when we started to build the Bush Center, I knew that I wanted the grounds to be native. The goal was to restore the land to what that part of Texas would have looked like when it was settled, and to give people a chance to see what their own property could look like if they used native plants. You can landscape in a very beautiful way with native plants. Instead of large swaths of pavement and high-maintenance, water-intensive plants, the Bush Center uses native, drought-resistant plants and has an innovative stormwater system that captures runoff to supply irrigation water. The Bush Center’s landscape designer, Michael Van Valkenburgh, worked with Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center to create a native, drought-resistant grass mix—Habiturf, which is a mixture of five native Texas grasses and requires only four mowings a year. The park is part of the reason that the George W. Bush Presidential Center was able to
The Bulletin :: Fall 2018
GCA Medalists
attain the highest level of LEED Platinum designation. The landscape provides a welcoming habitat for native and migratory birds and butterflies in the heart of a major urban area. The park is open to the public from sunup to sundown, and I invite all GCA club members to come visit us in Dallas to tour the Bush Library and to take a walk in our beautiful Native Texas Prairie.
When you returned home to Texas, you founded Texan by Nature in 2011, and, although it is Texas-based, its mission and principles speak to a global audience. Can you tell us more about it?
A longtime advocate of national parks, former First Lady Laura Bush co-wrote Our Great Big Backyard (HarperCollins, 2016) with her daughter Jenna Bush Hager as a tribute to our national parks and to highlight the importance and fun of connecting with nature.
The Bulletin :: Fall 2018
When George and I moved back to Texas from Washington, DC, I helped found Texan by Nature with a group of friends and committed conservationists. Our goal is to demonstrate that our prosperity and quality of life are dependent on our natural resources. Texan by Nature amplifies and accelerates projects across Texas that benefit our people, prosperity, and our natural resources. And we do this through our Conservation Wrangler program, the Texan by Nature certification program, and our Symposia series. With our Conservation Wrangler program, we highlight the best of the best Texan-led projects that align with our mission. Conservation Wrangler is more than just recognition. It’s an accelerator. We work with these projects to broaden their goals, bring new partners to the table, and expand impact in Texas and beyond. This year we revamped the application process to focus more deeply on measurable criteria. We use this data to set goals and track progress, and we share the results with potential business partners for the projects. Excellent applications were submitted, and we selected six projects spanning the state of Texas. These projects represent 5.6 million people, 18 million acres, and 12,000 species of animals and plants. They also represent conservation partners, private landowners, and many business participants. In 2017 through our Monarch Wrangler program, we learned that landowners, civic groups, and businesses were looking for more ways to get involved and be recognized for their conservation efforts. The Monarch Wrangler program has evolved to include all species and additional project types to encourage broader, deeper participation across Texas. We now call it the Texan by Nature certification program. I hope GCA club members across Texas will consider becoming Texan by Nature certified—on their ranches or business campuses, or even in their neighborhood schoolyards and parks. In 2016 we hosted a Health and Nature Symposium at Houston Methodist Hospital. Research presented at the symposium indicates that even seeing a tree outside a hospital window results in shorter hospital stays and an improvement in pain management. And we learned that spending 30 minutes a day in nature results in a lower incidence of depression and cardiovascular issues. Clearly, nature is important to our health! It’s an exciting time to be Texan by Nature. Watching wildlife return and flourish in your backyard or on a corporate campus shows that, no matter where you live or work, you can make a positive difference for the future of our environment.
GCA Medalists
Paradise Lost... and now found Untermyer Gardens Conservancy and GCA Medalist Stephen Byrns Story and photos by GAY LEGG, St. George’s Garden Club, Zone VI
The Bulletin :: Fall 2018
GCA Medalists
The landscaped steps of the Vista descend to the marble balustrade overlooking the Hudson River, where the view is framed by two ancient Roman columns. Previous page: Two sphinxes crown the double Ionic cipollino marble columns overlooking the reflecting pool, where papyrus grows in a nod to the Middle Eastern roots of the garden’s design.
One might not think to look for paradise in Yonkers—but that would be a mistake. It’s there, secreted in a suburban neighborhood in this city just north of Manhattan and the Bronx, which takes its name from the Dutch “Jonker,” meaning “esquire,” for the young lawyer who first claimed title in the 17th century. That this steep, rocky hillside has been prized for centuries is not surprising considering the amazing view overlooking the Hudson River with the Palisades beyond. In 1865 a wealthy hat manufacturer built his enormous granite mansion there—Greystone—acquired next by the former governor of New York Samuel J. Tilden, and lastly by the most prosperous lawyer of his day—Samuel Untermyer, who bought it in 1899. At the apex of the Gilded Age, Untermyer set out to create “the greatest garden in the world.” To help him achieve his grand aspiration, he commissioned the same prominent architect, William Welles Bosworth, who had just completed Kykuit, John D. Rockefeller’s nearby Pocantico Hills The Bulletin :: Fall 2018
estate. Bosworth, perhaps best known for the iconic domed building at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was Beaux Arts trained in Paris and unreservedly applied classical concepts to his design at Greystone, which Untermyer had expanded to 150 acres, with an extraordinary 60 greenhouses and 60 gardeners. Bosworth’s classical references included a folly called the Temple of Love, which crowned an engineered rock formation with a waterfall cascading 40 feet to a pool below. The Vista, a landscaped staircase with over 150 steps descending to a marble balustrade, features 2,000-year-old cipollino marble columns. It overlooks the Hudson River and was based on Villa d’Este at Lake Como in Italy. As the steps descended, color gardens opened up on either side, each a different shade, along with terraces of roses and dahlias. The breathtaking center of the design was called the Walled Garden, based on the Garden of Eden—paradise—“paridayda” in Old Iranian, meaning a “walled enclosure.” Bosworth’s Indo-Persian garden was surrounded by crenellated castle walls with a central gate and a tower in each corner, overlooking quadrants representing the four elements (earth, fire, water, air) and divided by canals with fountains symbolic of the four rivers of paradise (Pishon, Gichon, Chidekel/Tigris, Perat/Euphrates). It was flanked by flower beds; on the north-south axis, they led to an amphitheater facing a reflecting pool with huge double Ionic columns crowned by two sphinxes protecting their empire. On the east-west axis, the Grecian-styled Temple of the Sky overlooked a pool inlaid with tile mosaics of sea creatures. It bordered a terrace where the Untermyers, great patrons of the arts, notably the New York Philharmonic, would host benefits.
The Grecian-style Temple of the Sky, above a pool with Roman tile mosaics depicting sea creatures, awaits restoration.
GCA Medalists
and ornaments of a gilded life were auctioned. Yonkers was able to accept only 16 acres as a city park; some went to a hospital next door. Over the decades efforts to safeguard the property were made: in 1974 Untermyer Park was added to the National Register of Historic Places, and in the 1990s the Open Space Institute helped buy back adjacent land from developers. The City of Yonkers kept it open, but the roses and the dahlias were lost, the color gardens were overgrown and partially paved over, the marble in the pools cracked, the fountains turned off. Paradise was lost—or so it seemed.
The Temple of Love, as seen from the rock garden below, has been restored to its original condition with water cascading into the grotto pool.
Imagine hundreds of society members in formal attire seated on the loggia watching Isadora Duncan’s modern dancers, barefoot in diaphanous togas, floating across the garden looking as if Grecian urns had come to life. Untermyer took a real interest in horticulture and the propagation of new varieties in his gardens. He knew all the botanical names and reveled in helping visitors—or correcting them. He was known for always wearing an orchid boutonnière grown in his own greenhouses, which he would change several times a day to stay fresh. He even had them flown to his house in Palm Springs, CA. He also created the largest landscaped sundial by which he would set his watch—one of the wonders of his gardens, which he opened to the public on Tuesdays. One day in 1939, The New York Times reported 30,000 visitors. And then, when he died in 1940, time stopped—the splendor was over. He had willed his great garden to the state of New York to become a public park, but with no endowment, the state and New York City declined. It went next to the City of Yonkers, which also struggled to accept the munificent gesture; with his death it had also lost its largest taxpayer. Greystone mansion was demolished, the acreage was partially sold, and many of the magnificent sculptures
Above the entrance gates to the walled garden is a frieze of Artemis. She lounges, looking languorously across the hill toward the Hudson. As the goddess of wild things, perhaps she protected the gardens from possibly greater damage—a benevolent siren who waited to call for help until the right protector came along to save her domain. Artemis found her savior when architect Stephen Byrns, a founding partner at BKSK Architects and a former New York City Landmarks Preservation commissioner who lived nearby, came to visit—not for the first time. This trip, there was water in the canals, and, as he studied the neglected design, he realized that he was looking at a Persian garden. Quite extraordinary, Byrns thought—since
The Temple of Love, capped with a restored wrought-iron roof, provides a beautiful view of the Hudson from its promontory above a waterfall, which descends amidst rock gardens. Samuel Untermyer was known to take afternoon naps there.
The Bulletin :: Fall 2018
GCA Medalists
Two 90-year-old weeping beech trees create a green curtain at the entrance to the Walled Garden. The curtain parts to reveal the canals, which are characteristic of a Persian garden.
Virginia-born Untermyer was Jewish, while his wife was Christian, as was Bosworth, and yet, together, they had created what had been the finest Persian garden in the Western Hemisphere—sometimes compared to Spain’s Alhambra and India’s Taj Mahal. Untermyer had fought anti-Semitism and later led the Anti-Nazi League, but the Walled Garden was a paean to Islam. Inspired by the confluence of these non-sectarian ideals, which had created a garden of great peace, Byrns set about assembling a team to bring it back. Any gardener who has looked at even a small plot gone wild would appreciate the monumental task of taking on Untermyer Park’s untamed 43 acres. Byrns had served on the board of nearby Wave Hill and called on its recently retired director of horticulture, the noted Marco Polo Stufano, who volunteered to help guide the project. Working with Yonkers, in 2011 Byrns put together the Untermyer Conservancy, a public-private partnership. They raised money, pulled down vines, dug for garden remnants, replanted long-dormant beds, and replaced ancient pipes to bring back the essential element of a Persian garden—the water. A team of only six gardeners led by talented Director of The Bulletin :: Fall 2018
Horticulture Tim Tilghman, who also trained at Wave Hill and the New York Botanical Garden, has restored the lushly landscaped steps of the Vista, planted the annual beds in the Walled Garden with new designs that change every year, and, in the pools beneath the sphinxes, papyrus and lotus now bloom. The Temple of Love has been restored so that water again splashes down the rocks to the grotto pool below. Visitors stroll along the paths, admiring paradise in Yonkers, free and open to the public as Untermyer had hoped. The concerts and art events scheduled throughout the year would have delighted Minnie Carl Untermyer. The color gardens are being restored, and the existing carriage trail traverses a future meadow garden with vistas over the Hudson River. At the park’s lower entrance, the old Gatehouse has been stabilized not far from the Greystone stop for the Metro North train, and bikers pass along the adjacent Old Croton Aqueduct Trail, which is managed by New York State Parks. Untermyer Gardens was a 2014 Founders Fund runner-up. The award was used for the restoration of the Temple of Love. The visitor who passes through the gates beneath the frieze of Artemis, under green curtains created by the magnificent 90-year-old weeping beech trees, has entered an extraordinary Eden. Put it on your garden bucket list—Untermyer Gardens is once again the finest Persian garden in the Western Hemisphere.
Stephen Byrns, GCA medalist and Historic Preservationist Stephen Byrns was the 2018 recipient of The Garden Club of America’s Historic Preservation Medal, which is awarded for outstanding work in the field of historic preservation and/or restoration of historic gardens or buildings of national importance. A founding partner of BKSK Architects in New York, Byrns assumed the full-time presidency of the Untermyer Conservancy in 2017. He lectures frequently about the gardens and can often be seen on his bike inspecting all 43 acres and digging with the gardeners to preserve even more of the extraordinary history of the Untermyer Gardens. Photo by Toby McAfee
GCA Medalists
GCA Medalist & Native Plant Champion POLLY PIERCE
“Let no native plant species go extinct” is the motto Polly Pierce lives by. Recipient of the GCA’s 2018 Natalie Peters Webster Medal for her lifelong work promoting plant conservation, Polly’s particular interest is in North American flora. A longtime member of the Noanett Garden Club, she has served as board president of both the Center for Plant Conservation and the New England Wild Flower Society. “The conservation work of our nation must also be the work of The Garden Club of America,” says Polly. “This work is far from over.” Georgia Lee (Milton Garden Club, Zone I) recently spoke to this ardent conservationist about her childhood, her influences, and her favorite plant. You have said that the woods and gardens of your childhood were your preferred classrooms. How did these “classrooms” influence you as an adult? When I was a young girl, canoeing, rowing, and fishing on the lake were the order of the day. I did a winter’s worth of ice-skating when the gardens were sleeping. When it snowed we made mazes of trails on the ice. Now there’s a good bellweather for climate change—in the past two winters we have had skating only twice—three days in all over two years! How did you become a gardener? I became a gardener as a matter of course. My grandmother had an absolutely spectacular garden. In the 1930s this was my playground and my paradise, and I had lots of freedom to explore. Grandmother had a gardener—a jolly Irishman named Patrick, who kept a parrot in the greenhouse. Patrick took me on as a “helper.” I remember he grew pansies from seed. Pansies today are all hybrids with no seeds, but in the ’30s Patrick would take the spent plants down to his well manured “pansy bed,” turn them upside down, sprinkle them with water, and keep
which was sponsored by the Massachusetts Horticultural Society. Mrs. Taylor, then president of the New England Wild Flower Society, took us all to Garden in the Woods—the society’s headquarters and showplace. I had never before seen a garden comprised almost entirely of native plants of New England. I was entranced then and have been “all-in” ever since. Polly Pierce in her garden in Dedham, Massachusetts. Photo by Sturdy Waterman
“The conservation work of our nation must also be the work of The Garden Club of America. This work is far from over.”
Z them moist, nurturing next year’s pansies all summer. This is how we did it in those days. Your parents were influences, too? I grew up during WWII. Dad was in London for most of it, through the Blitz—V-2 rocket attacks and nightly bombings. After the war he found peace and recovery in gardening. He was much enthralled with organic gardening—the Rodale method. He furiously composted and kept hens, and, although he made his career in politics, gardening was his joy, and he shared this joy with me abundantly. How did you get involved in the work of native plant conservation? Soon after my husband, Dan, and I married, we bought a house with an undeveloped garden. It was clear that I had not learned enough about gardening, so I went to a class at the home of Mrs. Lucien Taylor (Kitty),
You have worked tirelessly on behalf of plants. Do you happen to have a favorite plant or flower? I do: Trillium grandiflorum f. multiplex (double trillium). Soon after joining the Noanett Garden Club, I found myself on the committee to locate and purchase native plants for our fall plant sale. At a New Hampshire nursery, I saw a double trillium in full bloom as I climbed a small rise. It was spectacular. I had to have it. I bought it for an exorbitant price, which was never revealed to my husband, Dan. Don’t worry, Polly. Your secret is safe with us. The Natalie Peters Webster Medal is awarded to members and member clubs for finding unusual plant material, encouraging its creative use, and assuring its availability.
Double trillium (Trillium grandiflorum f. multiplex) is Polly’s favorite. Photo courtesy of New England Wild Flower Society
The Bulletin :: Fall 2018
Hort+Culture
Hort+Culture A New Approach to Fall Garden Cleanup BY LYNN M. STEINER, SAINT PAUL GARDEN CLUB I’ve been a horticulturist for more years than I care to admit, and I’ve seen many changes in recommended practices over the years. One of the biggest changes to put the gardening world on its head is the less-is-more approach to fall cleanup. It used to be the goal was to go into winter with a garden completely void of plant stalks and ground debris, with all leaves raked up and bagged. The only winter wildlife we wanted to attract were the pretty songbirds at our feeders. We have learned, however, that gardening is not just about what we want. Our gardens are havens for overwintering pollinators, birds, butterflies, and other creatures. When we strip our gardens bare, we destroy their winter habitat and threaten their survival. Our thousands of native bee species, which are important pollinators, overwinter in place and need shelter from cold and from predators. They find this shelter in plant debris, in the ground, and in hollow plant stems. When we cut back all our plants and rake the soil bare, we destroy their overwintering sites. If you aren’t comfortable leaving plants standing all winter (maybe it’s the front yard and you have neighbor issues or some plants are just too heavy of reseeders), a good compromise is to leave at least 12 to 18 inches standing. Other insects require the same types of
The Bulletin :: Fall 2018
habitat for overwintering: inside plant stems, tucked under leaves, or hidden under rocks or logs. Before you bemoan the thought of more insects in your garden, remember that most garden insects are beneficial predators, bird food, decomposers, or soil aerators and are crucial to a working habitat. Not all butterflies migrate. Many overwinter in protective chrysalises, and some go through winter as adults or even caterpillars. In all cases they need a spot where they are protected from cold and predators. They can’t find that in a garden that has been stripped of all vegetative matter. Most gardeners are looking for ways to attract more birds to their winter landscapes.
Seed heads from gray-headed coneflowers (Ratibida pinnata) can be turned into seed bombs. Samantha Capen Muldoon from Lake Minnetonka Garden Club, Zone XI, suggests gathering dried seeds and mixing with potting soil and clay (50:50 ratio) into mothball-sized balls. It’s a great way to spread pollinator-friendly plants, and kids and grandkids enjoy the subversive nature of the bombing! Photo by Samantha Capen Muldoon
Hort+Culture
Leaving your plants standing through the winter is a good way to provide seeds, berries, and shelter for them. But remember that many birds are insect-eaters. They are very good at finding overwintering insects on dormant plants and in leaf litter, thus helping to keep your insect populations in check. One of the main reasons for cutting back and raking gardens in fall was to get rid of any possible overwintering spots for insects and diseases. And while this may be good advice for some plants that are especially prone to problems (iris borers and hosta slugs, for example), the vast majority of plant “problems” are not necessarily solved by cutting back plants in fall. Many diseases and insects are wind-borne and will re-enter your garden the next spring. Removing leaves from plants infected with powdery mildew or botrytis will not guarantee you won’t have the problem again. You can see where this is going. More
Mourning cloak butterfly. Leaf litter provides shelter for this nonmigratory species. Photo by Lynn M. Steiner
plants and leaf litter mean more insects, which means more birds and pollinators. All of which is a good thing. Plus, there is the added bonus that many plants add winter interest when they are left standing through the cold months—an attraction for us humans as well! This fall, instead of fighting the cold weather and “cleaning up” your garden beds, enjoy some time inside planning and preparing for spring. Next spring, when all the creatures have emerged and the seeds and berries have been stripped bare, remove plant stalks and any excess ground debris and place it all in the compost pile. Any insects that are slow to wake up should be able to find their way out of the pile just fine. Plant stalks cut and hung in the garden is an alternative to leaving plants standing. Photo by Samantha Capen Muldoon
The Bulletin :: Fall 2018
Ms. Smarty Plants
Ms.SmartyPlants Best Gardening Apps Ms. Smarty Plants has been digging for the best gardening apps to share with you. Add a few to your smart phone and enjoy their benefits!
Garden Compass Plant and Disease Identifier Free for Android or iPhone (Monthly fee for more services) Why is my fern wilting? What are those bugs on my jade plant? Snap a photo and send to the Garden Compass experts for a diagnosis and suggestions for treatment. Offered in tandem with SmartPlant, a free premium membership is available by scanning a plant’s barcode. Look for the green SmartPlant tag on plants at participating nurseries and plant stores. The app will help you simplify and streamline your plant’s needs each month.
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The Bulletin :: Fall 2018
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Read+Watch+Listen
Read+Watch+Listen Children & Nature Our team of experts—a.k.a. kids—helped devise this list of books for nature lovers of all ages. Share these with your children and grandchildren. You may find that the words and images lead to wonderful conversations ... and possibly a walk in the woods.
Earth From Above, Third Edition by Yann Arthus-Bertrand Abrams, 2017 Aerial photographer Yann ArthusBertrand documents the lush beauty of our planet. His unique perspectives dazzle with images that are at once a celebration of beauty and a cautionary tale. We are reminded of the fragility of the Earth’s habitats and shown the ecological costs of our carbondependent way of life. The book is a wonderful springboard for intergenerational conversations about beauty, biodiversity, and sustainability.
House of Light: Poems by Mary Oliver Beacon Press, 1992 Poet Mary Oliver’s meditations on beauty, nature, and time are a wonderful antidote to the “getting and spending” bemoaned by Wordsworth. Children will recognize Oliver as a kindred spirit—she delights in the wings of a swan spreading in a beam of sunshine or a lily bobbing on the surface of a glassy pond. We are reminded that sometimes sitting and looking deeply at the natural world is the highest use of our time.
Untamed by Steve Bloom Harry Abrams, 2008 Steve Bloom photographs animals in the wild. His images are rich and exuberant, depicting parrots in flight, dolphins leaping from the ocean, and horses running through a stream. His high-resolution action shots are a technical feat, but it is his keen eye for drama and beauty that draws readers in.
The Landscapes of Anne of Green Gables by Catherine Reid Timber Press, 2018 For those of us who fondly remember reading Anne of Green Gables as children, Catherine
Our panel of book experts confer on their favorite titles. Photo by Georgia Lee
Reid’s new book The Landscapes of Anne of Green Gables offers an enchanting walk down memory lane. Including historic and present-day images of Prince Edward Island as well as quotes and commentary from author L.M. Montgomery’s journals, Reid’s book is a lovely compendium of the children’s classic.
The Sense of Wonder: A Celebration of Nature for Parents and Children by Rachel Carson Harper Perennial, 2017 (reprint photography by Nick Kelsh)
and children experience nature together. She considered The Sense of Wonder, first published as an essay in 1956, her most important work. Carson’s observations are no less relevant today: “A child’s world is fresh and new and beautiful, full of wonder and excitement,” she wrote. “It is our misfortune that for most of us that clear-eyed vision, that true instinct for what is beautiful and awe-inspiring, is dimmed and even lost before we reach adulthood.” Carson’s words still ring true. Perhaps in reading these books with the young people in our lives, we will not only inspire them, but we will renew our own sense of wonder and excitement. —Georgia Lee, Milton Garden Club, Zone I
Rachel Carson, the GCA’s 1951 Frances Hutchinson Medal winner, understood the powerful dynamic when parents
The Bulletin :: Fall 2018
Zone Meetings
ZoneMeetings
Meeting co-chairs Carla Morey and Meg Kasuba with MGC President Peggy Rusnock. Photo by Georgia Lee
Zone I 18 clubs in Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont Alchemy, The Magic of Nature May 22–23, 2018 Dedham Hilton, Dedham, MA Hosted by Milton GC, Milton, MA Chaired by Carla Morey, Meg Kasuba Flower Show chaired by Robin O’Neil Situated along the Neponset River, Milton, MA, is noted for its pastoral beauty, historic sites, gracious homes, and abundant public green spaces. Milton Garden Club, host of the Zone I Meeting, invited guests to experience the magic of Milton firsthand at Mass Audubon’s Trailside Museum, site of a native plant garden restored with a 2013 P4P grant. Guests also toured the grounds of Boston Globe garden writer Carol The Bulletin :: Fall 2018
Stocker, whose historic property was lavishly draped in spring blossoms. The program included lectures on medicinal botany and organic flower farming, and the flower show included an award-winning conservation exhibit featuring bee condominiums. However, the real magic came with the friendships that developed during our two days together. An abundance of inspiration was evident, and resolve to carry on the work of the GCA was palpable. Speakers
Ryan Wagner, founder, Weatherlow Farm, “Sustainable Farming” Phoebe Poole, flower manager, Weatherlow Farm, “Farm to Table Flower Farming” Zoe Jeka, GCA scholar, Tufts University, “Medicinal Botany” Awards
Zone Civic Improvement Commendation: Berkshire Botanical Garden, proposed by The Lenox GC Zone Conservation Award: Donna Williams, Worcester GC
Zone Conservation Commendation: Dr. David Gallo, former director, Special Projects, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, proposed by Milton GC Zone Horticulture Award: Abby Coffin, Chestnut Hill GC Zone Historic Preservation Commendation: Dorchester Park Association, proposed by Milton GC Zone Judging Award: Mary Liz Lewis, GC of Dublin Nell Schwartz Mentoring Award: Mary Ann Streeter, North Shore GC of MA Dorothy Wheatland Award: Cathy Felton, North Shore GC of MA Flower Show Awards
Sandra Baylor Novice Floral Design Award: Mary McLaughlin, Milton GC Best in Show–Floral Design: Jeannie Poole, Piscataqua GC Catherine Beattie Medal: Mary Liz Lewis, GC of Dublin Rosie Jones Horticulture Award: Abby Coffin, Chestnut Hill GC Corliss Knapp Engle Horticulture
Award recipients Mary Liz Lewis and Mary Ann Streeter are congratulated by Connie Oliver. Photo by Mary Truslow
Sweepstakes Award: Garden Club of Dublin Clarissa Willemsen Horticulture Propagation Award: Mary Ann Streeter, North Shore GC of MA Best in Show–Horticulture: Diane Guidone, GC of Dublin GCA Novice Award in Photography: Mandy Washburn, Fox Hill GC Photography Creativity Award: Evgenia Blossom, GC of Dublin Best in Show–Photography: Martha Gangemi, Cohasset GC GCA Creativity Award, Best in Show–Botanical Arts: Sarah Boynton, Cohasset GC GCA Novice Award: Jenn Figg, Chestnut Hill GC Highlights
The bee condo at the P4P Trailside Native Plant Garden. Photo by Bet Baker
• The native plant garden at the Massachusetts Audubon Society’s Blue Hills Trailside Museum, a P4P project • Scholarship recipient Zoe Jeka’s presentation on Medicinal Botany and her healing herbal salve provided to each attendee • Flower Show and Conservation Exhibit
Zone Meetings
Zone II 20 clubs in Connecticut and Rhode Island Iconic Style: A Design Legacy June 13–14, 2018 Waveny House, New Canaan, CT Hosted by New Canaan GC, New Canaan, CT Chaired by Jane Gamber, Katie Stewart Flower Show chaired by Nancy Kalal New Canaan, incorporated in 1801, is a quintessential Connecticut town with a wide range of architectural houses, including historic homes from as early as 1722 and structures built by the “Harvard Five” in the mid-twentieth century. The Zone II Meeting was held at Waveny Park, a 300-acre park with a 1912 estate and carriage barn. Its Peony Walk and Waveny Walled Garden is cared for by New Canaan Garden Club. Welcomed by GCA First Vice President Debbie Edwards, delegates
Zone Meeting co-chair Jane Gamber and Ellen Zumbach, NCGC President, geared up and ready for the zone meeting to begin. Photo by Caroline Garrity
celebrated in iconic style with a fabulous flower show, delicious dinners in members’ homes, and inspirational speakers. Attendees toured Philip Johnson’s Glass House and three magnificent gardens. All left feeling energized and a little more iconic. Speakers
David Conn, senior partner, Innocenti & Webel, “Iconic Style: A Design Legacy, The Practice of Innocenti & Webel” Lisa Field, founder, Lisa Field Photography, “iPhone Photography 101” Donna Ganson, GCA Historian, GC of Lawrence, “The GCA Story” Leslie Purple, GCA Photography Committee chair, Wissahickon GC, “How Photography Can Engage Your Club and Document Your Story for the Future” Awards
Zone Civic Improvement Award: Caroline Garrity, New Canaan GC Zone Civic Improvement Commendation: Waveny Park Conservancy, Robert Seelert, Bill Holmes, chairman and vice chairman, proposed by New Canaan GC Zone Communications Award: Laura Case, New Canaan GC Zone Conservation Award: Kim Gregory, Greenwich GC Zone Historic Preservation Award: Karyl Evans, GC of New Haven Zone Photography Award: Ann Franzen, Fairfield GC
The Bulletin team congratulates Zone II Communications Award recipient Laura Case, New Canaan GC. From left: Gina Brandt, Hancock Park GC, Zone XII; Jessie Shelburne, Founders GC of Dallas, Zone IX; Laura Case; and Madeline Mayhood, James River GC, Zone VII. Photo by Leslie Purple
The Marcy Crutcher Zone Award for Horticultural Excellence: Trina Horine, Hortulus The Katherine B. Pitney Award: Bunny O’Callahan, Stonington GC Flower Show Awards
GCA Botanical Arts Creativity Award: Nina Weld, Claire O’Brien, Hortulus GCA Novice Award in Botanical Arts: Meredith Ward, Ridgefield GC Best in Show–Botanical Arts: Janice Panoff, South County GC of RI Dorothy Vietor Munger Award: Susan Winter, Colleen Mahoney, South County GC of RI Sandra Baylor Novice Floral Design
Award: Alice Nichols, Perennial Planters Harriet DeWaele Puckett Creativity Award, Best in Show–Floral Design: Kathleen Solberg, GC of Darien Rosie Jones Horticulture Award: Evelyn Lee, Sasqua GC Clarissa Willemsen Horticulture Propagation Award: Gay VincentCanal, Washington GC GCA Novice Award in Photography: Ronni Anderson, Litchfield GC Photography Creativity Award: Mary Trehan, Stamford GC Best in Show–Photography: Vicki Kyriakos, Green Fingers GC Award of Appreciation for Conservation Exhibit: Susan Bergen, Lisa Kaine Dunn Highlights
• Beautiful garden tours with an emphasis on photography and how important it is to document our collective iconic histories • One hundred butterflies released in the walled garden at Waveny House, originally designed by the Olmsted Brothers and recently restored by New Canaan GC • Iconic Flower Show, held in the historic carriage barn, highlighting all the talent in Zone II plus a wonderful conservation exhibit celebrating New Canaan’s open space • Early morning photography workshop conducted by Leslie Purple followed by a lecture about Innocenti & Webel, noted landscape architects The Bulletin :: Fall 2018
Zone Meetings
Clarissa Willemsen Horticulture Propagation Award: Sarah Slingerland, Fort Orange GC Best in Show–Horticulture: Lea Cornell, Millbrook GC GCA Novice Award in Photography: Beth Hickman, Rochester GC Photography Creativity Award: Sarah Amaden, East Hampton GC Best in Show–Photography: Holly Kennedy, Rye GC
Zone III 23 clubs in New York What’s Brewing...? May 15–17, 2018 The Otesaga Resort Hotel, Cooperstown, NY Hosted by Lake & Valley GC, Cooperstown, NY Chaired by Pat Hanft, Elaine Bresee Flower Show chaired by Lucy Townsend, Jennifer Brickley The historic Village of Cooperstown, established in 1785 by William Cooper, father of the famous author James Fenimore Cooper, was the setting for the 2018 Zone III Meeting. Cooperstown is home to the Fenimore Museum, the Farmers’ Museum, the internationally noted Glimmerglass Opera, the National Baseball Hall of Fame, Brewery Ommegang, and Hyde Hall, a National Historic Landmark. The area has several Ellen Biddle Shipman designed gardens, one of which our delegates were able to tour. All zone meeting attendees were housed and all business meetings took place at the charming Otesaga Resort Hotel, built in 1912 at the foot of Otsego Lake. Speakers
Dr. Willard Harmon, director, Biological Field Station, “Ecology of Otsego Lake” Suzanne Kingsley, Mickie Richtsmeier, Otsego Lake Association, “Otsego Lake Buffer Strip Garden” Christina Milliman, Fenimore
The Bulletin :: Fall 2018
LVGC’s Suzanne Kingsley and Pat Hanft at Founders Fund award-winning Buffer Strip Garden. Photo by Chris Duncan
Art Museum, “The History of Hops in Otsego County” Robert Sutherland, manager, Mohican Farm, “Mohican Farm Townwide Composting Operation” Awards
Creative Leadership Award: Cindy Willis, Southampton GC Zone Civic Improvement Commendation: Warrie Price, president & founder, The Battery Conservancy, proposed by Millbrook GC Zone Conservation Award: Ellen Conrad, Bedford GC Zone Conservation Commendation: Judith A. Enck, environmentalist, public servant, and educator, proposed by Fort Orange GC Zone Horticulture Award: Chris Murray, Little GC of Rye Zone Horticulture Commendation: Ken Greene, Doug Miller, Hudson Valley Seed Co., proposed by Ulster GC
Zone Historic Preservation Commendation: Trude Fitelson, collaborative leader and preservationist, proposed by Allyn’s Creek GC Zone Appreciation Award: Kathy Metz, Millbrook GC Flower Show Awards
Marion Thompson Fuller Brown Conservation Award: Suzanne Kingsley, LVGC Ann Lyon Crammond Award: Pat Hanft, LVGC Dorothy Vietor Munger Award: Carol Rice, Wendy Cushman, Bedford GC Sandra Baylor Novice Floral Design Award, Best in Show–Floral Design: Susan Murray, Allyn’s Creek GC GCA Novice Award in Horticulture: Lea Cornell, Millbrook GC Catherine Beattie Medal: Irvington-on-Hudson GC Rosie Jones Horticulture Award: Lydia Wallis, Southampton GC
Highlights
• Tours of Founders Fund awardwinning Buffer Strip, Mohican Farm’s Townwide composting operation, and the restored Ellen Biddle Shipman garden at the Spaulding Estate • Dinner hosted by Jane Forbes Clark at the National Baseball Hall of Fame • Tour, talk on herbs used for flavoring beer, and tasting at Brewery Ommegang • Lunch in Mohican Farm’s Great Barn
Elaine Bresee with Jane Forbes Clark who hosted dinner in the Plaque Room of the Baseball Hall of Fame. Photo by Chris Duncan
Zone Meetings
Co-chairmen Jeanne Shanley and Christine Hetzler. Photo by Diane Majeski
Zone IV 12 clubs in New Jersey Welcome to the Jersey Shore May 30–31, 2018 Navesink Country Club, Middletown, NJ Hosted by Rumson GC, Rumson, NJ Chaired by Jeanne Shanley, Christine Hetzler Flower Show chaired by Elizabeth Lilleston Rumson GC declared “Welcome to the Jersey Shore” and introduced Zone IV to the fascinating ecology of the New Jersey coastline and all zone and GCA news that could be fit into two busy days of meetings, field trips, speakers, and conviviality. Capturing both the wonder and the ecological issues of this coastal region was a magnificent mosaic created by Stella Ryan and Lucy Kalian. Stunningly beautiful from a distance, closer inspection revealed that it was made completely from trash, which had been collected along the Jersey shore in a single day. Think Poseidon and Venus created
from cigarette butts, candy wrappers, and Styrofoam. Three stimulating speakers and an educational field trip to Sandy Point completed the meeting’s overriding message that encouraged better stewardship of this earth we call home. Finally proving that Zone IV puts the “garden” in the Garden State, the meeting also included a beautiful flower show and visits to four lovely private gardens. Speakers
Cindy Zipf, GCA honorary member, executive director, Clean Ocean Action Edwina von Gal, president and founder, Perfect Earth Project, “The Evolution and Adventures of a Rational Naturalist” Bruce Crawford, GCA honorary member, director, Rutgers Gardens, Rutgers University Awards
Creative Leadership Award: Katie Downes, GC of Englewood Zone Civic Improvement Award: Katherine Dresdner, The GC of Princeton Zone Conservation Award: Kathleen Biggins, The GC of Princeton Zone Floral Design Achievement Award: Holly Bauer, GC of Trenton Zone Judging Award: Barbie Bromley, The GC of Princeton Flower Show Awards
GCA Botanical Arts Creativity Award: Stella Ryan, Rumson GC GCA Novice Award in Botanical
Arts: Mimi Carrington, GC of Morristown Best in Show–Botanical Arts: Stella Ryan, Rumson GC Ann Lyon Crammond Award: Avery Brighton, Rumson GC Dorothy Vietor Munger Award: Suzanne Bracken, Stony Brook GC Sandra Baylor Novice Floral Design Award: Joyce Gulden, Rumson GC Harriet DeWaele Puckett Creativity Award: Pam Russo, Rumson GC Best in Show–Floral Design: Pam Russo, Rumson GC GCA Novice Award in Horticulture: Christine Hetzler, Rumson GC Catherine Beattie Medal: Diane Guidone, Rumson GC Rosie Jones Horticulture Award: GC of Trenton Corliss Knapp Engle Horticulture Sweepstakes Award: Rumson GC
Pam Hirsch, Diane Majeski, Jeanne Shanley, and Suzanne Brookes demonstrate that waders are now GCA-approved apparel. Photo courtesy of Diane Majeski
Clarissa Willemsen Horticulture Propagation Award: Alice Wade, GC of Madison Best in Show–Horticulture: Diana Landreth, Rumson GC GCA Novice Award in Photography: Patricia Harris, GC of Madison Photography Creativity Award: Penny Thomas, The GC of Princeton Best in Show–Photography: Susan Van Tassel, Short Hills GC Highlights
• Field trip to Sandy Hook • Seining with the American Littoral Society • Dune ecology and horseshoe crabbing • Birding with the NJ Audubon Society
Zone IX 20 clubs in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Texas Lumination May 7–10, 2018 UT Gardens, Knoxville, TN Hosted by Knoxville GC, Knoxville, TN Chaired by Kelly Nystrom, Tiffany Siler Flower Show chaired by Amy Wilbanks, Kathryn Callaway Knoxville, settled in 1786 at the headwaters of the Tennessee River, is a gateway to Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Formerly the manufacturing and
The Bulletin :: Fall 2018
Zone Meetings
wholesale center of East Tennessee, Knoxville is home to the flagship campus of the University of Tennessee, a revitalized downtown with late 19th-century buildings converted to lofts, shops, and restaurants, and an urban wilderness for hikers, bikers, and paddlers. Delegates enjoyed the flower show at the Knoxville Museum of Art, private and historic home tours and dinners, and meetings and speakers at two beautiful public gardens. Crowning moments included a picnic at the renowned Blackberry Farm in the foothills of the Smokies and the awards dinner at Cherokee Country Club on the Tennessee River, where Zone IX stars shined. Speakers
John Coykendall, master gardener, Blackberry Farm, “The Art of Saving Seeds” Lynn Faust, forensic anthropologist, “Fireflies, Glowworms, and Lightening Bugs” David Pease, 2016 Hope Goddard Iselin Fellow in Public Horticulture, University of Tennessee, “Child Education Using the Garden” Rob Klein, fire ecologist, Great Smoky Mountains National Park Service, Dede Petri, GCA president, “Conservation Ecology and the GCA” Awards
Creative Leadership Award: Tempe Thompson, The Little GC of Memphis Zone Appreciation Award: Gladys Whitney, Little Rock GC The Bulletin :: Fall 2018
Zone Civic Improvement Commendation: Steve Manning, Weed Wrangle, proposed by The GC of Nashville Zone Conservation Award: Elizabeth Waddill, Magnolia GC Zone Conservation Commendation: Cary Fowler, Svalbard Global Seed Vault, proposed by Memphis GC Barbara Spaulding Cramer Zone Floral Design Education Award: Amelia Crumbley, Laurel GC Zone Floral Design Achievement Award: Lee LaPointe, The GC of Nashville Zone Historic Preservation Commendation: Kathy (The Gertrude Windsor GC) and Wayne Babin, Holly Cottage Garden, proposed by The Gertrude Windsor GC Flower Show Awards
GCA Botanical Arts Creativity Award: Kristin Brown, The Monroe Garden Study League GCA Novice Award in Botanical Arts: Katherine Dobbs, The Little GC of Memphis Best in Show–Botanical Arts: Marsha Cannon, The GC of Jackson Marion Thompson Fuller Brown Conservation Award: Michelle Albritton, Angelia Nystrom, Ginger Browning, Knoxville GC Dorothy Vietor Munger Award: Patti Kelly, Knoxville GC Sandra Baylor Novice Floral Design Award: Barbara Rosenberg, New Orleans Town Gardeners Harriet DeWaele Puckett Creativity
Award: Ann Breard, The Monroe Garden Study League Best in Show–Floral Design: Barbara Crow, Sue John, Founders GC of Dallas GCA Novice Award in Horticulture: Betsy Holleman, Garden Lovers of Natchez Rosie Jones Horticulture Award: Augusta Smith, Garden Lovers of Natchez Corliss Knapp Engle Horticulture Sweepstakes Award: Garden Lovers of Natchez Clarissa Willemsen Horticulture Propagation Award: Kathy Bowman, Greenville GC Best in Show–Horticulture: Kathy Babin, The Gertrude Windsor GC GCA Novice Award in Photography: Ann Brookshire, The Gertrude Windsor GC Photography Creativity Award: Nancy Keely, The GC of Houston Best in Show–Photography: Beth Holland, Founders GC of Dallas Knoxville GC Awards: Ann Breard, Monroe Garden Study League (Best Interpretation in Class/Floral Design); Louise Slater, Memphis GC (Most Dramatic Use of Color/Floral Design); Gina White, Little GC of Memphis (Best Flowering Specimen/Horticulture); Bette Green, Laurel GC (Best Non-flowering Specimen/ Horticulture); Beth Holland, Founders GC of Dallas (Masterful Composition/Photography) Museum Curator Awards: Patti
From left: Tiffany Siler, Kathryn Callaway, Dolly Parton, Amy Wilbanks, and Kelly Nystrom. Photo by Elizabeth Campbell
Kelly, Knoxville GC (Floral Design); Augusta Smith, Garden Lovers of Natchez (Horticulture); Sandra Bateman, Laurel GC (Photography); Marsha Cannon, The GC of Jackson (Botanical Arts) Highlights
• Many beautiful venues for the meeting: Knoxville Museum of Art, UT Gardens, Blount Mansion, Knoxville Botanical Garden, Blackberry Farm, and Cherokee Country Club • Shining southern hospitality in members’ homes: Ann Bailey, Carlton Long, Priscilla Siler, Sherri Lee, Gail Wedekind, Anna Gray, Melinda Ethier, and Joan Ashe • Conservation exhibit: East Tennessee Shines and Garden History exhibit • Special guest appearance by “Davy Crockett” at Blount Mansion
Milestones
ClubMilestones: Celebrations of Beacon Hill Tour, occurs on the third Thursday in May. This year that event brought in a profit of more than $110,000, which the club donated to mostly local horticultural and environmental organizations. Schön has begun work on the sea turtle, which should be completed and set in place by the time the GCA holds its annual meeting in Boston next year. Everyone is invited to take a look. —Karen Cord Taylor
Zone II BHGC members visit Nancy Schön’s studio, where she is creating Myrtle the Turtle. From left: John Corey, BHGC president Kate Enroth, Nancy Schön, and Miguel Rosales. Photo by Jeanne Burlingame
Zone I Beacon Hill Garden Club Boston, MA Founded in 1928 Joined the GCA in 1972 Beacon Hill Garden Club celebrated its 90th anniversary this year with a significant gift to the neighborhood. Club leaders proposed a $35,000 gift to the Myrtle Street Playground, transforming it with restored fencing, newly planted green space, new containers, benches, and a watering system. In addition, BHGC commissioned a bronze climbing structure depicting a sea turtle, Myrtle the Turtle, from world-renowned sculptor Nancy Schön. It will
be placed prominently near the playground’s entrance. Schön’s sculptures include Tortoise and Hare at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, AR, Raccoons and the Magic Horseshoes near Nashville, TN, and Prairie Dogs in Oklahoma City, OK. In Boston’s Public Garden, Schön is known for Make Way for Ducklings, which is based on Robert McCloskey’s beloved children’s story. A copy of the sculpture stands in Moscow, a gift from then-First Lady Barbara Bush to the children of Russia. The BHGC has set aside $25,000 for this project. Club members’ individual donations will provide the rest of the funds needed for creating and installing the sea turtle. The club’s annual fundraiser, the Hidden Gardens
Connecticut Valley Garden Club West Hartford, CT Founded in 1917 Joined the GCA in 1933 Connecticut Valley Garden Club held its final celebratory event for the club’s centennial, 1917–2017, with a time capsule burial and party in the Heritage Rose Garden at Elizabeth Park,
One of the many antique roses in bloom. Photo by Deborah Mundair
West Hartford, CT, on June 11, 2018. The gathering was attended by members young and old who enjoyed the glorious fragrant oldfashioned roses in bloom at their peak. The most creative idea for celebrating the club’s 100th was a major challenge to the club members to raise $100,000 from 2007 to 2017 to entirely rebuild the Heritage Rose Garden in Elizabeth Park. With that daunting task in mind
CVGC members gather for the burial of a time capsule in honor of the club’s 100th anniversary. Photo by Deborah Mundair
The Bulletin :: Fall 2018
Milestones
members chose to create the wildly successful fundraiser, Set to Celebrate. This annual event has been an outstanding success enabling the club to completely restore the handicap-accessible garden in Elizabeth Park. A time capsule, filled with club memorabilia and detailed records, was buried in the garden as a memorial to this extraordinary successful undertaking and many other civic projects delivered by CVGC members over the years. The capsule will be opened in June 2118. —Nancy MacColl
Zone VIII Cherokee Garden Club Atlanta, GA Founded in 1928 Joined the GCA in 1963
Why wait for the 100th? Cherokee GC’s 90th birthday cake! Photo by Paula Hennessy
The Bulletin :: Fall 2018
Why not celebrate one’s 90th birthday, rather than wait for the 100th? Go for it! Cherokee members celebrated 90 years in beautiful style on March 20, 2018 at the home and gardens of member Scottie Schoen. The gathering included a program on botanical arts presented by Anne Scott, Jupiter Island Garden Club member. It was followed by an exquisite walk down memory lane with a selection of photographs displayed on the big screen as well as in silver frames dripping with strands of vintage pearls, placed among gorgeous green and white flower arrangements. Over 100 Cherokee club members of all “vintages” were treated to a beautifully served seated luncheon, giving us the luxury of time to visit with one another. Having studied together, worked together, and traveled together over the decades, there were plenty of stories to recall and new plans to be made. The club endeavor most recalled was decidedly the formation and continued support of the Cherokee Garden Library of the Atlanta History Center. Begun in 1975 with rather few holdings proudly displayed in a telephone closet, dedicated club members and other supporters enlarged the collection to over 32,000 books, periodicals, landscape drawings, seed catalogs, and related ephemera. The Cherokee Garden Library is a resource available to all who want to dig into the exciting
Longtime leaders in Cherokee GC and the Cherokee Garden Library, Lamar Oglesby, Edie Wright, Margaret Shirley, and Trudy Huger celebrate at the 90th birthday event. Photo by Paula Hennessy
Europe, and Asia. Research and close collaboration with the Goizueta Gardens on the grounds of the Atlanta History Center complete the package for gardeners of all stripes, who strive to learn about and to preserve the garden history of the southeast. — Carter Morris
and historic holdings of the collection. The Cherokee Garden Library is a lasting legacy of the Cherokee Garden Club. A special library within the Kenan Research Center, it tells the story of horticulture and botanical history in the southeastern United States, as well as areas of influence throughout America,
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 24 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM, Preview Party: Tickets $100 until Oct. 20. $125 after Oct. 20 and at the door.* THURSDAY, OCTOBER 25 9:30 AM – 8:00 PM: $10 admission, $35 admission with Luncheon.* FRIDAY, OCTOBER 26 9:30 AM – 3:00 PM: $10 admission, $35 admission with Luncheon.* *Reservations recommended THE
GARDEN CLUB
Fox Chapel Golf Club For more information and tickets, visit: www.gcacpgh.org/pizzazz Other inquiries, contact: gcacpgh@gmail.com OF
ALLEGHENY COUNTY
FOUNDED IN 1914 • A MEMBER OF THE GARDEN CLUB OF AMERICA
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NewsWorthy Zone I Noanett Garden Club Dedham, MA
co-chair. “But what was most fascinating was to experience their amazing scents.” —Kimberly Hatfield
Zone II Fairfield Garden Club Fairfield, CT
‘Dexter’s Honeydew’ is one of 10,000 rhododendrons on display at Heritage Museum and Gardens in Sandwich, MA. Photo by Cynthia Ballantyne
On May 29, Noanett Garden Club traveled to Heritage Museums and Gardens in Sandwich, MA. Internationally known for its extensive rhododendron collection, many hybridized by Charles Owen Dexter, and its hydrangea test garden, Heritage covers 100 acres and is southern New England’s largest public garden. NGC participated in a docent-led tour and learned about Dexter’s work collecting and cross-breeding plants for hardiness, clear bright colors, fragrance, and big blossoms. “It was a spectacular day and the rhododendrons were in full bloom,” observed Cynthia Ballantyne, Visiting Gardens
An intrepid group of Fairfield Garden Club members braved the sultry heat on a July afternoon to participate in an important mission. Along with Fairfield’s conservation director, Brian Carey, the members inspected eight stands of hybrid, blightresistant American chestnut trees. The club’s assignment was part of a project created in 2009 under the leadership of current club president Barbara Geddes-Wooten as part of the GCA’s Centennial Tree Project. It began with members planting sprouted chestnuts that grew into seedlings, which were then sent to Tennessee to mature. With the help of Fairfield Public Works, our gift of 100 trees was planted on Arbor Day 2012, in eight public
open spaces throughout Fairfield. At the July visit, our chestnut mentor, plant pathologist and ecologist Dr. Sandra Anagnostakis, assessed the trees and determined that the survival rate exceeded her expectations. Sixty trees are thriving and at least one tree is expected to bear fruit next year. Hopefully in decades to come, the survival rate will continue to exceed 50 percent, and new chestnuts will eventually self-sow in the vicinity of the original trees. This is one of the only plantings of American chestnuts in southwestern Connecticut. —Ellen Gould
Zone III Allyn’s Creek Garden Club Rochester, NY
Lisa Campbell, Susie Miller, Speaker Sam Lemheney, Laureen Burke, Katharine Parsons. Photo by Marie McNabb
FGC members at the American chestnut tree assessment. Photo by Simin Allison
Allyn’s Creek’s biannual spring FUN-raiser, Flower Power, featured Sam Lemheney, vice president, chief of shows and events at the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, which
includes the Philadelphia Flower Show. The luncheon, attended by 125 guests, auctioned exciting items like a garden tour of Hampton Court Palace in London with Historic Royal Palaces official Graham Dillamore, a dinner catered by several ACGC members, and a PFS package of tickets, tour, and lunch. The flower show, judged by a local panel, was preceded by an intimate dinner where Sam shared anecdotes about his experiences with the PFS and his work at Disney World. Co-chairs Laureen Burke and Lisa Campbell, aided by a bevy of volunteers, raised $22,000 that will help fund ACGC’s projects, including Green Visions, a gardening workforce development program in an underserved Rochester community, and the George Eastman Museum terrace garden restoration effort. Funds also will support the ongoing commitment to the beautification of Stone-Tolan House Historic Site, the oldest house in Monroe County. —Maggie Symington
Rye Garden Club Rye, NY The sun was shining and the flowers were blooming for Rye Garden Club’s Garden Walk fundraiser in June. Visitors were provided a detailed guidebook describing each club member’s property, as every garden boasted different features. Members The Bulletin :: Fall 2018
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proceeds allowed RGC to give $23,510 in gifts this year to 17 local non-profits, including a gift of $20,000 to help fund a mobile education center at the Rye Nature Center. —Sarah Barringer A formal bed of allium was one of many highlights in a hidden garden on the RGC Garden Walk. Photo by Sarah Barringer
were on hand to greet guests, answer questions, and point out noteworthy features. A two-acre garden offered beautiful vistas, specimen trees, a charming mix of native and exotic plantings, and a thriving vegetable garden. Another property delighted visitors with its layered landscape, featuring a brook, a meadow, a woodland area, thoughtfully planned formal beds, and thriving native plants to attract wildlife. At a third garden, a charming property of mature trees, native perennials, vegetables, herbs, and annuals, guests were treated to an exhibit on honey bees. Two gardens on the shores of Long Island Sound were next: the first was hidden behind a brick wall covered with ivy, roses, and clematis—truly a secret garden where visitors could meander along curved paths, through arbors, and hedged arches into garden rooms, each delightful in different ways. The final garden was a breathtaking waterfront property. A canopy of stately trees, a stone pond, clematis, and climbing roses all created a dramatic and lovely setting. The
The Bulletin :: Fall 2018
Southampton Garden Club Southampton, NY
Attendees under the rose pergola in the garden of SGC member Christl Meszkat. Photo by Jennifer Lawrence
The horticulture and program committee club chairs of Zone III, along with their presidents, were welcomed by cohosts Lydia Wallis, Zone III Horticulture Rep, and Mary Miller, Zone III Program Rep, for “A Day in the Hamptons.” The group visited two private gardens with a final stop at St. Andrew’s Dune Church and gardens. Cindy Willis, Zone III Nominating Rep and member of the congregation, gave a lecture on the charming, nondenominational church founded in 1879. After a brown bag lunch at Cooper Hall, ideas for programs and workshops were shared. The day ended with a plant swap and a
raffle of three perennials and an Oak tree propagated from an acorn distributed at the GCA’s Centennial Celebration in Central Park. —Lydia Wallis
Ulster Garden Club Kingston, NY What does it take to restore an unused trail in a public park? Answer: three agencies and one 12-year-old girl scout by the name of Jillian Hanlon, who had a gem of an idea to restore an old nature trail in a public park in the City of Kingston, NY. The 45-acre Hasbrouck Park has lovely highland views of the Hudson River and contains over 20 different tree species. The Memorial Tree Fund of the Ulster Garden Club partnered with Jillian, the City of Kingston
Parks and Recreation, and the Junior League of Kingston to help bring this project to fruition. The original proposal included clearing the trail, replacing safety fencing, identifying tree species, and creating signage to inform citizens about the environmental, cultural, and industrial history of the park. Jillian wrote the text for a variety of signs, including one to explain how to identify poison ivy and another on the effect of invasive species, such as the hemlock woolly adelgid. After a year of monthly meetings and a lot of planning, the trail was cleared and the signage installed. Girl Scout Cadette Jillian Hanlon will earn her Silver Award in October for completing her project, and all of us at the Ulster Garden Club couldn’t be more proud. —Anne Shultz
Zone IV Short Hills Garden Club Short Hills, NJ
Girl Scout Cadette Jillian Hanlon, installing the tree identification signs along the Hasbrouck Park Trail. Photo by Anne Shultz
For over 20 years, members of Short Hills Garden Club have created small flower arrangements to be delivered to shut-ins located in their community through Meals on Wheels. SHGC members use miniature pumpkins, birch logs, and porcelain teacups as containers and adorn the arrangements with festive holiday décor and ribbons for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and the Fourth of July. Families and caregivers have expressed
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SHGC members proudly display arrangements ready for hospice delivery. Photo by Christie Adelman
their gratitude to SHGC through heartfelt messages. SHGC received a grant from The Investors Foundation in 2016 that enabled them to expand their program by creating an alliance with the Atlantic Home Care and Hospice Supportive Care in Morristown, NJ. This initiative, created and led by club member Maida Tansey, has become a beloved SHGC tradition where members gather regularly to combine their creative talents with the universal language of plants and flowers to bring comfort to others in need. —Juliet Davis
Zone V Carrie T. Watson Garden Club Erie, PA The Carrie T. Watson Garden Club GH&D committee presented an exhibition, Archiving Ephemeral Beauty, at the Erie Art Museum. The three-month exhibition closed September 16, 2018, days after the first ever CTWGC-hosted GCA Zone V
meeting, and presented the 15 gardens documented by the club since it joined the GCA ten years ago. Sited in Pennsylvania— from the borders of Ohio and New York State and south to Slippery Rock, PA—the gardens were chosen to express a cross section of regional horticultural opportunities afforded by close proximity to Lake Erie, its tributaries, and vast intact tracts of eastern American woodlands. Museum Curator Susan Barnett explained the exhibition’s raison d’être: “I was interested in the act of archiving a time-based, ephemeral work of art, and helping people recognize the garden as visual art by bringing it into the museum.” On July 13th, a standing-roomonly audience gathered at the museum to view a presentation of all of the gardens. Eight gardeners spoke eloquently of the decades-long efforts they invested creating their gardens. Images of the seven others were presented with voice-over introductions written for their individual submissions. To date, three of the gardens have vanished. Sarah
CTWGC’s Archiving Ephemeral Beauty at the Erie Art Museum. Photo by Susan Kemenyffy
Drake, Zone V GH&D Rep said, “I particularly loved the garden owners talking about their own gardens and the varied approaches and significances each garden brought to their lives.” Attending the lecture were several gardeners whose work is currently being documented for future submission. —Susan Kemenyffy
The Garden Club of Philadelphia Philadelphia, PA
Lizanne Christen, Stacy Cannon, Elizabeth Bitterman, Marggy Ells with their grapevine cuttings from Wyck. Photo by Stephen Bitterman
At their 2018 annual meeting, members of The Garden Club of Philadelphia received cuttings of grapevine with a GCA-related provenance. The cuttings of Vitis labrusca ‘Concord’ were harvested from Wyck, a National Historic Landmark house, garden, and farm that served as home to nine generations of the Quaker WistarHaines family of Philadelphia. One of the family members, Miss Jane Bowne Haines, was an early member of GCP. At a luncheon on April 30, 1913—the day before the founders met to officially establish The Garden
Club of America—a picture of Wyck, already revered as an historic garden, was prominently featured as part of the decorations. The house first featured the grape arbor around 1824. In the early 20th century, cuttings were taken from the original grapevine to propagate new vines. It is from these vines that Martha Keen, Wyck’s horticulturist, took and potted cuttings, then presented them to GCP members as thanks for supporting an effort to preserve and renovate the grape arbor, an important architectural element in the historic garden. Today’s members have a horticultural link to the earliest days of GCP and the founding of the GCA through cuttings of Wyck’s grapevine. Now that’s a plant with a provenance! —Elizabeth Bitterman
The Weeders Bryn Mawr, PA For over thirty years, The Weeders have maintained the gardens at the historic Strafford Train Station
The Weeders plant roses at the Strafford Station. Photo by Alice Doering
The Bulletin :: Fall 2018
NewsWorthy
along the Philadelphia Main Line. The building is a charming, late-Victorian structure that has serviced commuters since the late 1880s. Throughout each gardening season, a devoted team of Weeders gathers on Tuesday mornings to weed, prune, and keep the station filled with colorful plants. Annuals are planted in the spring, summer, and fall; perennials are combined for additional interest. A large wreath adorns the ticket office door during the Christmas season as well as outdoor wreaths and decorations for the adjacent station area. Shrubs and trees are continually added. Magnolia stellata ‘Centennial’ was planted in celebration of The Weeders’ 100th Anniversary in 2007. Part of our club’s history is alive and growing at the station. SEPTA, the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transit Authority, has honored The Weeders with a sign recognizing our long-term commitment and landscaping efforts. The local community, represented by the Strafford Civic Association, generously donates to our funds for plant purchases. Best of all, more rewards for our weekly labors arrive from the daily commuters. Even as they rush to catch their trains, they still take the time to thank us and express their appreciation. —Alice Doering
The Bulletin :: Fall 2018
WCGC member Nancy McAdams with the educational kiosk at the Pat King Pollinator Garden. Photo by Helen Wagner
The West Chester Garden Club West Chester, PA In 2014, members of The West Chester Garden Club began a collaboration with Jason Lang, director of East Goshen Township Parks and Recreation, to create a pollinator garden in the park next to a playground. The objective was to provide an oasis of native plants for pollinators and birds while educating township residents and their children about the garden’s benefits. WCGC funded, designed, installed, and nurtured the garden. The township received a matching grant for signage and benches from local electric utility, PECO. In its fourth year, the garden is flourishing in many ways: it engages the community; it educates children and adults; it teaches other garden clubs
and master gardeners about the benefits of collaborating on public pollinator gardens; and it supports pollinators. Adults and children love to visit the garden and follow the continuous progression of plants and pollinators from spring through fall. WCGC supports the garden with a spring cleanup that includes community volunteers. In addition, WCGC members plant annuals and maintain the educational kiosk. When the township recently revitalized the playground, they used the pollinator garden and its educational benefit to children as a selling point throughout their grant-application process. “Butterflies” is the new playground theme. In March, WCGC members Ginny Levy and Gail Warner-Lidondici, along with Jason Lang, gave a presentation at the Pennsylvania Recreation and Parks Society Conference, emphasizing public-private partnerships to create projects with positive environmental impact. —Nancy VanOrman
Zone VII Glenview Garden Club Louisville, KY The Glenview Garden Club hosted a garden tour on May 12 and 13, 2018. Tour Co-chairs Jana Dowds and Barbie Horton worked with their committee
GGC Tour Co-chairmen, Barbie Horton and Jana Dowds. Photo by Margie Shubert
to organize a fabulous selection of six gardens and farms; three of which had never been open to the public. Over 500 visitors from as far away as Lexington, Paducah, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, and Nashville attended. Each property had its own distinct personality and charm, from reflecting pools mirroring the design of the house in the Kulp garden to a delightful potting shed, raised beds for vegetables, and a stunning pool setting at Margaret Barlow’s property. Lunch was served on the terrace amid Cathy Stopher’s lovely boxwood parterre. Also featured were the farms of Laura Lee Brown and Heather McHold on the Ohio River, with beautiful views, formal gardens, vegetable gardens, contemporary art, bison, pigs, and chickens! As added attractions, visitors could purchase unique garden items at our Garden Treasures Shop; a Lily’O’s Boutique was located at Laurie Vieth’s garden. This year, the money raised was given to the new Waterfront
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Botanical Gardens in downtown Louisville. Our gift of $25,000 will be used to install an entrance garden. In recent years, we have gifted proceeds to plant a double allée of trees at The Parklands of Floyds Fork, Yew Dell Botanical Gardens, Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest, and Olmsted Parks Conservancy. —Jana Dowds and Barbie Horton
James River Garden Club Richmond, VA A summertime Sip & See, held in Eva Clarke’s garden on a balmy June evening, gave James River Garden Club members and their spouses an opportunity to stroll through this committed environmentalist’s organic garden and learn about eco-friendly yard care. Organized by the club’s conservation committee,
Eva and Sadie, her Ameraucana hen, are joined by new member Lief Catlett at JRGC’s Sip & See. In addition to providing fresh eggs almost every day, Eva’s chickens graze the garden and help keep the mosquito and tick population down. Photo by Madeline Mayhood
chaired by Tenley Beazley and Eva, the casual, pop-up gettogether featured cool libations and show-and-tell alternatives to harsh chemicals in the garden: horticultural oil for pest control, white vinegar to combat weeds and feed acid-loving plants, and peppermint and grapefruit essential oils to repel ants. Eva also shared her environmentally friendly lawn-care protocol and Queen Elizabeth II’s pest repellent spray recipe,* which Eva says the royal gardeners use everywhere. “Summer time pop-ups,” says JRGC President Susie Rawles, “are a great way to keep members engaged and to share information on topics our membership is interested in.” Eva and Tenley launched the club’s Queen Bee initiative in 2016, sharing organic gardening practices and challenging club members to adopt healthy garden habits. The Sip & See was yet another installment in this successful program. “It’s so rewarding to hear from a member,” says Eva, “who might tell us she sprayed essential oils on her peonies for the first time to get rid of ants, instead of using a really harmful insecticide, or that she started composting her kitchen scraps.” One member at a time, JRGC’s Queen Bees are making a difference. —Madeline Mayhood * Queen Elizabeth II’s pest repellent recipe (for spray bottles): Steep 6 garlic cloves in 2 cups water. Add a tablespoon of hot sauce or cayenne pepper and a tablespoon of
dishwashing liquid. Pour into a spray bottle and use to repel pests in the garden.
celebrate City Color and toast to a rousing success! —Anne Heppenstall
Zone VIII
Zone IX
Red Mountain Garden Club and Little Garden Club of Birmingham Birmingham, AL
Garden Study Club of New Orleans New Orleans, LA
City Color Chairs Kimberly Bean, Sally Legg, D.A. Tynes, and Kathy Park. Photo by Pam Baugh
Little Garden Club of Birmingham and Red Mountain Garden Club jointly presented a GCA Flower Show, City Color, at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens on May 1–2, 2018. The show was a huge success due to the hard work of the chairs, Kimberly Bean (RMGC), Sally Legg (LGC), Kathy Park (LGC), D.A. Tynes (RMGC), and numerous committee members. Talented and beautiful entries were submitted in five divisions: floral design, horticulture, photography, botanical arts, and conservation/ education. The show opened to the public with a large crowd of enthusiastic attendees, who were in awe of the entries, and ended with a members’ cocktail party to
Queen of Arts: Celebrating 30 Years of Art in Bloom drew record numbers and fantastic exhibitors! The Garden Study Club of New Orleans and the New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA) collaborated on the five-day event, which showcased more than 75 exhibitors with spectacular floral designs. Proceeds benefited educational projects and exhibitions at NOMA and community projects of the GSC. Club members and museum volunteers worked tirelessly to make it all happen! NOMA’s beautiful galleries provided the perfect setting for the patron party, where guests enjoyed an exclusive preview of the floral displays and cuisine from 30 top New Orleans restaurants. The
Patron party at the New Orleans Museum of Art. Photo by Elizabeth Wooten
The Bulletin :: Fall 2018
NewsWorthy
silent auction included prominent artists and had an impressive showing. The following day, the Art in Bloom lecture series featured New York-based American fashion designer Lela Rose and acclaimed restaurateur and author Charles Masson. The sold-out lectures inspired and motivated the crowd. Patrons thoroughly enjoyed the Saks Fifth Avenue fashion show and lunch that followed. As Art in Bloom, the club’s signature fundraiser, celebrated its 30th year, all New Orleanians celebrated the 300th anniversary of our wonderful city. The GSC was proud to bring such an incredible event to New Orleans in this milestone year. —Elizabeth Wooten
Garden Club of Lookout Mountain Lookout Mountain, TN
The Garden Club of Lookout Mountain teamed up with the Lookout Mountain Conservancy for this year’s Weed Wrangle event. The area designated for the wrangle was a little over an acre and is owned by the conservancy. The land was overrun by kudzu and trash, but with help from community volunteers and students from the Intern and Leadership Program at The Howard School, a wonderful vision of a pollinator garden emerged for this area. Members of GCLM assisted in this grand venture by removing vines, roots, invasive plants, and bags of trash from the site. After the grunt work was over, the members got down to the fun job of planting bare-root red tip photinia and a variety of shrubs. Upon completion, this landscape will have walking paths, bee hotels, native plants, and a beautiful garden. It will not only be a delight to birds, bees, and
The Gertrude Windsor Garden Club Tyler, TX
The Traveling Gertrudes from the Gertrude Windsor GC stepped back in time with a wonderful road trip to Natchez. Enjoying time with members of the Garden Lovers of Natchez as well as tours of private gardens were highlights of the trip. Understanding the economy of cotton, varied architectural periods and styles, and life in the deep south added to our insight of living along the shores of the Mississippi River. True southern hospitality was unbeatable. Text and photo by Ann W. Brookshire
butterflies, but will be enjoyed by the whole community. —Lulu Brock
River Oaks Garden Club Houston, TX
GCLM members teamed with students from the Intern and Leadership Program at The Howard School to wrangle weeds. Photo by Lulu Brock
The Bulletin :: Fall 2018
Thirty-eight members of River Oaks GC ventured off to Cartagena and Bogotá, Colombia, in February to tour the nation’s famed gardens. Hosted by the Honorable Carolina Barco and the Honorable Robert A. Mosbacher, Jr., our journey began in Cartagena de Indias, which is
a UNESCO World Heritage site on Colombia’s Caribbean coast. The picturesque “old city,” with narrow cobblestone streets and Spanish colonial architecture, is walled-in by Las Murallas (thick stone walls) that protected the city from pirates. Today these walls and balconies are covered in a dramatic array of bougainvillea. We visited the National Aviary of Colombia and Casa de Huespedes Ilustres, which is the official guesthouse for presidents of Colombia. Upon arriving at the Botanical Garden of Cartagena, we were greeted by Director Santiago Madriñán, PhD. Our
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ROGC members on a trip to Colombia. Photo by Lisa Mears
tour of over 300 plant species started with the special treat of a blooming pelican flower, which only blooms for two days. After a quick flight to Bogotá, we enjoyed the impressive greenhouses and gardens of Flores la Conchita to gain insight into the propagating, growing, packing, and shipping of flowers. Colombia has the second largest flower industry in the world, next to the Netherlands. We also visited Casa de Nariño (the presidential palace), an exquisite private orchid collection of over 1,000 varieties, the Botero Museum, the Gold Museum, and the majestic underground Salt Cathedral of Zipaquirá. Hopefully, you can visit Colombia to enjoy the vibrant colors and textures of this historic country, and its warm and friendly people. —Lisa Mears
Zone X Shaker Lakes Garden Club Cleveland, OH The Shaker Lakes Garden Club held their annual Provisional Tea at the home and gardens of Julie Given on July 10. This club tradition, started over 50 years ago, provides the membership an opportunity to welcome our
SLGC’s Robin Schachat, Rebecca Carmi, Gale Clarry, and Jennifer Langston gather around the pool to chat and drink a time-honored punch. Photo by Dozie Herbruck
new provisional members and tour a member’s garden in the height of the summer. The second year provisional members host the event to help them get in the swing of actively participating in SLGC. Members enjoyed tea sandwiches and a punch recipe handed down over many years. The Provisional Tea often includes a lighthearted contest to identify plants in the garden of the hostess to encourage the active and provisional members to get to know each other by participating in groups. —Jennifer Moeller
Zone XI The Garden Club of St. Louis Saint Louis, MO At the end of 2017, the following request was made in the Garden Club of St. Louis’s newsletter: Please join members of the GCSL in gifting photographs of nature for an art installation in a hospital setting to uplift patients’ spirits. The first location for installation is St. Luke’s Hospital in West St. Louis County, 7th floor, cancer patients’ hallway display areas. Our goal is to have 50 submissions (photos can be of flowers, nature, landscapes, or our natural environment). Installations will be 24” x 36” metal photographic enlargements. Members responded enthusiastically by submitting photographs and donating funds
One of the many beautiful photos contributed by GCSL members. Photo by William Gilbert
for printing. By July 2018 the beautiful flower and landscape photography had been installed, brightening up the hospital’s hallways and uplifting the patients’ spirits. There is signage acknowledging the GCSL’s contribution and caregivers and patients have already expressed their appreciation. The club would like to thank all our members who participated, especially Sarah Trulaske for spearheading the project, Joseph Carpenter for his help, and Carrie Polk, who gave us the clever name #Naturenourishes. —Diane Wyse Jackson
Ladue Garden Club St. Louis, MO Two years ago Ladue Garden Club adopted the planting and maintenance of the Native Garden at Ladue City Hall. This garden was created a year before by a Ladue couple in conjunction with the St. Louis Audubon Society’s Bring Conservation Home Program. Since LGC has taken over this garden, we have
The Bulletin :: Fall 2018
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Loveland Garden Club Omaha, NE
LGC members at the March work day. Photo by Laure Hullverson
installed stonework (with the help of the public works department), thinned and defined the plant borders, and installed signage. Planted in the garden are a variety of native plants, including prairie dropseed (Sporobolus heterolepis), New England aster (Symphyotrichum novae-angliae), golden current (Ribes aureum), mountain mint (Pycnanthemum muticum), common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca), fringed bluestar (Amsonia ciliata), rattlesnake master (Eryngium yuccifolium), purple poppy mallow (Callirhoe involucrata), and blue wild indigo (Baptisia australis). Our conservation committee holds regular all-club work days for maintenance. LGC knows this garden is important to the community. It is an opportunity to educate Ladue residents about native plants, how they attract pollinators, and how they may be used effectively in home gardens. It is also a special place for residents and city hall employees to take a break from their day and enjoy the beauty around them as they meander through the garden. —Linn Wells
The Bulletin :: Fall 2018
For their provisional project, the 2017–18 Loveland Garden Club provisional members planted a container garden on the deck at Omaha’s Methodist Hospital. Large windows in the main cafeteria look onto the deck, which has several tables and chairs for seating for over 60 people. Staff, patients, caregivers, and visitors can use the space, which is completely accessible. Beds can even be wheeled outside to take advantage of this beautiful new patio, which was built in 2017 as part of an addition to the hospital. Before planting, the provisionals had to consider the weight of the containers, soil, water, and the plants themselves, as well as the their tolerance of bright sunlight
on a concrete surface. The provisionals received assistance from the county extension office, a local nursery, and our club president, who is a volunteer at the hospital. Soon after planting, the terrace was filled with people dining, connecting with each other, and enjoying the outdoors. The newly decorated space was obviously lifting spirits, promoting socialization, and reducing stress and anxiety! —Jane Ellsworth
Saint Paul Garden Club Saint Paul, MN
SPGC members Betsy Kelly and Colleen FitzPatrick led an initiative to revitalize historic Rice Park in downtown Saint Paul. Photo by Marge Hols
LGC members Ann Hosford, Carol Lynch, and Ann Tjaden plant a container garden at Omaha’s Methodist Hospital. Photo by Jane Ellsworth
Rice Park, one of downtown Saint Paul’s treasured spaces, is getting a grand makeover thanks to leadership from the Saint Paul Garden Club. The revitalization includes new gardens and flower-
bedecked urns, a fountain plaza with shade trees, new paving and artistic lighting, and turf and irrigation upgrades. SPGC was concerned with how rundown the 169-year-old park had become. In 2014 the club donated $46,000 to the Saint Paul Parks and Recreation Department to redesign the park to accommodate the everincreasing number of visitors and park events. SPGC partnered with the Rice Park Association and Saint Paul Parks Conservancy to raise $1.35 million in private funds to revitalize the park. Colleen FitzPatrick and Betsy Kelly represented SPGC on the partnership’s leadership team. It was the importance of Rice Park to the city that led garden club members and others to donate the lead gifts that propelled the successful fundraising campaign. Generous gifts from individuals, businesses, and foundations and another $35,000 from SPGC followed. We reached our $1.35 million goal in 2017, and Saint Paul Parks agreed to provide another $1 million in public funds. Construction started this spring. For the past 25 years club members have designed, purchased, planted, and maintained all the gardens and urns in the park, providing thousands of volunteer hours and dollars. We can’t wait to plant spring-blooming bulbs in the new gardens this fall! —Marge Hols
NewsWorthy
Zone XII Arizona Columbine Garden Club Paradise Valley, AZ
Daniel Schultz and Natasha Lisitsa (at left) built an eye-stopping floral design from desert tumbleweed, twigs, and flowers for A Day in Full Bloom, chaired by Katie Mueller, Kimberlee Padilla, and Shaun Bracken. Photo by Anne Christensen
San Francisco-based floral designer Natasha Lisitsa and her husband, Daniel Schultz, built stunning and unusual floral creations as the highlight of a fundraising luncheon held in April by Arizona Columbine Garden Club. Distinctive arrangements that reflected the couple’s architectural and engineering backgrounds were fashioned from unlikely plant materials retrieved from the gardens of ACGC members, including tumbleweed clumps, yucca stems, citrus tree branches, and ocotillo arms. More than 450 guests attended the luncheon, A Day in Full Bloom, which exceeded its fundraising goal of $75,000 to benefit the Desert Botanical Garden. The additional
$11,000 raised will support ACGC education and outreach activities in the next year. In addition to the ticket proceeds, 70 luncheon guests made direct donations of $1,000 each to the Desert Botanical Garden and in return were given handembroidered tablecloths with images of cactuses. They also shopped at the accompanying market, where nine vendors offered Italian and French linens, soaps and scents, paper goods, ceramics, jewelry, and a special booth of “Columbine Collection Private Label” goods. Revenue from their sales rounded out a very successful and inspiring fundraising event. —Carol Schilling
Garden Club of Denver Denver, CO
Garden Club of Denver and History Colorado resulted in the distribution of a map and videos celebrating our state parks to over 2,000 third- and fourth-grade classrooms across the state. The project was led by a dedicated team from GCD, who were inspired by the fact our club shared a 100th birthday with the National Park Service. With funds raised from the club members, the team created a series of videos about the state’s national parks that were accompanied by a wall map and a website with lesson plans. This fall, GCD surveyed 3,500 teachers and found over a third of the teachers who received a map were also using the online resources. Their comments highlighted the students’ excitement: “Students are very engaged and love learning about where they live;” “They really love surveying each other on which
ones they have been to and want to visit.” The survey inspired renewed interest from teachers and increased use of the existing resources. Members were motivated as well. The GCD committed $1,000 to fund travel to the History Colorado Center for one classroom and print sticker versions of the map for the 40,000 students expected to visit the museum during the school year. The maps and stickers will continue to be given to teachers and students visiting the center throughout the school year. —Brooke Pruter
Hillsborough Garden Club Hillsborough, CA Hillsborough Garden Club treasurers past and present were honored at a luncheon held in
Jennifer Wilson, fourth-grade teacher, shows a student the Colorado national parks map provided by the GCD. Photo by Heather Pope
Colorado students are exploring the state’s national parks and monuments in a whole new way. A joint project between the
HGC treasurers luncheon participants. Back row L-R: Vinette Ramsay, KC Vincelette, Vicky Lowdon, Donna Abrahamson, Sarah Ryland, Libby O’Leary, Wendy Jones. Front row L-R: Elizabeth Lewis, Bambi Bisho, Judith Barton, Roberta Gates. Photo by Emily O’Dwyer
The Bulletin :: Fall 2018
NewsWorthy
June. Eleven of 18 living treasurers from the last 50 years were able to attend. Treasurers from our club had never before gathered to celebrate their office. The job of treasurer at HGC is quite extensive. The usual duties are only part of the job. HGC is fortunate to administer a private foundation formed when our trust was reclassified in the mid-1990s after it was substantially increased by a now-deceased member’s generous bequest. Our treasurer must oversee the donations required by this foundation, as well as attending to its investment and tax requirements. At our treasurers’ luncheon, we listened as each woman related her experiences. Perhaps the most amusing was that of 1976–78 treasurer Bambi Bisho. In addition to her normal duties, she acted as treasurer for the GCA Annual Meeting held in San Francisco. In anticipation of a possible budget shortfall, she personally had to collect a $10,000 assessment from each local club. Fortunately she was able to return the money when expenses were covered after all. We also compiled fun facts about finance and technology over the years. These treasurers witnessed the development of technological advances like computers, email, and smartphones. How amazing it seems that some of our past treasurers had to cope without them! We now plan to make the luncheon a biennial event. —Elizabeth Lewis The Bulletin :: Fall 2018
Woodside-Atherton Garden Club Woodside, CA After the success of our Annual Meeting in San Francisco, our members were ready to celebrate—and what better way than to tour the Sonoma area of California ourselves? In the spirit of the GCA’s conservation ethic, we stayed near home, keeping our carbon footprint small. First we were given a tour of Quarryhill Botanical Garden by William McNamara, its president and executive director, who became an honorary member of the GCA at the 2018 Annual Meeting. Quarryhill is home to one of the largest collections of wild-sourced Asian plants in North America and Europe. We were surrounded by the direct descendants of ancient plants, ancestors of such flowering favorites as roses and lilies. McNamara
modestly shared the history of his acquisition adventures as we walked. His stories had an Indiana Jones aspect, suggesting a tinge of danger. A champion of fragile flora, he believes in educating us—mankind—to appreciate all of nature and to take responsibility for the conservation of endangered plant species. We were also privileged to visit landscape architect Thomas Church’s modernist Donnell Garden; Sara Malone’s private conifer garden; and a breathtaking garden intertwined with Casa Bowes, a Ricardo Legorreta-designed house. We made our study tour an overnight trip, which gave members a chance for in-depth conversations and friendship-building in lovely settings. —Natasha Hopkinson
Captions for The Language of Bark, pages 38–41: All captions clockwise from top left. Page 38 Zelkova serrata ‘Village Green’, Japanese zelkova ‘Village Green’ Page 39 Acer triflorum, three-flower maple Quercus phellos, willow oak Actinidia arguta, ‘Ananasnaya’, bower actinidia or hardy kiwi vine Betula nigra, river birch Pinus strobiformus, southwestern white pine Acer griseum, paperbark maple Cercidiphyllum japonicum, Katsura Gleditsia triacanthos ‘Shademaster’, ‘Shademaster’ honeylocust Page 40 Pinus monticola, western white pine Moss covering a felled tree Pinus jeffreyi, Jeffrey pine Pinus ponderosa, ponderosa pine Fungus growing on bark of a fallen tree Spanish moss on a cedar trunk Moss in tufts growing along a trunk Wind and rain make patterned rivulets in a cedar trunk Page 41 Prunus subhirtella, weeping higan cherry Ilex opaca, American holly Corylus fargesii, Farges filbert Fagus sylvatica, European beech Acer palmatum, Japanese maple Crataegus viridis, ‘Winter King’, ‘Winter King’ green hawthorn Picea pungens, blue Colorado spruce
WAGC members with William McNamara, honorary member of the GCA. Photo by Natasha Hopkinson
Taxodium distichum, bald cypress
In Memoriam
InMemoriam Christine D. Freitag (Mrs. Robert W. Freitag)
Akron Garden Club Zone X Christine Freitag, 30th president of the GCA, 2007 Achievement Medalist, and 48-year member of Akron Garden Club, passed away August 4, 2018. She embodied the GCA purpose to restore, improve, and protect the quality of the environment. Whether building parks, removing invasives and protecting native plants, or opposing billboard blight and advancing scenic beauty, she rolled up her sleeves, employed every resource available, and worked tirelessly to make the natural world more beautiful and preserve it for future generations. Among Christine’s legacy as chairman of the Conservation Committee and as a national officer were the Joint Endangered
Species Project and the Partners for Plants program. Closer to home, she was instrumental in establishing Cuyahoga Valley National Park and founded Friends of Metro Parks and Scenic Ohio. Among many other organizations she served were the Ohio Environmental Council, the Conservancy for Cuyahoga Valley National Park, the Ohio & Erie Canalway Coalition, Cascade Locks Park Association, Canalway Partners, and the City of Akron Planning Commission. Christine is survived by her husband of 61 years, Robert W. Freitag, daughters Christina Klemm and Amy Freitag, recipient of the 2017 GCA Achievement Medal (and member of The Weeders, Zone V), and three grandchildren. We deeply mourn the loss of this visionary conservationist, great leader, and dear friend.
Janet Meakin Poor (Mrs. Edward King Poor, III)
Garden Guild of Winnetka Zone XI Janet Meakin Poor, a pioneer in promoting diversity for stronger gardens and landscapes, died on June 21, 2017, at the age of 87. Throughout her long life, she devoted her talents to the study of horticulture and conservation, championing plant diversity at a time when most nurseries carried the same limited number of plants. She was awarded the GCA Medal of Honor in 1994. Her two-volume set, Plants that Merit Attention, Volume I: Trees, and Volume II: Shrubs, was published jointly by Timber Press and the GCA. They remain horticulture classics. Janet served as board chair of the Chicago Botanic Garden (CBG), where she organized a program to collect seeds from the world’s endangered plants and
chaired what became the Science and Education Committee. In 1996 the garden established the Janet Meakin Poor Plant Symposium in her honor. Under her leadership, the CBG played a key role in conservation, both nationally and internationally. In addition, she brought the garden into a partnership with the Millennium Seed Bank Project, which works to preserve seeds from thousands of the world’s rarest and most threatened plants. Janet was also a longtime supporter of the California-based Center for Plant Conservation. A vital member of the GCA’s leadership, Janet served as corresponding secretary and a vice president on the executive board, as well as a director and chairman of the Horticulture Committee. She was an approved horticulture judge and received the Zone XI Horticulture Award, the Medal of Merit, and the Creative Leadership Award. “Unquestionably, Janet was one of the principal drivers of the [Chicago Botanic] Garden’s current place as a global leader across horticulture, plant science research, and education,” remarked Robert F. Finke, chairman of the CBG board. “She was one of the pillars upon which our garden rests. Her dedication to every aspect of the garden, and especially to horticulture and conservation, and her insistence on excellence in everything the garden does, was unmatched.”
The Bulletin :: Fall 2018
Bulletin Board
BulletinBoard: Cuttings from the Calendar October 2018 8–18 Visiting Gardens Trip: South Africa. Info: Betty Snellings (bettysnellings@gmail.com) 9–11 Zone Meeting & Flower Show (VII), What’s the BUZZZ in Virginia’s Blue Ridge? Hotel Roanoke, Mill Mountain GC, Roanoke, VA. Info: Fayetta Weaver (fayetta.weaver@gmail.com), Martha Anderson (nursemsa@gmail.com) 12–13 Fundraiser (IX), The
76th Annual Bulb & Plant Sale, Church of St. John the Divine, The GC of Houston, Houston, TX. Info: Harriet Alexander, Elisabeth Millard, Catherine Randall (bulbandplantmart2018@gmail.com) 12–13 GCA Flower Show (IV), It’s in the Stars, Knickerbocker Country Club, Tenafly, NJ, GC of Englewood, Englewood, NJ. Info: Judy Tucci (jilt@optonline.net) 13–17 Photography Workshop,
Photography Study Group Workshop—Smoky Mountains. Info: Eloise Carson (eloisecarson@ me.com) 14–16 Photography Workshop,
Photography Study Group Workshop–Wisconsin, Door, WI. Info: Sarah Starrett (sallts@yahoo.com) 17–18 Zone Meeting &
Photography Show (VI), The Anacostia–Rescuing a River, US National Arboretum/Chevy Chase Club, GC of Chevy Chase & Georgetown GC, Washington, DC & Chevy Chase, MD. Info: Molly Morris (mollydmorris@yahoo.com) 17–18 Zone Presidents’ Council Meeting (X), Dayton, OH. Info: Clare Gorski (claresgorski@aol.com)
The Bulletin :: Fall 2018
21–27 Floral Design, FASG
Baltimore, MD. Info: Marion
Workshop with Daniel Santamaria, Brown Palace Hotel, Denver, CO. Info: Roberta
DeGroff, mpdegroff@comcast.net
Group Workshop with Colleen Miniuk, Death Valley, CA. Info:
9–10 Fundraiser (II), Set to
Sarah Starrett (sallts@yahoo.com)
Celebrate, Town and County Club, Hartford, CT, Connecticut Valley GC, West Hartford, CT.
19–21 Zone Judging Workshop (IX), Little Rock, AR. Info: Polly
Info: Barbara Kiefer (bstokelms@aol. com) or ctvalleygardenclub.org
24–27 National Affairs & Legislation (NAL) Conference, Washington DC. Info: Hollidae
DuBeshter (robertadubes@gmail.com) 22 Zone Presidents’ Council Meeting (II), Christ and Holy Trinity Church, Westport, CT. Info: Nancy Kalal (nancy.edmunds. kalal@gmail.com) 23 GCA Flower Show (VIII),
A Southern Sojourn, Sand Hills GC, Morris Museum of Art, Augusta, GA. Info: Lynda Blanchard (lblanchard1970@gmail.com) 26 On the Road with the GCA: “Aldo Leopold’s Shack
& The International Crane Foundation,” Baraboo, WI. Info: ontheroad@gcamerica.org 30 Zone Judging Workshop
(IV), Knickerbocker Country Club, Tenafly, NJ. Info: Judy Tucci (jilt@optonline.net), Diane Majeski (btmag1@aol.com) November 1 Zone Judging Workshop (I),
Tower Hill Botanic Garden, Boyston, MA. Info: Katharine Michie (michie.kathy@gmail.com) 2 On the Road with the GCA: “Beatrix Jones Farrand and
the GCA,” GCA Headquarters, NYC. Info: ontheroad@gcamerica.org 7 Fundraiser (XI), James Farmer
Presents “Trends in Effortless Elegance, Comfort and Harmony,” plus luncheon and boutique. The Glen View Club, Winnetka GC, Winnetka, IL. Info: Jolie Schwartz (joliezschwartz@gmail.com) 7–8 Zone Judging Workshop
(VI and VII), The Elkridge Club,
14 Zone Judging Workshop (V),
The Inn at Villanova University, Radnor, PA. Info: Jane Moore (uvaunc@gmail.com) 15 Zone Presidents’ Council
Meeting (IV), Navesink Country Club, Middletown, NJ. 28 Fundraiser (VIII): Red Mountain GC Greenery Sale, Birmingham Botanical Gardens, Mountain Brook, AL. Info: Anne
Glotzbach (pollyglotz@gmail.com)
Morrison (hollidaegca@gmail.com) March 2–10 Non-GCA Major Flower
Show, PHS Philadelphia Flower Show: Flower Power, Philadelphia Convention Center, Philadelphia, PA. Info: Wendy Mahoney Russell (mahoneywendy@gmail.com) or theflowershow.com
Heppenstall (aheppen@gmail.com)
8 On the Road with the GCA: “Longwood Gardens &
December 14 On the Road with the GCA: “The GCA Rare
The Philadelphia Flower Show,” Longwood Gardens, Kennett Square, PA. Info: ontheroad@
Books Collection at the New York Botanical Garden,” GCA Headquarters & NYBG. Info: ontheroad@gcamerica.org February 2019 3 Floral Design 2019
International Workshop with Guisy Ferrari Cielo, Hotel Vittoria, Brescia, Italy. Info: Lisa Snowden (eosnowden@comcast.net) 5 On the Road with the GCA: “Golfing and the GCA,”
Old Tabby Links, Spring Island, SC. Info: ontheroad@gcamerica.org 12 Zone Presidents’ Council
Meeting (XII), Palm Springs, CA. Info: Liza Lilley (ejlilley15@gmail.com) 14–17, 17–20 Photography
Workshop, Photography Study
gcamerica.org 24–27 Board of Associates Trip: Austin, TX. Info: Wendy Serrell (wendy.serrell@gmail.com), Mary Harman (maryhharman@gmail.com) 25–27 GCA Flower Show (IX), ¡Puro San Antonio!, Alamo Heights-Terrell Hills GC. The Radius, San Antonio, TX. Info: Susan Altgelt (saltgelt@sbcglobal.net), Barbara Sullivan (bvmsullivan@gmail. com) 29 On the Road with the GCA: “Nebraska’s Sandhill Crane
Migration with Audubon,” near Kearney, NE. Info: ontheroad@ gcamerica.org
Nestled in the heart of the Brandywine Valley, The Inn at Montchanin Village & Spa exists in a wonderful little world of its own. Beautifully landscaped walkways, terraces, individual gardens, and enclosures create intimate settings where guests can relax and enjoy the aromas and beauty of the cottage style gardens. The Inn at Montchanin Village & Spa... one of the few remaining 19th century hamlets of its kind... awaits your visit. Nearby Popular Attractions: Longwood, 8.3 miles Brandywine River Museum, 6.8 miles Delaware Art Museum, 3.5 miles Nemours Estate, 2.6 miles Winterthur, 2.5 miles Hagley Museum, 1.9 miles
D E L A W A R E
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The Inn At Montchanin Village & Spa is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, 5 miles from Wilmington, Delaware
14 East 60th Street New York, NY 10022 (212) 753-8287 gca@gcamerica.org www.gcamerica.org