Founded in 1975, the club celebrated 40 years of flowers, friendship, and fun. below is an article appearing in the Scarborough Current newspaper, May 2015.
Sowing Success: Garden Club Marks 40 Years
Kate Irish Collins, The Current, 2015
A shared love of gardening, a commitment to community service and the enjoyment of each other’s company have kept the Scarborough Garden Club going strong for the past 40 years.
Begun in 1975 by fewer than a dozen residents, the club has grown to be one of the largest in the Stroudwater District of the Garden Club Federation of Maine, with about 50 members.
The club provides scholarships to high school graduates interested in horticulture, keeps up the gardens at the historic Hunnewell House, provides seasonal flower arrangements for Meals on Wheels recipients and, most recently, signed on to help Scarborough’s three primary schools with their gardens.
Mary Lello, who has been a member of the Scarborough Garden Club almost from the beginning, said it’s always been “a wonderful group” and a “great social club.” What she most enjoys, Lello said, are the monthly programs and the annual outings.
Lello, a native of Scarborough, joined the group when she and her husband moved back to town following his retirement. What she remembers most fondly is that in the early days the club would meet in the houses of various members.
When she first joined the group, Lello was also able to reunite with old friends she hadn’t seen for more than 30 years. And, during the past 40 years, it’s still remained “such a nice group,” she said.
Another longtime member, Barbara Tolman, agreed. She said the club is “a good group” and “very active” in the community. Like Lello she enjoys the monthly programs and said the annual plant sale held at the Hunnewell House is always fun.
Tolman also enjoys arranging flowers for Meals on Wheels recipients and said the people in the garden club are just “very pleasant.”
Elizabeth Richter, the newly elected president of the garden club, has been a member for the past five years and is one of the younger members helping to keep the club vital and engaged in the community.
What she most enjoys about belonging to the club is “the people I have met, as well as the ongoing opportunity to learn.” She called the Scarborough Garden Club “very welcoming” and said members encourage each other to be active according to their abilities.
Richter said her own garden is a “typical suburban garden with many hardy New England trees and shrubs on the street side along with perennial beds with lots of flowers for cutting bouquets in the back.”
She is also an avid vegetable grower. One of her favorite things about having a vegetable garden is “going to the veggie patch and picking dinner. Nothing beats the fresh flavor of just-picked vegetables.”
Richter remembers learning to garden as a young child while toddling alongside her grandmother, who grew “vegetables for subsistence and flowers for the soul.”
Gardening, she said, “whether it is in a patch of ground or just a few pots on a window sill, is the ultimate expression of our hope in the future because when you sow a few seeds you never know what will happen.”
Elaine Toher, a past president of the garden club, put together a presentation about the club’s history for a recent meeting of the Scarborough Historical Society. She’s been a member of the club for nine years and was recently installed as treasurer.
According to the research Toher put together, the first meeting of the Scarborough Garden Club was held in 1975 in the home of Eleanor Irving, one of the founders of the group.
One of the first community service projects the club took on was creating the flower gardens at the Hunnewell House and, Toher said, “to this day we continue to plant and maintain the gardens. We meet three to four days a year to weed, rake, clean, pull up old plants, plant new ones and lay down mulch.”
As part of its overall mission, Toher said, the garden club provides education, resources and networking opportunities “to promote the love of gardening, floral design and civic and environmental responsibility.”
In addition, the club maintains a Garden of Hope at the Maine Medical Center Campus on Route 1, has donated a tree to Memorial Park in Oak Hill and decorates seasonal wreaths every year that are provided to the Scarborough Public Library, the Hunnewell House and the Scarborough Historical Society.
In all, Toher said, the club tries to ensure it’s making a difference to the community of Scarborough.
“We make yearly donations to (the local) environmental and preservation organizations, as well as the Project GRACE fuel assistance program and to the food pantry,” she said.
“It’s gratifying to be part of this bigger picture,” she added. “I have made a wonderful group of friends since I have joined this club. It is a great group of women. We enjoy our meetings and working together on our projects. Brought together by our shared love of flowers, nature and gardening, we have forged friendships that will last a lifetime.”
Kate Irish-Collins, Keep Me Current (2015)
Begun in 1975 by fewer than a dozen residents, the club has grown to be one of the largest in the Stroudwater District of the Garden Club Federation of Maine, with about 50 members.
The club provides scholarships to high school graduates interested in horticulture, keeps up the gardens at the historic Hunnewell House, provides seasonal flower arrangements for Meals on Wheels recipients and, most recently, signed on to help Scarborough’s three primary schools with their gardens.
Mary Lello, who has been a member of the Scarborough Garden Club almost from the beginning, said it’s always been “a wonderful group” and a “great social club.” What she most enjoys, Lello said, are the monthly programs and the annual outings.
Lello, a native of Scarborough, joined the group when she and her husband moved back to town following his retirement. What she remembers most fondly is that in the early days the club would meet in the houses of various members.
When she first joined the group, Lello was also able to reunite with old friends she hadn’t seen for more than 30 years. And, during the past 40 years, it’s still remained “such a nice group,” she said.
Another longtime member, Barbara Tolman, agreed. She said the club is “a good group” and “very active” in the community. Like Lello she enjoys the monthly programs and said the annual plant sale held at the Hunnewell House is always fun.
Tolman also enjoys arranging flowers for Meals on Wheels recipients and said the people in the garden club are just “very pleasant.”
Elizabeth Richter, the newly elected president of the garden club, has been a member for the past five years and is one of the younger members helping to keep the club vital and engaged in the community.
What she most enjoys about belonging to the club is “the people I have met, as well as the ongoing opportunity to learn.” She called the Scarborough Garden Club “very welcoming” and said members encourage each other to be active according to their abilities.
Richter said her own garden is a “typical suburban garden with many hardy New England trees and shrubs on the street side along with perennial beds with lots of flowers for cutting bouquets in the back.”
She is also an avid vegetable grower. One of her favorite things about having a vegetable garden is “going to the veggie patch and picking dinner. Nothing beats the fresh flavor of just-picked vegetables.”
Richter remembers learning to garden as a young child while toddling alongside her grandmother, who grew “vegetables for subsistence and flowers for the soul.”
Gardening, she said, “whether it is in a patch of ground or just a few pots on a window sill, is the ultimate expression of our hope in the future because when you sow a few seeds you never know what will happen.”
Elaine Toher, a past president of the garden club, put together a presentation about the club’s history for a recent meeting of the Scarborough Historical Society. She’s been a member of the club for nine years and was recently installed as treasurer.
According to the research Toher put together, the first meeting of the Scarborough Garden Club was held in 1975 in the home of Eleanor Irving, one of the founders of the group.
One of the first community service projects the club took on was creating the flower gardens at the Hunnewell House and, Toher said, “to this day we continue to plant and maintain the gardens. We meet three to four days a year to weed, rake, clean, pull up old plants, plant new ones and lay down mulch.”
As part of its overall mission, Toher said, the garden club provides education, resources and networking opportunities “to promote the love of gardening, floral design and civic and environmental responsibility.”
In addition, the club maintains a Garden of Hope at the Maine Medical Center Campus on Route 1, has donated a tree to Memorial Park in Oak Hill and decorates seasonal wreaths every year that are provided to the Scarborough Public Library, the Hunnewell House and the Scarborough Historical Society.
In all, Toher said, the club tries to ensure it’s making a difference to the community of Scarborough.
“We make yearly donations to (the local) environmental and preservation organizations, as well as the Project GRACE fuel assistance program and to the food pantry,” she said.
“It’s gratifying to be part of this bigger picture,” she added. “I have made a wonderful group of friends since I have joined this club. It is a great group of women. We enjoy our meetings and working together on our projects. Brought together by our shared love of flowers, nature and gardening, we have forged friendships that will last a lifetime.”
Kate Irish-Collins, Keep Me Current (2015)
Club members sport fancy hats at a gathering in 2013.