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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.
In September 1920, the Highway Commission of Massachusetts held a well-attended public hearing about enforcing a new constitutional amendment passed in 1918 that regulated and restricted advertising “on public ways, in public places, and on private property within public view.”
New Native Plant Scholarship Available
The Garden Club of America is offering a new scholarship in native plant studies, with applications now being accepted. The Montine M. Freeman Scholarship in Native Plant Studies supports the study of underutilized native plants at an accredited U.S. college or university or a major botanic garden or arboretum. The GCA will fund one or more Freeman Scholarships annually at a minimum of $3000.
The GCA to Speak at National Meeting of Invasive Plant Experts
On October 25, Cayce McAlister, member of Garden Club of Nashville, will address 400 invasive species managers, researchers, governmental land managers, and academics at the annual meeting of the North American Invasive Species Management Association in Reno, Nevada. McAlister will speak about GCA club Weed Wrangle® projects to combat invasives on public lands and H.R.1054, the Botanical Sciences Bill, which the GCA helped to draft, calling for more botanists and the protection of native plants.
Ethnobotany and the Search for Cures
“How many of you are touched by ALS? By Alzheimer’s?” When ethnobotanist Paul Alan Cox asked a packed audience at the May 2017 GCA Annual Meeting in Baltimore, nearly all 600 delegates raised their hands. Cox riveted audience members regarding his Brain Chemistry Lab’s research into plant-based therapies for ALS, Parkinson’s, and Alzheimer’s and stirred hope with reports of successful clinical trials.
Founder of Monarch Watch is New GCA Honorary Member
Orley ‘Chip’ Taylor founded Monarch Watch in 1992 as a collaborative of volunteers dedicated to conservation of the monarch butterfly. Monarch Watch is known for tagging more than 1.4 million monarchs during their fall migration from North America to Mexico. Taylor was among the first to recognize the alarming decline of the monarch and for mobilizing Americans to meaningful action in one of the earliest, most successful citizen science efforts.
The GCA offers 28 merit-based scholarships and fellowships, awarding more than $330,000 to 86 scholars in 2017.
For example, The Garden Club of America Board of Associates Pollinator Fellowship annually funds one or more graduate students at $4,000 for study and research that advances the knowledge of pollinator science and increases the number of scientists in the field. Read more about the four 2017 recipients, doctoral students Michelle L. Fearon, ecology and evolutionary biology, University of Michigan; Kelsey E. Fisher, entomology, Iowa State University; Jonathan Giacomini, zoology, North Carolina State University; and Rachael E. Bonoan, Tufts University.
GCA Scholarships are available in medicinal and tropical botany, native bird habitat, conservation and ecological restoration, desert studies, landscape architecture, urban forestry, garden history and design, coastal wetlands, and pollinator research.
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.
Magnolia ashei is The Garden Club of America's 2017 Plant of the Year.
Nominate a Plant - recognize a plant that is under-utilized but worthy of preservation, propagation and promotion.
In the aftermath of the hurricanes, some communities are now without a water supply. And in the communities with water, many residents are asking: is it safe to drink the water?
Download the GCA's Position Paper on Clean Water.
Read more about what individuals can do at home and in their communities.
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