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HEATHER HILL
THE MID-COUNTY MEMO
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| Villa Garden Club members, from left, Dorothy Dews, Cindy Hurst and Betty Talbot settle a gardening argument by asking Elaine Cabelly to reference the “Sunset Western Garden Book,” the final authority, during their annual plant sale held last month. |
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| Biannual plant sales give Villa members an opportunity to share rare and exotic plant varieties with fellow aficionados. Villa Garden Club President Betty Talbot, left, helps Kathleen Marquart make a plant selection at the club’s annual plant sale held in Mt. Tabor last month. MEMO PHOTOS: TIM CURRAN |
The state federation President Sherry Cossey and Portland District Director Peggy Olin counted among the attendees lining tables adorned with lavender crepe paper and spring bloom centerpieces.
At the conclusion of club business, guests and members rose to partake from a sumptuous potluck buffet. Some perused the sales tables of crafts and housewares while others greeted friends or visiting officials and discussed the state of their gardens.
After lunch, Villa’s agenda usually features a speaker, sometimes a member and often a guest, who offers discussion of a topic of special interest. This hallmark meeting welcomed guest Pete Petersen, an Oregonian Food Day contributor, who expounded on seasonal produce. The presence of a man at a traditionally all-female club testifies to the advancements of time over Villa’s 60-year history.
Garden clubs “started during the war because women didn’t have a lot of things to do; women didn’t work,” Villa Vice President Leona Connelly said. “Now women have jobs and it’s a different deal ... We never had any men (before), but now we have three,” she said.
Revived interests in ecology, agriculture and hands-on home improvement have expanded the variety of members’ interests and the club’s overall goals. As Pat Swonger, Villa member for 35 years said, “Garden clubs do a lot of things that people don’t know about. It’s not a bunch of ladies sitting around having tea.”
Indeed, since 1929, when garden clubs in 13 states (including Oregon) federated into the National Garden Clubs Inc., garden clubs have improved access to educational resources and organized opportunities for members to explore their passion for plants. In affiliation with their regional, state and district offices, contemporary garden clubs not only share tips and clippings, they offer classes, horticulture scholarships and volunteer opportunities.
“I really feel we are one of the more active clubs in the Portland area, and we have been active for 60 years,” said Carole Rapp, Villa member since 1982. Among the club’s charitable donations, Villa contributes time and money to gardening studies, the Claire Hanley Scholarship Fund, the Flower Show School and Leach Botanical Gardens. According to Betty Talbot, Villa Garden Club president, volunteers most recently planted dooryard gardens through Habitat for Humanity, donated and planted a patriotic tree at Hazelwood Hydropark and supplied arrangements for events at the Pittock Mansion. Over the holidays they compiled Christmas boxes of gifts for families in need. In conjunction with a nationwide effort, Villa also plants Blue Star Memorials visible along highways to honor Americans in the armed services.
Villa members steward greenery beyond the garden gate as well. Reciting the state federation’s conservation creed at every meeting, they “pledge to protect and conserve the natural resources of the planet Earth and promise to promote education so we may become caretakers of our air, water, forests, land and wildlife.” In practice, Villa members seek opportunities to help plant trees, voice resistance to the proliferation of billboards and support recycling and conservation programs.
Villa funds these projects through quarterly sales tables like those at the anniversary event as well as spring and fall sales featuring unusual plants and horticultural crafts. “(Vendors) can do anything as long as it has some plant material,” explained Pat Swonger, who also serves as superintendent of the Multnomah County Fair’s horticultural department. This year’s spring sale took place on April 19 at the Tabor Heights Church.
Affiliation with the national garden club structure connects members to educational and charitable opportunities in all aspects of horticulture from environmental advocacy to landscape design to flower show adjudication. In addition Villa members have the flexibility to focus on their specific areas of interest. Swonger emphasized that members “learn as much as they want to learn, whether they want it to be social or they want to go to school to learn whatever they want to learn. It’s up to the individual person.”
Conversely, members themselves often introduce activities to benefit the community. Rapp conceived of the Flowers on Parade flower show scheduled for May 9 at the Town Center Village continuing care retirement community, 8709 S.E. Causey St., where she resides.
Assisted by second-grade students from Archbishop Howard School, Town Center residents have been preening their houseplants for competition. And the students learn botany in the process.
“It’s a good opportunity to work with people who don’t have that opportunity for themselves,” Talbot said of the upcoming show.
Merging the educational and social aspects of gardening, the May show epitomizes the Oregon garden club federation’s mission “to provide education, resources and networking opportunities for our members to promote the love of gardening, floral design, civic and environmental responsibilities.”
“I really am encouraging to do more of this at our next meeting,” Rapp said. “I’m encouraging our newer members to step up and enter (the Flowers on Parade flower show). It’s fun.”
Rapp and other members cited the difficulty finding a garden club in the years before they joined Villa, as invitations to such clubs often required first-hand referrals from current members. Today, people interested in Villa membership information can simply contact Leona Connelly at 503-287-4517.
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