JUST HOW TO START YOUR 
GARDEN CLUB 
FRANCES DUNCAN 
Author of “My Garden Doctor,” “Roberta of Roseberry Gardens,” “Home Vegetables and Small Fruits,” etc. 
S : . F YOU would like to see your section of the city infinitely 
- prettier, windows abloom with flowery window-boxes, 
yards gay with blossoming shrubs; if you would like 
j to see your home town the garden-spot of the county, 
your own door-yard one that makes every passer-by stop and 
look longingly over the fence; if you would like a friendlier, more 
informal intercourse between friend and neighbor, more real 
happiness — then start a Garden Club, make your own garden, 
and watch results! 1 doubt if any one ever made a garden with- 
out someone else being tempted to do likewise. One of the most 
delightful things about gardening is that it’s both contagious and 
infectious. 
The most successful of garden societies or garden clubs have 
had the smallest beginnings. The W oman’s National Agricult- 
ural and Horticultural Association, now numbering more than 
a thousand members though only a few years old, began with a 
half-dozen members. The Baltimore “ Home Garden Com- 
mittee” which numbered in one of its competitions no less than 
twelve hundred small gardens, had a very modest birth, and the 
Philadelphia “Society of Little Gardens,” one of the most suc- 
cessful and energetic of garden clubs, now mothering dozens of 
little “garden groups” located elsewhere, was started by two 
ladies, neither of whom had a garden — though both knew they 
wanted gardens, and both have gardens now. 
Starting the Club 
I N FACT this last is precisely the origin that most garden 
clubs have had: two or three women who care about flowers 
have come together to “ talk it over” informally, perhaps over a 
cup of tea, perhaps on a shady porch overlooking the garden 
of one of them. Often the idea has been wholly impromptu. 
Suppose you, yourself, would like to start a garden club. 
Invite two or three of your friends who are flower-lovers and 
talk it over. Consider which of your friends and acquaintances 
would be likely to be interested. If a name for the infant 
club can be thought of at this early stage, so much the better; 
for then prospective members may be invited to meet and dis- 
cuss forming the - — Garden Club. In fact the whole idea 
of what the club might do, could be pretty clearly thought 
out by the two or three originators. Because to persuade a 
group to take up a plan, alter, find fault with it if they choose, 
better it, or even re-model it completely, is easier and saves 
more time than to start with no plan at all and try to get the 
group to formulate one. 
making sure of success. The most effective way of making 
sure from the first of the success of the organization, the keen 
and sustained interest of the members, is to make it a condition 
of membership that each member will, herself, start a garden of 
some sort. It may be an acre lot or a three foot window-shelf, 
the size is unimportant. One of the most useful members of a 
certain garden club has a “garden” that measures about eight 
by three feet! The important point is that each member agree 
to embark on some sort of garden enterprise. (This require- 
ment is merely a rather literal taking of the “active interest in 
gardening” — the usual qualification for active membership in a 
garden club). 
Another important point is that there be an Exhibition. It 
may be a Flower Show of some sort, or a competitive exhibition 
of gardens during certain weeks, but whatever its character, an 
exhibition of some kind there should be. It will be found that. 
barring perhaps a Baby Show, no exhibit in the town awakes 
more general interest; sometimes the whole community is en 
fete for the Flower Show and wildly enthusiastic. At all events, 
these two points being determined, both public and private in- 
terest is secured for the young club, and it is as sure to grow as 
was the lamb to follow Mary. 
organization. However energetic a Club may be, energy 
alone will not run it; some sort of organization is necessary for 
convenience in working. The running gear may be very 
simple, the red tape be reduced to a minimum, for the club 
must fit the locality and the convenience of its members. 
The following organization, or something very like it, has 
been found by many garden clubs both sufficiently strong 
and yet sufficiently elastic to be thoroughly practical. 
Besides the usual officers — President, Vice-president, Secre- 
tary, Treasurer (the two last may, if desired, be the same 
person), the Club has a Librarian or a Library Committee. 
No sooner is a Club started with members all intent on garden- 
making than a demand arises for information and reliable 
garden-books; wherefore the Librarian. And for a Garden- 
club Librarian a knowledge of gardening is far more important 
than a knowledge of books. Beauty of style and sumptuous- 
ness of illustration are pleasant enough in a book if one wants 
only to read about gardening, but if one wants to make a garden, 
the important thing is whether or not the writer is safe to follow. 
This being “ safe to follow” is as needful in a garden-book as in a 
cook-book. Very shortly the Club will find that the acquisition 
of a good horticultural library has become one of its objects. 
In the meantime, establish a cooperative lending library 
and remember that much excellent garden-literature is avail- 
able for a two-cent stamp. Uncle Sam publishes many valuable 
bulletins which may be had for the asking, and your own state 
experiment station can often give much aid. Many seedsmen 
and nurserymen, particularly specialists in some one plant, 
have booklets concerning the care and culture of plants which 
are extremely practical and to the point. 
So much for the officers. Then there is the Executive Com- 
mittee — usually made up of the officers with the addition of 
two members; the Membership Committee (the Executive 
Committee may serve also as Membership Committee); and, 
what is very important, the Bureau of Exchange. This 
may be in charge of a committee or of a single member; the lat- 
ter is preferable. To this “bureau” members send word of 
extra plants, Larkspur or Phlox or whatever it may be, of which, 
in re-making their gardens in spring or autumn they find they 
will have a surplus. 
dues are rarely more than one dollar a year; in many clubs 
they are but twenty-five cents. 
meetings. It has been found pleasanter to vary the time of 
meetings, having them later in the afternoon during the summer 
months, and wiser to omit them from November to February. 
But these are matters that each club settles for itself. Such 
also is the question of whether light refreshments shall or shall 
not be served by the hostess of the day. Certainly a cup of tea 
adds greatly to the sociability and promotes a very informal 
after-discussion, but it is well to omit it occasionally lest it 
become a rule and the club meetings take on a purely social 
character. Papers by members on garden subjects form a basis 
for the informal discussion which is the life of a club; articles 
by experts culled from the magazines make a good substitute 
when the home-talent papers are not forth-coming, but always 
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