Quogue Garden of Remembrance Pays Tribute to Those Lost on September 11

September 21, 2021

Westhampton Garden Club Collaboration Offers Renewed Hope

Despite many delays created by COVID-19, The Quogue Garden of Remembrance, located at the Quogue Firehouse in Quogue, NY, was completed for a twentieth anniversary dedication to those who lost their lives on September 11, 2001, to all the survivors, and to all who come seeking renewed optimism and hope. The project began when a six-foot I-beam from one of the twin towers was donated in 2011 to The Quogue Fire Department, one of the responding fire departments, for their bravery on September 11. With the beam as its centerpiece, a monument was created on the south side of the firehouse. In 2019, the Westhampton Garden Club (WGC) decided to create a Garden of Remembrance to surround the 9/11 Monument. 

The garden became a collaborative effort between the Westhampton Garden Club, the Quogue Firehouse, The Battery Conservancy in lower Manhattan, and the donated services of a local company, Dragonfly Landscaping. The partnership came about when the Westhampton Garden Club approached the conservancy’s founder, Warrie Price, about getting plants for the garden from the conservancy’s Gardens of Remembrance, designed by renowned Dutch landscape artist, Piet Oudolf.  

A relationship with The Battery Conservancy had already been developed when the club helped plant 5000 crocus bulbs in the conservancy’s Gardens of Remembrance in November, 2019. When approached about the Quogue Garden of Remembrance, Price readily agreed to donate the plants. 

To complete the project, WGC also received a $1000 Plant America grant from the National Garden Clubs. In Spring 2021, following a one-year delay due to COVID-19, sixty-eight plants were transported from Battery Park to Quogue in a van provided by the Quogue Firehouse, creating a connection that goes much deeper than roots. Dragonfly Landscaping donated their services to design and plant the garden.

To understand the importance of the Quogue Garden of Remembrance, it helps to know how the Gardens of Remembrance came about. During the horrific events of September 11, 2001, many people in downtown Manhattan sought safety at the Battery. The Battery gardens, once a place of joy and beauty, were suddenly a shelter to those running for their lives. The Gardens of Remembrance are a tribute to those lost on that day and offer a place of peace and solace for 9/11 survivors and families of victims. It is the hope of the WGC that the new Quogue Garden of Remembrance will bring a similar peace and solace to all those who visit this new garden.

 

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