Significance of The 'Garden Clubs" — By Mrs. Francis King, ■*- 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF A POTENT FORCE IN AMATEUR GARDEN- 

 ING—WHAT THESE CLUBS STAND FOR AND HOW THEY WORK 



HAVE we progressed in gardening?" asks 

 Dr. Wilhelm Miller in a recent number of 

 Country Life in America; and then pro- 

 ceeds to show, that while deprecating all 

 boastfulness on our part, we have certainly made 

 great strides as to the amount and the quality of our 

 horticultural growth in the last ten years. Dr. Miller 

 adds columns of interesting details to prove his asser- 

 tion. In a single inconspicuous line occur these 

 words "First women's clubs devoted to gardening." 

 Insufficient emphasis it seemed and seems to me, to 

 lay upon the sight of this organization of garden 

 clubs now proceeding with such amazing rapidity. 

 To those to whom the art of gardening is dear, to all 

 heart-felt gardeners, a significance of the very 

 highest order attaches itself at once to the spectacle 

 of these clubs rising in every direction in our land 

 — a significance which is really a prophecy, a 

 promise of beauty. 



If the Garden Club of Philadelphia is, as I believe 

 it to be, the first of its kind to come into being in 

 this country, then it is one of the greatest horti- 

 cultural benefactors America has seen, and in time 

 to come many gardeners will rise up and call it 

 blessed. To some people it may seem that the 

 art of gardening is too gentle, too delicate, to admit 

 of its devotees' submission to rules made by ordered 

 groups; on the other hand it is a complex art; 

 and now so popular a pursuit that I do not exag- 

 gerate when I say that there has been a suspicion 

 of midsummer madness in the way in which garden 

 clubs have been springing up month by month in 

 the season just past. A deep, persistent and grow- 

 ing interest in gardening seems to have suddenly 

 crystallized in this charming and most practical 

 fashion, with the result that sixteen or more of 

 these organizations, varying in size and form are 

 now in existence. Offshoots of these clubs seem 

 to be multiplying as rapidly as bulblets from a good 

 gladiolus in a fair season. 



It is not the fault of the garden clubs that they 

 have a distinctly social side. Gardening at its 

 highest can best be carried on by men and women 

 of high intelligence, taste, experience — and, alas, 

 that it must be said — the wherewithal. With the 

 true gardener this money question, however, is the 

 last, least requisite — for who that deeply loves a 

 garden does not know that qualities most rare and 

 fine shine out oftenest through the flowers of small 

 and simple gardens ? It is, I have sometimes com- 

 passionately thought, more difficult for a richer 

 man to achieve his heart's desire in gardening than 

 for a poorer one. Many are the conventional 

 obstacles to gardening raised in the path of the 

 owners of great gardens. 



But I digress, I seem to violently digress; and 

 with apologies will try to curb my wandering pen, 

 bringing it now to bear upon a few details of the 

 various garden clubs. And first, let it be said that 

 these garden clubs exist primarily for their own 

 benefit and enjoyment, though several of them, as 

 they grow, have quite naturally determined to 

 help allied undertakings. The clubs I repeat are 

 private enterprises; I write of them in an imper- 

 sonal fashion, and it must be understood that no 

 names or addresses will be given, now or later. 



Philadelphia, the oldest Club 



The Garden Club of Philadelphia was, I 

 believe, the first of its kind in this country. It is now 

 twelve years of age. It has, in these twelve years, 

 had no change in the offices of President and Secre- 

 tary; and it has been the active agent in the organi- 

 zation of many other clubs of a like nature. This 

 society has perhaps fifty members. It meets weekly 

 from the middle of April to the first of July; twice in 

 September, and has besides three winter meetings; 

 all "for pleasure and profit." A paper is read at 

 each meeting on a seasonable topic, the club study- 

 ing, besides, plants, fertilizers insecticides, fungi, 

 birds, bees and moths, quality of soils, climate and 

 so on, care of house-plants, trees, and shrubs. The 

 club has visited the gardens of Mt. Vernon, Hamp- 



ton near Baltimore, Princeton, Trenton, and many 

 gardens at Bar Harbor. Specialists on horticul- 

 tural subjects have from time to time addressed 

 them. In their library are more than one hundred 

 papers prepared by members of the club. Their 

 activities extend beyond their own limits in several 

 directions, notably toward the movement made by 

 the Society for the Protection of Native Plants. 



At Ann Harbor, Michigan 



Now as to the age of the Garden Clubs other 

 than the Philadelphia I am not informed. In the 

 following mention of them, therefore, I shall best 

 undertake to give any one club precedence — but 

 shall first take up the Garden Club of Ann Arbor, 

 Michigan, because of its liberal use of the letter A! 

 This club is unique in its ultrademocratic policy. 

 Whereas the Garden Club of Cleveland, in two 

 gentle sentences of its rules and regulations, re- 

 marks that "elegibility to membership in this club 

 is limited to: A. Those who are fortunate poss- 

 essors of gardens of unusual perfection. B. Those 

 who plan and develop personally and enthusiasti- 

 cally gardens of their own design" — the Garden 

 Club of Ann Arbor declares that only he or she shall 

 enter their ranks who is possessed of "an active 

 personal enthusiasm and working interest in one's 

 garden," and follows this with the rigid exclusion 

 of all others in this explicit language: "Only 

 amateurs doing individual practical work in their 

 own gardens or yards are eligible for active member- 

 ship in the club." An interesting question here 

 presents itself. Were this a discursive article I 

 should be tempted to set forth my reasons for be- 

 lieving that the Cleveland Club has the best of it! 

 But time presses, space also, and one must draw 

 one's own comparisons and conclusions. 



The Ann Arbor is a small club, one of most excel- 

 lent quality, as I, its geographical neighbor, delight 

 to testify. It is a club of parts. To dilate further 

 on this pleasant subject would be agreeable, but 

 those who read this are soon to have an account of 

 this society from its president, Dr. Warthin, himself. 



Cleveland, Ohio 



The Garden Club of Cleveland of which 

 pleasant mention has just now been made, has this 

 fine sentence in its charter, "The purpose for which 

 this corporation is formed is to cultivate the spirit 

 of gardening in its fullest sense, together with an 

 appreciation of civic beauty and betterment in and 

 about Cleveland." No mean ambition here; 

 though as their secretary says their aspirations are 

 far more numerous as yet than their experiences! 

 Seventy-seven names are upon the roster of this 

 club — the meetings are in summer weekly, in 

 winter monthly. Mr. Charles Piatt has spoken 

 at one of these on formal gardening, a lecture on 

 peonies has been had, and the prizes are already 

 offered for this summer's flowers, one for a rose 

 contest. 



Suburban Chicago 



Among the younger clubs is one lately originat- 

 ing in the suburbs of Chicago, Lake Forest and 

 Winnetka. It is so young that its infant steps in 

 the way of rules or by-laws have hardly yet been 

 taken — and its limit of membership is hardly, as 

 yet, known to itself. But it is a club vowed and 

 destined to success. It has already had various 

 lectures on the gardening subjects nearest its heart; 

 the gardening flame burns bright upon its altar. 



The largest membership 



New Canaan, Connecticut, has, it would appear, 

 the largest membership of the Garden Clubs. It 

 carries the name of its dwelling place and shows a 

 membership of about two hundred — all this 

 within three years of life! In each of these years 

 an exhibition of flowers has been held, with none but 

 professionals as judges. This powerful club has 

 helped several other similar societies to come into 

 being, and is a member of the Plant, Fruit, and 



186 



Flower Guild, assisting that organization in its 

 work. 



The activity of Newport 



It may be 'that The Garden Association of 

 Newport might be called the most ambitious of the 

 newly formed gardening societies, as may be seen 

 by mentioning in order its objects. These are: 

 "First: To increase the knowledge of owners of 

 gardens in Newport by means of lectures and 

 practical talks in the garden during the summer 

 months by well known authorities on trees, lawns, 

 roses, hardy flowers, perennial borders and so on. 

 Second : To provide a corresponding secretary who 

 will keep the association in touch with the develop- 

 ment of new ideas and improvements in the varie- 

 ties of flowers among the seedmen and gardeners 

 of France, Germany, and the East. Third: To 

 establish a bureau where the seeds of novelties 

 from abroad can be obtained. Fourth : To de- 

 velop by means of illustrated lectures on the gardens 

 of England, Italy and other countries more art, 

 individuality, sentiment and variety in the planting 

 of flowers, shrubs, and so forth. Fifth : To increase 

 the practical knowledge of the care of trees and 

 plants by demonstrating the methods used in 

 Europe in the cultivation of flowers, fruit, and 

 vegetables, and in forestry." 



Objects, these, most excellent, and most excel- 

 lently set forth. In my judgment the Newport 

 association is right; we still must go abroad to 

 find most of that which is highest and best in gar- 

 dening. This remark may provoke criticism. It 

 is still true. The fine gardens, the great arboreta 

 (with the exception of our own Arnold Arboretum, 

 whose free bulletins no garden club should fail to 

 get and read) , the most perfect use of trees, shrubs 

 and flowers are not yet found generally in this 

 country. And the sooner incisive suggestions, such 

 as these of the Newport Association, wake us to 

 sense of what we have not, and where we should 

 go to find it, the better for us. On the other hand 

 the library of the Newport society seems wofully 

 behind, in that it has no books but English books, 

 and that those indeed seem to me to be more the 

 suggestions of an English gardener or superinten- 

 dent than of the fine English amateur. Six books, 

 wanting from this list, some English and some 

 American are "in my foolish opinion" indispensable 

 to the serious amateur in this country, the gardener 

 whose one desire is to call forth true beauty from 

 the earth. 



The Newport Association has had lectures or 

 talks during the summer of 191 2 on the subjects 

 of soil, the art of planting, and roses. It is their 

 intention -to hold a flower show in July, 1913. 

 No object lesson. in the advancement of gardening 

 could be more effective than that of the decision of 

 these dwellers in Newport, — some of them possessors 

 of as fine gardens as America has to show — no 

 object lesson could be better than their admission 

 that still they need to learn; that their gardens, 

 some of them considered practically perfect, still 

 need contributions from the charming flowers aftd 

 plants of that older world beyond the Atlantic 



At Garden City, N. Y. 



The Shedowa Garden Club of Garden City, 

 N. Y., has for president and secretary two whose 

 brains are never idle in working for a progressive 

 policy for their club. (Shedowa is an Iroquois word 

 meaning Great Plains.) Their fifty odd members 

 meet about every fortnight. They have had several 

 authorities address them during their first year's 

 existence, they have already a library of forty 

 volumes, and they have taken much interest in 

 improving the flower exhibit at the Nassau County 

 Fair. The president of the club is now exerting 

 herself to the utmost to get the various plants- 

 men and seedsmen of the country to adopt the 

 French chart, "Repertoire des Couleurs," as a stand- 

 ard of color for their catalogue color descriptions. 



{Continued on page 188) 



