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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 action in the fields of conservation and civic improvement.
Founded in 1913, The Garden Club of America is a volunteer, nonprofit 501(c)3 organization comprised of 200 member clubs and approximately 18,000 club members throughout the country.
GCA RESTORATION INITIATIVE
Clubs Tackle Catastrophic Damage Due to Natural Disasters
In the face of catastrophic weather-related disasters across the country, The Garden Club of America (GCA) launched a national Restoration Initiative in 2018. Five GCA clubs, whose communities had been devastated by natural disasters, received $10,000 each to help underwrite restoration costs due to damage caused by hurricanes, flooding, and fires. With projects underway in Florida, Georgia, Oregon, and Texas, the impact of the GCA in times of crisis is tangible. Read more about the five projects.
Citizen Scientists Track Frecklebelly Madtom and Clean Up the Strong River
Plan B... A Huge Success for The Garden Club of Jackson
For the past 10 years, The Garden Club of Jackson (GCJ) and members of Garden Club of America (GCA) clubs in Greenville, Natchez, and Laurel, Mississippi, as well as Monroe, Louisiana, have taken a conservation canoe trip on the Strong River—a spring-fed free-flowing river without major industry along its banks—to collect garbage. But in 2016 the river was too low for canoeing and the club needed an alternative project, a good Plan B. Enter the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks...
Millstones: No Burden in the Garden!
A Garden History & Design One Minute Report from the Archives of American Gardens
There is a saying that a heavy burden is like a “millstone around one’s neck.” In fact, the Oxford Dictionary has a second definition for a millstone as “a heavy and inescapable responsibility.” However, some gardeners have made light of millstones by incorporating them into their gardens. Originally used for food production and industrial purposes, they have been adapted for both utilitarian and decorative purposes today.
Help Solve A Garden Mystery - The Smithsonian’s Archives of American Gardens
Do you love gardens and the thrill of the hunt? The Garden Club of America Collection at the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Gardens has images of numerous gardens across the United States that need a bit of sleuthing to be positively identified. Some images belonged to slide lectures that were dismantled over time or simply never were labelled. Regardless of how it happened, they are a mystery!
Make a New Year’s Resolution to Reduce Use of Plastics
GCA Clubs Educate and Advocate
Due to its lightweight, chemical resistance, and low cost, plastic has found its way into everything from makeup to medical equipment to the aerospace industry, supposedly improving life. Or has it? A two-fold increase in plastic consumption since 1959, a throw-away mentality, easy dispersal, and the 500+ year rate of plastic degradation have created a garbage crisis. Garden Club of America (GCA) members are educating themselves about plastics, initiating projects to reduce the use of plastics, and pledging to change their behavior.
Bee-utiful Gardens: The Possibilities with Pollinators
From the GCA Collection at the Archives of American Gardens
The Archives of American Gardens, with support from members of The Garden Club of America, has worked to preserve thousands of gardens through photographic and written documentation. These gardens, with their flowers, fruits, and vegetables, would hardly be possible without the busy pollinators facilitating seed production. Pollinators are a diverse group of insects, birds, and mammals which generally consume nectar, in the process spread pollen, and fertilize flowers. It has been well-documented that pollinators are necessary and important parts of the world’s ecosystem.
George Washington Crossed the Delaware on December 25, 1776
The Garden Club of Trenton Plants a Memorial
When George Washington crossed the Delaware River on December 25, 1776, it wasn’t just to get to the other side—he had a plan. His surprise attack on Hessian troops in and around Trenton, NJ was an important turning point in the American Revolutionary War. In 2007, the Garden Club of Trenton (GCT) also had a plan—the creation of a garden complete with a picket fence in front of the Nelson House at Washington Crossing State Park. Built within the grounds of the 3,575-acre park, the house occupies the high ground of the site where Washington’s Continental Army crossed that historic Christmas night.
The Garden Club of America offers 28 merit-based scholarships and fellowships in 12 areas related to conservation, ecology, horticulture, and pollinator research. In 2018, more than $308,400 were awarded to 65 scholars.
Follow GCA Scholarships on Twitter for the latest news about pollinators, coastal wetlands, native bird habitats, and much more. Connect to a larger world of horticulture and conservation through the Garden Club of America scholars. Learn more about the GCA Scholarships.
Annually since 1995, the GCA has identified a stellar North American native plant to receive its Montine McDaniel Freeman Medal for Plant of the Year.
Mountain mint is The Garden Club of America's 2018 Plant of the Year.
Nominate a Plant - recognize a plant that is under-utilized but worthy of preservation, propagation and promotion.
