Worth 2018 Winter Flipbook

[ P A R T I N G S H O T ]
The Garden Club
The green-thumbed members of this Palm Beach institution have been
beautifying the town for nine decades.
BY JOHN THOMASON
PALM BEACH HAS always been a cultivated town,
in more ways than one.
Entering its landmark 90th year in 2018, the Garden
Club of Palm Beach has been synonymous with the
island’s growth and beautification since its inception.
From helping develop Palm Beach’s very first town plan to financing
its three blocks of iconic coconut palms on Royal Palm Way to creating
the vertical Worth Avenue garden known as the Living Wall, the
Garden Club’s members have acted as pioneers and watchdogs, advocates
and educators.
As the Worth Avenue Association’s charity of choice for 2017/2018,
the Garden Club’s service will be recognized all season. The Association’s
historical walking tours of Palm Beach will benefit the Garden
Club, which supports civic projects and maintains the Society of the
Four Arts Botanical Garden, a free community resource.
“The Board of Directors selected the Garden Club as our charity of
choice this year as a way of showing appreciation for the amazing job
they do for Worth Avenue and the town of
Palm Beach,” says Marley Herring, president
of the Worth Avenue Association.
“The Garden Club has been instrumental
in the beautification of Worth Avenue,
and many of its members are longtime
patrons of our shops and restaurants.”
“We have a very worthwhile mission,”
says Sue Strickland, immediate past president,
and a member for nearly 15 years.
“It’s education, conservation and love of
horticulture. ”
“This is the only club I’ve ever belonged
to where people actually enjoy
doing the work,” adds current president
Elizabeth Thebault, a more than 20-year
member.
The Four Arts Botanical Garden is
a verdant sanctuary divided into nine
demonstration gardens with sculptures,
burbling fountains and ponds—and a
towering sausage tree. You’ll sees the aromatic
ylang-ylang flower, which became
the basis for Chanel No. 5; and Florida’s
state tree, the cabbage palm. Designated
Historical & Specimen trees, such as the
The Four Arts
Botanical Garden
Chinese Garden’s ilex, are protected by the town, and require a certified
arborist to trim them.
“It’s a great place to come often, because it changes so much,”
Strickland says.
The Garden Club’s 125 members include some heritage members, but
all active members sit on two committees, and from November through
April, they’re required to spend a morning each week tending the garden.
As Thebault says, “everybody works.”
“A criterion for the membership is a love of gardening, so it’s not just, ‘I
want to join the garden club because I want to hear a lecture,’” adds Strickland.
That said, the annual lecture is a generous perk. Last year, the Garden
Club hosted Martha Stewart, and previous speakers have included interior
designer Charlotte Moss and garden architect Daniel Ost. On Feb. 28, 2018,
the Garden Club will welcome Emma Manners, Duchess of Rutland.
Other popular Garden Club events include its House and Garden Tour,
of some of the island’s most outstanding private gardens, which raises
funds for the club in March. Each Arbor Day, it lectures schoolchildren
on the importance of horticulture, then
assists them in planting a tree in Bradley
Park. The club’s other community
donations include its annual Pine Jog
Environmental Education Center scholarship,
which funds the tuition for one of
the school’s graduate students.
The Garden Club’s efforts to keep
the town green have faced inevitable
impediments from developers. As
members described it in the Four Arts
Garden guidebook in 1985, “Notwithstanding
all our efforts, we have had
to suffer helplessly as more and more
of our island’s trees and native growth
disappear forever beneath the juggernaut
called ‘Bulldozer.’ … Nevertheless,
we still believe our Town to be more
beautiful than most!”
Few would disagree with this statement,
a testament to the Garden Club’s
dedication. “[The Club has] this history
of a shared common goal to improve
the community,” Strickland says. “We
credit the people who came before us
for making it a wonderful organization.”
104 WWW.WORTH-AVENUE.COM