Evening star., 1952-03-02
GurdenClubs
Big Part
lnU. s. Livinq
Peace and Beauty
Found in Exploring
Realm of Mature
By Mrs. B. A. Powell

The garden club plays an i'm
portant part in the scheme of
American living today. The love
Of gardening transcends all the
limitations Of our everyday life.
Geographical boundaries, language
differences, circumstances Of
birth or position in our social
scheme, mean nothing to the one
who loves to work with growing
plants. In a world of controversy
and turmoil, our gardens offer us
peace and beauty and unalloyed
enjoyment.
In the United States, no village
Is SO small that it does not have q
group of gardeners who probably
first got together over the back
fence to exchange information and
compare experiences. In the cities,
neighborhood groups get together
to form garden clubs, or large
civic clubs develop garden sections.
Americans living in other coun-
tries join local garden clubs or
form their own groups to study
plants and gardening conditions
in their new homes. Gardeners
like nothing better than to COM
pare notes on soils, fertilizers, new
plants. adaptability to climatic
conditions-the subject is mex
haustible. So it is that the growth
of the garden club is q natural
evolution.
The typical garden club has
about 80 members, who usually
live in the same community and
meet in members homes. These
are mostly women'S groups, but
more and more men are forming
garden clubs of their own, or the
clubs have both man and woman
members. When these groups get
too large to meet in homes, they
get together in schools, churches,
museums or community centerS.
Trend to the Suburbs.
Garden club members are gen.
orally, of course, home owners.
The tremendous growth in num-
ber of garden clubs is doubtless
attributable to the trend away
from the city centers and into the
suburbs. Human beings crave
beauty and peace, and Americans
in particular want room to
stretch. They want green grass,
tall trees, beautiful shrubs, beds
of colorful and fragrant flowers
and neat rows of vegetables.
Most of us are city-bred now, so
we join a garden club, hoping to
learn how to achieve the beauty
that will give peace to our souls.
In so doing, We meet people with
like aims and interests. The
older and experienced gardeners
are eager to help the newcomer.
Some newcomers become inter-
ested in gardening to make their
homes more attractive place in
which to live. Others become en-
thusiastic lobbyists, and some be-
come real experts in the phase of
gardening which interests them
most.
It Is these latter enthusiasts
who regroup themselves into rose
societies, dahlia. societies, orchid
societies, African violet clubs,
ETC., where they pursue their pet
enthusiasms with complete con-
centration.
Follow Conservation Aims.
Most of the community garden
clubs sooner or later join a State
federation of garden clubs. In
this way they pool their interests,
their flower shows, enlarge their
horizons for acquiring and ex-
panding knowledge and they are
able to utilize larger-scale facili-
ties in furthering their aims. The
State federationS in turn belong
to the National Council Of State
Garden Clubs, Inc, which has a
membership of 2S7, 900.
On the larger scale, through
their State federations and the
National Council. the garden clubs
Continued on Page F-3O