Honeysuckle Hacks Make Way for Native Plantings
A move to alternative landscape shrubs

There are many plants that are desirable to find on one’s property. Invasive bush honeysuckle is not one of them. It grows and spreads aggressively, forming dense thickets that crowd out native plants. This causes soil erosion, exposes bird nests to predators, and can provide cover for deer and their tick-borne illness. The leaders of the city of Ladue, Missouri decided to remove the honeysuckle that was taking over their parks and invited two GCA garden clubs to join in their Honeysuckle Hacks.

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From Barren to Beautiful
Garden Club of Mount Desert Leads Collaboration to Create a Welcoming Harbor

Despite the name, Maine’s Mount Desert Island is no desert. In fact, the barren mountain tops that led Samuel de Champlain to give it the name are surrounded by forested beauty. That said, in 2013, when the village of Northeast Harbor finished construction of the new marina and Chamber of Commerce buildings, there was no budget left for landscaping, and the view that welcomed visitors from land and sea was bare and dismal. The Garden Club of Mount Desert (GCMD) spearheaded a collaboration with the village, the Harbor Master, the Summer Residents Association, and others, to fund, design, and create a beautiful, low-maintenance, sustainable seaside landscape.

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Stop and Smell the Roses
The Gertrude Windsor Garden Club Rescues Heritage Roses

Remember grandmother’s sweet-smelling roses? That intoxicating smell of heritage roses is scenting a corner of the Tyler Rose Garden in Texas, thanks to early efforts by The Gertrude Windsor Garden Club (GWGC). Heritage roses are the ancestral stock of modern hybrids, introduced in 1867. The Rose Garden is filled with 38,000 hybrid roses, but the fragrance wafting from the Heritage Rose Garden’s aromatic 19th century garden roses ensures a steady stream of visitors.

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The Garden Club of America Celebrates Earth Day 2021
Pennsylvania and Delaware Clubs “Restored our Earth” with Weed Wrangle®

On Earth Day, April 22, GCA club volunteers partnered with park officials and volunteers to eliminate invasives at Valley Forge National Historical Park, Frick Park, Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy, and Delaware Center for Horticulture, which is adjacent to Delaware State Park land in Wilmington. Weed Wrangle® started as an initiative of the Garden Club of Nashville in 2015, and the concept soon spread across the United States. The purpose of a Weed Wrangle is to facilitate hands-on projects between local GCA clubs and national, state, and local land managers to eliminate invasives.

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Native Plants Gain National Recognition
April Is National Native Plant Month

In 2019, two GCA club members from Ohio were instrumental in securing passage of an Ohio law that designated the month of April as Ohio Native Plant Month. This legislation made Ohio one of the first states in the country to have an entire month dedicated to native plants. Building on this success, these two club members created a workshop titled "Making Your Voice Heard" to help others learn how to effect legislative change.

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Memorial Garden in Birmingham
Maintained by Red Mountain Garden Club Members

It’s been sixty-two years since the Red Mountain Garden Club bestowed the gift of Memorial Garden to the Birmingham Museum of Art to enhance the grounds of its new Oscar Wells Memorial Building. The garden was proposed and funded by RMGC as a green garden in the heart of a busy and growing city, and its perpetual maintenance remains the club’s primary focus—even as Covid-19 restrictions cancelled RMGC’s 2020 major fundraiser.

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Renewal of the Boscobel Herb Garden
One of the Hudson Valley’s Premier Historic Properties

For nearly fifty years, the Philipstown Garden Club has maintained the herb garden at Boscobel, one of the Hudson Valley’s premier historic properties. When the executive director of Boscobel recently gave the club a list of plants uncovered in the 1788-1803 Archive of States Dyckman, the PGC team undertook a revision of planting, restricting it to those found in early nineteenth century American gardens.

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