Garden Clubs in the Bad Old Days

Quick - what's your association with the term "garden club"? Mine has always been of a snooty bunch of white women who don't work and use the club for purposes of social climbing - everything I wanted to avoid in an organization. Then I got involved in my town's young, ultra-eco-minded, anything-but-snooty "hort club" and I found my people.  But it wasn't always that way.

As recently as the 1970s, even this club was open by invitation only, which is how they exluded people they considered undesirable. Even harder to imagine, I've heard there are garden clubs that give the boot to members who get divorced.  Then there's the garden club highlighted in "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil," which not only was white, wealthy and exclusive, but seemed to exist for the sole purpose of having bourbon-soaked lunches.

So I'm wondering how far we've really come from the bad old days of garden clubs.  I was encouraged to find a few kindred clubs in the D.C. area, but then I came across the local chapter of the venerable Federation of Garden Clubs.  Hey, I like networking, so I naturally inquired about my club joining the federation and was sent an application for admission. The application form asked us to list our club officers and then - and I'm not making this up - to indicate the officers' "husbands."  Oh, and their own officers are listed by their husbands' names (Mrs. John Smith).  Help! I'm having a '50s flashback.  And naturally all their events are during working hours because these ladies either don't have to work or are all retired, I suppose.  On top of all that, to affiliate with them we'd have to pay them $8 for every one of our members, every year.  I'll do the math for you.  Our 150-member club would have to pay these troglodytes $1,200 every year (2/3 of our dues income) for the privilege of being affiliated and would still have to pay extra to attend any of their events. 

I'm sure you're scratching your head and wondering why any club would pay that kind of money and get virtually nothing in return.  My informants tell me it's because some club officers like to socialize with this bunch at their luncheons - see, it's those damn luncheons again.

Now I still love to network, so I started a listserv for garden clubs - FREE - and we have five clubs represented so far, but there hasn't been much activity.  Anybody out there know of another way to tap into the collective wisdom of organized gardeners?

Oh, and you're wondering what this photo has to do with garden clubs?  Not a thing, but I love a good visual and this is very recent.  I think it's a Nyssa sylvatica, the locally native black gum, in its first year in my neighbor's garden.  But then it could be an sourwood (Oxydendron arboreum).  Remember I told you I hadn't identified all their plants yet? 

Comments

[Alice]

The shape of the tree suggests to me that it may not be a Nyssa sylvatica as its branches tend to be more horizontal from the trunk, whereas these branches are very much more vertical. Lovely tree just the same.

I don't belong to any garden club, but your observations are interesting. I wonder how much gardening some of the "upper class" gardeners actually do, or do they employ someone to do the work whilst they take the credit?

[Takoma Gardener]

Exactly. They may be of the school of gardening that just points.

[Pam]

Have you ever seen the Show "Rosemary & Thyme"? It's a BBC show with Felcity Kendall (from GOod Neighbors) and her friend who are plant detectives. They go around to other English people's gardens trying to find out what's wrong with their plants. These are the gardens of club members who don't actually garden, just know how to have nice gardens to compete with for prizes and village notoriety. Of course, they are also the other kind of detectives who always end up solving some mystery after someone dies, in a garden related accident of some sort. In the last show I saw they were replanting a club members garden the day of a competition. Perhaps the clubs you heard about were like this, without the death part maybe.

[Alice]

If you love English houses and gardens then 'Rosemary and Thyme' is definitely a good show to watch, even if some of the storylines are a bit loose. (Pam's comment.)

It's nice to watch a 'detective' show with attractive backdrops instead of slums and garbage bins.

[djinn]

Finding kindred souls...

I am lucky enough to have a small nursery/supplier right around the corner from me. They have open houses several times a year, free, with a speaker and plant specials on that day.

I haven't gotten the gumption up yet, but this would be an ideal place to let folks know about computer oriented garden activities.

My little notion I'm contemplating is a links page of other local gardens.

You might check around and see if anything like this is local to you. The gatherings are very loose and informal, perfect for the sort of discussion you'd like to introduce.

Talk to the owner and see if they are interested.

[djinn]

(updating my contact/page info from the previous comment)

[PamJ]

"Quick - what's your association with the term "garden club"? "

Off-topic of course, but my first, immediate association with the term garden clubs is a scene from the movie The Manchurian Candidate. It was a brainwashing sequence staged as a garden club party for American POWs in Korea. All the club members are burly Korean men dressed in 50s style prim matronly female attire --- hats, gloves, etc. An odd scene in a great movie.

You joining the Federation of Garden Clubs is about as likely as you joining the DAR---and I'll bet there's a lot of overlap in those membership lists, don't you think?

I also imagine that the centerpieces at the Federation's gala dinners are pretty impressive.