Garden clubs

In October, at the urging of a friend, I attended a meeting of the garden club in the next town west. The people were nice enough but I thought I'd be going to learn something and to share my experiences and yet not one person spoke about gardening!

Last month I was given the membership form to fill out and I did hear a few things about gardening during that session. Maybe I'm expecting too much? I really don't know but I'm asking if you'd consider joining a gardening club when not five minutes is spent talking about plants.

A few examples of some of the plant talk:

Hydrangeas are called "snowball bushes".
Hostas are "the plant with green leaves".
Hostas in December are called dead, not dormant.
Lilies and daylilies are one and the same!

Thanks for any help you can give me.

Pirl, someone with your wealth of knowledge doesn't join garden clubs, you RUN garden clubs.

☺!

Totally agree...WC

yep. Can you volunteer to give a program? Poor people don't know much or understand what GCs are.

The Garden Club in my town is a society event.
Even the county Perennial Society is a bit like that.
They volunteer to run the annual garden tours ( raise money to keep the club quarters warm and repaired )
They have a plant sale but who needs more DayLilies Stella D'oro. and daisies.
Guess youve descovered I am not a joiner. I learned years ago there are lots of people who want to enjoy the social benefits but dont want to do the work.

My son's FIL is president of the garden club in his town.....he's a blueberry farmer! They do have plant sales, and a design contest, & monthly speakers, but it's more of a social club.....I have 2 friends that belong to that club, they enjoy it, and one is a serious rose person....but I'm afraid it's mostly social.

When I inquired about the club in our town I could sense I wasn't wanted and reflected on the Kennel clubs I have been a member of and decide my time would be very much better spent in the garden or reading my gardening material.

Thank you, WC! What a lovely compliment!

Thanks, flowAjen!

irisMA - I could volunteer but last time one member sat and filed her nails during the entire meeting. I'm afraid I might stab her with the file if she did it as I spoke. If I spoke and their eyes glazed over, a likely occurrence, I think I'd just leave at that moment. After all, if they don't know one iris from another, haven't a clue that a plant is dormant (not dead), and think the Latin name is "just too hard" then why am I there? I'd have thought they'd want to encourage correct names

Thanks to all who responded. I'm agreeing with the thought that it's more of a social club than a garden club, as Jo Ann and Marilyn both said.

They did have a speaker last time and her talk and brochure was regarding invasive plants. Nowhere on the lists were the Aegopodium, Houttuynia or Celandine and I can't be the only person afflicted with these horrid plants. She is part of the County Extension Service so that doubles my doubts about their sources of information.

I did offer 20 pots of hostas and 20 more pots of daylilies (my own hybrids) but the expense of the pots & soil mix would be mine and for that I'd get "Thanks", if anything. It likely wouldn't even count as one of my first year duties and not another person offered a single plant for their big May sale.

The local animal shelter would be much more rewarding. Thanks for that idea, gamekeeper!

What about becoming a Master Gardener? I looked into it. I would have to travel 1 hour each direction. I belive its free and you have to do some community time - well at least in NH.

Same with CT, Sherrie.

Here it's around $500. and if you miss even one class you're eliminated. Then it's something like 100 hours of community service. No thanks.

Two of our neighbors are MG's and call me faithfully for help so I'd say I'm not interested.

I ment the Kennel clubs are the same, social gossipers that know nothing about dogs but sure they are experts.

Aha! Sorry to hear that.

When I gave it a lot of thought I decided I could just view it as a social club and not become a regular member but an associate and pay more but not have the requirement to attend all the meetings.

Then, if they just happen to speak of something garden related, I would look at it as a pleasant diversion.

Good idea!

My grand idea has been squashed since I can't become a "Sustaining Member" unless I've been a regular member for five years. What a downer! I doubt I'll join.

Start your own club with knowlegable people. Not all GC are federated.

Do you think if I designed an application test and showed photos of 30 plants that I should expect the people to know 15 of them or is that asking too much? LOL

Sounds like fun....

Or a headache...

In the end I did not join the garden club.

Lately I've been busy decluttering and had a huge amount of gardening magazines so I offered them to the person who had invited me to join the garden club and suggested she might want to put them out, at the next meeting, so people could take what they wanted. Her reply let me know we were all right when we guessed it was more social than gardening:

Oh, no. They wouldn't be interested in gardening magazines!
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Thanks to all who posted for leading me down the right garden path to my own back yard!

oh geez, what gardener wouldn't be interested in gardening magazines??? Good thing you didn't join....and beside you have us!

I hate to think of not having Dave's Garden and all the help and encouragement I get from people here. It's worse than any nightmare.

I wonder if the Garden Club is a Victorian idea.
It means " meet and sit in the garden with tea and gossip about other members"
I'm going to google the history of same. Just curious.

Funny, Jo Ann!

I didnt research long and found I was completely wrong.
This article is probably the standard format for clubs.
http://sites.google.com/site/idgardenclubs/home/activities/history-of-garden-clubs

I'm sure there were garden clubs in Europe, Persia and Japan centuries ago even if they didn't call themselves "clubs".

The reason I didn't join the local club, here in town, is because it seems too social - more than the other garden club I tried. I'd prefer to learn, teach whatever I can, and share plants but that's not the attitude I got from either club and their members.

Like I said above. Daves Garden is what a club should be. Give what advise you can on Daves and ask questions.
Its a social club here.Even the doctor next door unjoined when she wanted to learn about plants and gardening and they fell short.

It would have been so nice to know that a new heuchera or echinacea is either terrific or awful in someones garden before I buy it but, judging from the talk, they don't have gardens and that shocked me. Maybe I'm too naive.

Local "New Mothers Clubs" actually have moms and babies.
The bridge club really does play bridge.
Local political clubs really have people in office or at least involved in politics.

One person came for daylilies because she figured she'd make a border of them so the deer wouldn't eat her plants! Ha ha ha. Buffet at her house this summer for her deer! It was difficult not to laugh but we did tell her the deer would devour them - she shrugged her shoulders and took them anyhow.

Because they were free!!!!!!
Honestly people amaze me.
Last year I had tons of coleus( 200+). I had promised some to the doc next door and to my 3 other daughters and a few friends. I planted the ones I had planned and a great number in places I didnt plan.
Gave the ones to the doc and at the neighborhood coffee I let it be known I had coleus. 1 neighbor came and not only took some for herself but the rest I was saving for my friends. I was shocked.
3 days later she came to me and asked if I would keep hers and water them over the next 5 days as they were going on a trip.
If I didnt know she counted them I would have taken back my GF's. Instead I took cuttings from her plants and water rooted them for 3 more friends.
She didnt notice when she got home.
Free stuff makes people crazy.

Good for you, Jo! Pirl, that's just a lovely shot of the garden with the JIs starring in the border!

Right, lovely border picture. I have found that you have to be careful with free stuff. Even a slight amount of money makes people care for it.

When I lived in CT over 30 yrs ago, I was a member of a very active garden club. However politics were present as when I was part of a team scouting gardens for civic awards (private & public) some people tried to get it for friends. However we had a boss who always backed us up. One of the favorite winners & no one objected was a gas station with a tiny plot (mainly annuals) next to the curb & people appreciated his work.

I will drive to Pittsford for free plants...that's kinda north, right?

Dem - If it weren't for the Long Island Sound you could be here fast!

Yes, Jo Ann, I realize people want plants if they're offered for free and that's why a few people from the club came for them but I can't see myself wanting free plants if the deer are only going to devour them. That's a shame about the neighbor who scoffed up the coleus.

Thanks, Marilyn and Lucy. I love that section of the garden.

Glad to hear your boss backed you up, Lucy, and that you selected the gas station as a winner. People are very strange with preferring a friend to get an award over someone who makes a gas station special.

Another time a private garden had red climbing roses along a post & rail fence. another person in the neighborhood thought her garden should win because she had spent a lot of money on it. Unfortunately not much could be seen from the road & the roses were at peak. 'Why should he have an award?' cried the lady. Again our team was backed up & president of GC was miffed. 'The scout team didn;t win classes at flower shows so why would we know?' Admittedly I was not a great arranger at that time I've improved in 30 yrs, but still not great. However that is not what we were looking for. Great boss! Politics are cruddy. Have not joined GC here, just because we are too busy with the irises & club, nothing against the GC which has had members come to our graden & is interested in plants.

Great boss!

Attitude is a problem with too many people and gardeners are no exception.

We have been on the two Southold Historical Society Garden Tour's and enjoyed being part of it and talking with guests. When we mentioned the tours to neighbors, to warn them about the amount of cars that would be parked on the street, one neighbor told me: I hope you win. There is no winning or losing - it's a tour!

It's surprising how many people do get their properties on the tour just because of who they know in the society. Many others must have a fear of strangers because, though they do have lovely gardens, they will not agree to be on any tour.

The "I hope you win" remark indicates how clueless people can be.
What flashed thru my mind was the time I was at an art festival. It had been a long day and customers were just lazily walking thru. I wanted the show to end so I could pack up and go home yet there was 2 more hours.
Customers walked into my booth and fell in love with one of my bowles "We love it but what would we use it for"
I couldnt help myself.
" Well the neanderthals invented them so the big pieces of meat wouldnt fall thru their fingers"
Of course I lost the sale, I was rich enough already.

LOL!

Far too many people just don't "get it".

We have a social element to our club here in Saugus. But we also have speakers, workshops, community outreach, Our meeting in April will be on Therapeutic Gardening. We have established a Blue Star Marker in our Veterans park, created and maintain a butterfly garden at the local DCR reservation, planted flowers at the Public Library, donated books to the Library on gardening and flower design, participated in the Annual Town Founders Day, held plant sales in conjunction with the Historical Society, and held several Club flower shows with design and horticulture divisions. Some of our members are retired and older and don't have gardens anymore, but many still do. A few of our members participate in the Boston Flower Show every spring. I love to go to garden club for the gardening, but also for the friendship and camaraderie. This was surely a very important element to me when I was recuperating from breast cancer several years ago. The encouragement and support I received from the members was wonderful. I have tried to pass that on to other members. Sure, some of our members chit chat and have to be shushed during meetings, but on the whole we are pretty successful as a club.

That sounds like a REAL gardenclub.