THE GARDEN CLUB FOR THE SMALL TOWN 
A Clearing House for Gardening Matters That Benefits the 
Individual and the Community—Organization, 
Rules and General Purposes 
MRS. FRANCIS KING 
President of the Women’s National Agricultural and Horticultural 
Association. Author of “The Well-Considered Garden” 
A COMMENT on the garden movement in America has 
become nearly a platitude. The evidences of deep and 
growing interest are on every side. Often do I think of the 
satisfaction with which the pioneers in American gardening 
would, if they were living, look upon the fruits of their labors 
—Downing, Ames, Berckmans, Buist, Ellwanger, Landreth, 
Vick—those devoted horticulturists whose work and whose 
writings in the early days were surely the American sources 
of the present almost feverish activities. The sentiment has 
suddenly crystallized, so suddenly and with such intensity that 
if it were not so delightful it would be amusing and the 
ubiquitous Garden Club is here. 
If all gardeners felt as I sometimes do that, used in connec¬ 
tion with the charming art and pursuit upon which so many 
of us are bent in these latter days, the word “organize” has 
almost the effect of an affront, why should we discuss here 
or elsewhere the question of organizing in order to garden 
better? That word organization seems to me to be enveloped 
in a dark cloud of other baneful words such as Constitution, 
By-Laws, Dues, all these bearing on the face little or no rela¬ 
tion to the occupation with which we must ally them here. 
But, granting them to be necessities, let us see how they may 
best serve us as we consider the matter set forth in our title. 
The organization of most garden clubs is, I imagine, brought 
about with real spontaneity and in very informal fashion. 
Two or three people, usually women—the reader will have 
noticed Miss Shelton’s amusing explanatory reference to 
women’s part in gardening in the preface to her “Beautiful 
Gardens in America”—two or three women, then, happen to 
meet in a brightly blooming garden, or on a terrace or piazza 
overlooking the same. The talk is all of the beauty before 
them. The wish is put into words by one or another of the 
group that a number of friends and acquaintances might 
gather at stated times for the purpose of discussing garden 
topics. Then follows a meeting of say twelve to twenty in¬ 
terested ones, the actual organizing, the election of officers. 
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Photograph by 
Johnston & Hewitt Studio 
What a garden club can grow to is shown by the 1 
Garden Club, which occupies the Old Bartow Manor in 
ig of the International 
rn Bay Park, New York 
buildin 
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