MEMO BLOG Memo Calendar Memo Pad Business Memos Loaves & Fishes Letters Home
FEATURE ARTICLES
102nd Avenue: Slow down, you won't move too fast
Ambitious Portland Plan begins
Cruise-In: From schoolyard to boulevard
Developer, city squabble over design
Graffiti removal first part of action plan
At 60, garden club salutes summer
Fir Ridge Campus 2008: Most graduates ever

About the MEMO
MEMO Archives
MEMO Advertising
MEMO Country (Map)
MEMO Web Neighbors
MEMO Staff
MEMO BLOG

© 2008 Mid-county MEMO
Terms & Conditions
At 60, garden club salutes summer

HEATHER HILL
THE MID-COUNTY MEMO

Club member Alice Mitchell displays her chrysanthemum floral design at the Flower Lane Garden Club’s annual Spring show. The club celebrates its 60th year this fall.
COURTESY ANN DUELTGEN
Part of the annual show is a floral design contest. This arrangement is by club member Elaine Bossert. The Flower Lane Garden Club meets every third Tuesday at Leach Botanical Gardens, 6704 S.E. 122nd Ave. For more information about the club or if you are interested in flowers, call Ann Dueltgen at 503-335-0385.
COURTESY SALLY FISHER
As the sky struggled to clear and the weather finally grew warm this June, some grumbled about missing spring, though its fragrance had surrounded us for months. The bounty of flowers gilding our neighbors’ homes and yards remind us that spring started in March, a testament to the hearty souls who braved some inhospitable planting conditions. In continued homage to those adorning our neighborhood with living décor, this month the Memo spotlights the Flower Lane Garden Club.

Though united by a national organization, local garden clubs reflect the diversity of their subjects. In March, the Memo joined the Villa Garden Club, one of Portland’s largest, in celebrating its 60-year anniversary. This fall, the Flower Lane Garden Club will reach the same benchmark. Asked of plans to commemorate the event, President Ann Duetlgen jokingly mused, “We should think of some way of honoring ourselves.”

At the time, Dueltgen, Vice President Viola Huntley, club Publicity Chairman Leona Hogue and member Alice Mitchell were soaking in the sun of the East Portland Community Center atrium overseeing their annual flower show held on May 20. The lofty corridor’s ping-pong tables were cleared to make room for five rows of five or so flower arrangements in keeping with the theme Salute to Summer.

“Because it’s a mini flower show and not a standard flower show, we don’t actually have the judges give out ribbons,” Dueltgen explained. “We ask judges to come and critique, give their comments, suggestions and ideas, or anything that’s helpful for when we do another arrangement.”

Both educational and eye-catching, the arrangements engaged all senses, capturing the nostalgic categories of Desert Destinations, Picnics, Splash, and Concerts in the Park — themes also mirrored in miniature. Each bouquet demonstrated the bounty of members’ gardens as well as the versatility of their cooperative imaginations.

“You can’t say who made an arrangement and who didn’t make an arrangement. There is a huge participation that goes with it,” Dueltgen said. Show organizer Donna Gamble added, “I think we will have to say we had 100 percent participation.” Flower Lane has a total of 20 members, and though ill health accounted for the show’s two absences, Gamble assured, “They are certainly with us in spirit.”

Flower Lane recently expanded the show’s potential audience by moving to the East Portland Community Center from Leach Botanical Gardens, 6704 S.E. 122nd Ave., where the club holds monthly meetings every third Tuesday. To encourage community involvement the club posted a notice inviting people to bring their own garden samples to share. “I wasn’t surprised that we didn’t have any takers,” Gamble said of the introductory attempt. “We’re just going to build on this.”

The multi-faceted show captured many entrants’ interest in the front lobby reception area, where Flower Lane composed a horticulture exhibit with labeled examples of container plants, bulbs, herbs, evergreens, perennials, flowering scrubs and trees. A table selling plant starts of dahlias, cosmos and China aster for ten cents each stood beside. Proceeds benefit the Five-Sense Garden of Enchantment in Oral Hull Park for the Blind near Sandy. Built and maintained by the Clackamas and Multnomah county garden clubs, the garden incorporates elevated beds to help the blind and the physically challenged enjoy the garden experience.

“Every time somebody buys the plant, we say, ‘Next year, bring in something from your garden,’ “ Gamble said.

The community center attracted passersby as diverse as preschool students to elders, and by coordinating with the Cherry Blossom Loaves & Fishes Center, also housed at EPCC, Flower Lane members were able to share plants with those beyond the walls. At noon, Loaves & Fishes diners gathered around tables centered with Flower Lane bouquets planted in recycled yogurt containers wrapped in decorative paper. Notes accompanying each centerpiece defined the plant’s variety along with a date that decided which table member (the one with the closest birthday) would take it home.

“We really like the lunch,” Gamble said. “You get to hear the stories of individuals who are sitting at the tables. They will ask questions about what flower that is, how do you grow it.”

Though Hogue admitted, “I guess we’ve had bigger flower shows,” Gamble quickly added, “But we haven’t had more attendees than this.”

Membership is often passed down in families. Hogue’s daughter Sally Fisher, for example, in addition to acting as club historian, also brought an abiding interest in bats and spiders to enlighten club members of the values of these garden pest killers. “What’s really exciting about being in the garden club for me is my mom is in it,” Fisher commented, later adding that her first-grade teacher was also involved in the club.

Flower Lane Garden Club has many notable members. Both Mitchell and Huntley have published books. Though Mitchell wrote fiction and Huntley an historical novel, both tales concentrate on the depression era in the West. In addition to holding the position of Multnomah County Garden Club District’s Indoor/Outdoor Chair, Huntley also writes a monthly column for the district newsletter. Flower Lane member Elaine Bossert has served as Multnomah County District Secretary since 1995 and has been a delegate to the Oregon Federation of Garden Clubs State Convention since 1984.

So named in homage to the Oregonian’s former garden column, “Down the Lane with Lady Jane,” the Flower Lane Garden Club was founded in September 1948 by 19 women living in Parkrose. Columnist Mrs.Yates, a.k.a. Lady Jane, was the honored guest at the club’s first May flower show and tea (attended by over 100 guests).

Over the years, members notably participated in the 1951 Parkrose beautification planting along 122nd Avenue and Sandy Boulevard as well as in the 1970 inception of the Five-Sense Garden of Enchantment. In May 1991, Flower Lane provided landscaping near the 122nd Avenue and Siskiyou Street exit off I-84. This beautification project has evolved into an annual tree-planting ritual.

Those interested in Flower Lane Garden Club memberships are invited to contact Leona Hogue at 503-253-4071.
Memo Calendar | Memo Pad | Business Memos | Loaves & Fishes | Letters | About the MEMO
MEMO Advertising | MEMO Archives | MEMO Web Neighbors | MEMO Staff | Home