National Garden Clubs, Inc.

BASICS

National Garden Clubs, Inc., (NGC) is a not-for-profit educational organization headquartered in St. Louis, Mo., adjacent to the Missouri Botanical Garden. The organization comprises 50 state garden clubs and the National Capital Area, 5,737 member garden clubs and 188,034 members.  In addition, NGC has 293 international affiliates from Canada to Mexico and South America, from Bermuda to South Africa, Australia and Japan, as well as 50 national affiliates within the United States.

 

MISSION                                            

National Garden Clubs provides education, resources and national networking opportunities for its members to promote the love of gardening, floral design, and civic and environmental responsibility.

 

PURPOSE

• Coordinate the interests and activities of state garden clubs with similar organizations in the U.S. and abroad.
• Aid in the protection and conservation of natural resources, to promote civic beautification and encourage the improvement of roadsides and parks.
• Encourage the establishment and maintenance of botanical gardens, arboreta and horticultural centers for the advancement of science, enjoyment and education of the public.
• Advance the study of gardening, landscape design, environmental issues, floral design and horticulture and assist deserving students through college scholarships in these fields of endeavor.
• Cooperate with other organizations furthering the interests of horticulture, conservation, environmental protection and beautification.

 

HISTORY                                          

The first garden club in America was founded in January 1891 by The Ladies Garden Club of Athens (Ga.).  On May 1, 1929, 13 federated states became charter members at an organizational meeting in Washington, D.C.  In 1935, the National Garden Clubs established headquarters at Rockefeller Center in New York City.  A permanent headquarters building in St. Louis was dedicated May 10, 1958.

 

HEADQUARTERS                            4401 Magnolia Ave., St. Louis, Mo., 63110-3492

 

WEB ADDRESS                                   www.gardenclub.org

 

PRESIDENT:                                       Shirley Nicolai                  

 

MEDIA CONTACTS:                        
Patricia Binder, 636-441-0022
Debra Finkel 314-878-2465
Finkel & Binder Communications LLC,

                                                         

 

ADDITIONAL BACKGROUND

 

As nearly 200,000 men and women of all ages and backgrounds across the nation can attest, the rewards of belonging to a garden club go far beyond the pure pleasure of growing things. While joining a local garden club is indeed a great way to "green" your thumb, membership also provides an opportunity to expand your interests and build lifelong friendships while bettering your community and the environment.

 

Individual garden clubs focus on particular local interests while also enjoying the opportunity to network regionally (through state organizations) and nationally (through National Garden Clubs, Inc.). In general, each local garden club determines its specific programs, which are tailored to members' interests as well as area needs.  Clubs offer an enjoyable variety of educational, environmental, social and civic projects that attract a diverse membership.  Through providing stimulating, informative and relevant programming for today's world, local garden clubs continue to thrive from generation to generation.

 

Most local garden clubs meet monthly and offer a wide range of top-notch educational programs. Topics cover the latest gardening techniques for flowers, shrubs, trees, vegetables and houseplants; organic gardening; landscape and floral design; creating ponds and water features; conservation and environmental education; and the study of birds, butterflies and beneficial insects and how to attract them.

 

In addition, garden clubs develop and participate in a myriad of outstanding and rewarding local, regional and national community service projects.

A small coast-to-coast sampling includes:

• Healing with Gardens and Horticultural Therapy.  Therapeutic projects are diverse and include such things as teaching gardening skills to developmentally challenged high-school students; planning, planting and maintaining healing gardens in nursing homes and veterans hospitals; and providing gardening education and encouragement to prison inmates.

 

• Digging in to Raise Funds for Replanting Disaster-Struck Areas. Garden clubs across the nation raise money annually in support of the USDA Forest Service Penny Pines program (www.pennypines.org), which replants damaged state and national forests. Garden clubs in the Gulf States are working to re-landscape hurricane-damaged public areas through the NGC-sponsored Green the Gulf Coast Grants program.

 

• Helping Habitat for Humanity Homeowners.  Garden clubs provide gardening education and assistance to Habitat homeowners throughout the U.S. During Habitat's national Home Builders Blitz, garden club members work side by side with new homeowners to help them establish low-maintenance, environmentally friendly gardens.

 

• Working with Children and Schools. Garden clubs assist local schools in establishing gardens to teach children about nature, horticulture, the environment and how to "plant native."

 

• Holding Flower Shows. These enjoyable events continue to draw crowds while giving club members a chance to exhibit their plants and floral arrangements and compete for prizes. The shows also help spread the word about the joys of gardening and serve as a forum for learning and discussing the latest horticultural techniques.

 

• Beautifying and "Greening" the Community. Garden club members frequently take on park and vacant lot rehabilitation; community gardening; recycling and pollution-control efforts; and historic-site preservation. Many clubs actively support the Blue Star Memorial program, which honors those who have served in the U.S. Armed Forces by placing distinctive and permanent memorial markers along highways and in national cemeteries, parks and veterans facilities.

 

Local garden clubs join together at both the state and national levels to form strong, synergistic networks for sharing ideas, advancing common interests and pulling together to achieve mutual goals. In fact, with nearly 200,000 members, National Garden Clubs Inc. is the largest volunteer organization of its type in the world. This means that garden club members have a powerful voice that can be heard coast-to-coast to achieve NGC's rewarding and relevant mission: to promote the love of gardening, floral design, and civic and environmental responsibility.

 

Today's garden clubs creatively and effectively address current issues, such as climate change, highway beautification and other environmental concerns. Local and state projects and national partnerships with such organizations as the U.S. Forest Service and Habitat for Humanity International give garden club members everywhere an opportunity to make a difference while engaging in activities they love.