 | The examples and perspective in this article may not represent a worldwide view of the subject.(March 2012) |
A garden club is an organized group of people with a shared interest in gardening, gardens, and plants. A flower club is a similar group with a focus on flowers.
The club most commonly recognized as the first and oldest organized garden club in the United States is the Ladies' Garden Club of Athens, Georgia. It started in 1891 with a gathering of twelve women friends who shared plants and plant cuttings. It was formally organized the following year. [2] [3] [4] However, two Massachusetts clubs predate the Athens club: The Floricultural Society (1889), later renamed the Plant Club, and The Garden Street Garden Club, formally organized in Cambridge on March 24, 1879. [5] On January 29th, 1889, the Cambridge Plant Club met, drafted by-laws, and elected officers. In 1931, the Massachusetts Horticultural Society honored it as "the first of its kind." [6]
Garden clubs formed in other American communities. The growth of garden clubs was one manifestation of the broader women's club movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. [7] [8] In 1913, the first national federation of garden clubs, the Garden Club of America, was established. It was followed in 1929 by the National Council of State Garden Clubs, now National Garden Clubs [9] By the 1930s, local garden clubs had formed in communities throughout the United States. Initially a women's activity, over time the garden club movement also engaged men, leading in 1932 to the establishment of the Men's Garden Clubs of America organization (now The Gardeners of America/Men's Garden Clubs of America). [10]
Garden clubs did not limit themselves to the improvement of members' private gardens. Many clubs took an interest in civic beautification, planting trees along public streets, maintaining flower gardens in public spaces, and campaigning against billboards, which were considered "eyesores". [10] The Garden Club of America began to crusade against billboards in 1919. [11] Highway beautification and roadside improvement were a focus of attention for the Garden Club of Georgia from the time of its founding in 1928. [12] In 1938 the Mississippi state garden club federation combined with the state federation of women's clubs and state roadside improvement council to campaign for state legislation to "get rid of ... unattractive signs and billboards that clutter the roads". [10]
Many club members engaged in flower arranging as an activity. Clubs sponsored flower shows and club members participated in competitions as contestants and judges. [10] This aspect of the American garden club movement led indirectly to the flower club movement in the United Kingdom in the years after World War II, when Julia Clements and other U.K. women who had observed flower arranging activities in North America returned home and encouraged their countrywomen to engage in similar activities. [13] [14] [15] [16]
Many local garden clubs in the United States are affiliated with one of three national federations: the Garden Club of America, National Garden Clubs, Inc. (originally the National Council of State Garden Clubs), and The Gardeners of America/Men's Garden Clubs of America. [9] In the United Kingdom, many local flower clubs are affiliated with the National Association of Flower Arrangement Societies. [17] The U.S.-based National Garden Clubs claims 447 affiliates outside the United States, in countries including Canada, Mexico, Bermuda, Brazil, South Africa, Australia, and Japan. [18]
The family Asteraceae, with the original name Compositae, consists of over 32,000 known species of flowering plants in over 1,900 genera within the order Asterales. Commonly referred to as the aster, daisy, composite, or sunflower family, Compositae were first described in the year 1740. The number of species in Asteraceae is rivaled only by the Orchidaceae, and which is the larger family is unclear as the quantity of extant species in each family is unknown.
Eudora Alice Welty was an American short story writer, novelist and photographer who wrote about the American South. Her novel The Optimist's Daughter won the Pulitzer Prize in 1973. Welty received numerous awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Order of the South. She was the first living author to have her works published by the Library of America. Her house in Jackson, Mississippi has been designated as a National Historic Landmark and is open to the public as a house museum.
Floristry is the production, commerce, and trade in flowers. It encompasses flower care and handling, floral design and arrangement, merchandising, production, display and flower delivery. Wholesale florists sell bulk flowers and related supplies to professionals in the trade. Retail florists offer fresh flowers and related products and services to consumers. The first flower shop in the United States opened prior to 1851.
Chamaenerion angustifolium is a perennial herbaceous flowering plant in the willowherb family Onagraceae. It is known in North America as fireweed, in some parts of Canada as great willowherb, in Britain and Ireland as rosebay willowherb. In the United Kingdom it is also known as bombweed, as a result of its rapid appearance on city bomb sites during the Blitz of World War II; the plant is also traditionally known as Saint Anthony's laurel. It is also known by the synonyms Chamerion angustifolium and Epilobium angustifolium. It is native throughout the temperate Northern Hemisphere, including large parts of the boreal forests.
Helianthus is a genus comprising about 70 species of annual and perennial flowering plants in the daisy family Asteraceae commonly known as sunflowers. Except for three South American species, the species of Helianthus are native to North America and Central America. The best-known species is the common sunflower. This and other species, notably Jerusalem artichoke, are cultivated in temperate regions and some tropical regions, as food crops for humans, cattle, and poultry, and as ornamental plants. The species H. annuus typically grows during the summer and into early fall, with the peak growth season being mid-summer.
Constance Spry was a British educator, florist and author in the mid-20th century.
Floral design or flower arrangement is the art of using plant material and flowers to create an eye-catching and balanced composition or display. Evidence of refined floral design is found as far back as the culture of ancient Egypt. Floral designs, called arrangements, incorporate the five elements and seven principles of floral design.
A flower bouquet is a collection of flowers in a creative arrangement. Flower bouquets can be arranged for the decor of homes or public buildings, or may be handheld. Handheld bouquets are classified by several different popular shapes and styles, including nosegay, crescent, and cascading bouquets. Flower bouquets are often given for special occasions such as birthdays, anniversaries or funerals. They are also used extensively in weddings as well as Olympics Medal Ceremonies. Bouquets arranged in vases or planters for home decor can be arranged in either traditional or modern styles. Symbolism may be attached to the types of flowers used, according to the culture.
Various folk cultures and traditions assign symbolic meaning to the rose, though these are seldom understood in-depth. Examples of deeper meanings lie within the language of flowers, and how a rose may have a different meaning in arrangements. Examples of common meanings of different coloured roses are: true love (red), mystery (blue), innocence or purity (white), death (black), friendship (yellow), and passion (orange).
Judith Blacklock is an author and owner and founder of the Judith Blacklock Flower School.
The floral industry is focused on the production, distribution and sale of flowers for human enjoyment. As in many countries, the floral industry began in the late 19th century in the United Kingdom, where flowers were grown on a large scale on vast estates. The industry continues to diversify from the production of cut flowers to the production and sale of plants and flowers in many different forms. The global floral industry market size is estimated to be worth US$ 50040 million in 2022 and is forecast to increase to US$ 58030 million by 2028 with a compound annual growth rate of 2.5% during the review period.
The Eudora Welty House & Garden, at 1119 Pinehurst Street in Jackson, Mississippi, was the home of author Eudora Welty for nearly 80 years. It was built by her parents in 1925. Welty and her mother built and tended to the garden located at the side and back of the home over decades. Welty could often be found writing in her bedroom or on the porch, which frequently hosted her peers in writing. The house was first declared a Mississippi Landmark in 2001, added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2002, and declared a National Historic Landmark in 2004.
The White House chief floral designer is responsible for the planning, design, arrangement, and placement of all floral decorations for the first family, their private entertaining, and official state functions at the White House, the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. The current chief floral designer is Hedieh Ghaffarian.
Hubert Creekmore was an American poet and writer from the small Mississippi town of Water Valley. Creekmore was born into one of the oldest Southern families of the area but he would grow up to embody ideals very different from the conservative Southern principles by which he was raised.
The history of flower arrangement dates back to ancient Egyptian times.
Julia Clements was an English flower arranger and lecturer on floral arranging whose career spanned over 60 years. She wrote some 20 bestselling books on the subject of flower arranging, as well as contributing to a variety of publications on gardening. For 12 years, she wrote a column for Popular Gardening.
The National Association of Flower Arrangement Societies (NAFAS) is a society of flower arranging clubs and societies in the United Kingdom.
Cut flowers are flowers and flower buds that have been cut from the plant bearing it. It is removed from the plant for decorative use. Cut greens are leaves with or without stems added to the cut flowers for contrast and design purposes. These displays improve the quality of the human environment.
Liparis liliifolia, known as the brown widelip orchid, lily-leaved twayblade, large twayblade, and mauve sleekwort, is a species of orchid native to eastern Canada and the eastern United States. It can be found in a variety of habitats, such as forests, shrublands, thickets, woodlands, and mountains. The orchid is considered globally secure, but it is considered rare or endangered in many northeastern states.
Mary Shirville was an author and flower arranger. She was co-author of the constitution of the National Association of Flower Arrangement Societies (NAFAS) in the UK and its national chair from 1983 until 1985.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain .At one of the competitions, she met Julia Clements, also known as Lady Seton, who is considered the founder of floral arranging. Lady Seton, who died last year at the age of 104, was a writer and public speaker who promoted floral arranging to the women of Britain after World War II as a way to lift their spirits and bring beauty into their homes during a time of austerity and rationing. Amazingly, she had had no previous experience other than a memory of floral arrangements she had seen on a visit to the States.
Julia Clements' name probably is familiar to you, if you are interested in arranging flowers... In England she is equally famous as the pioneer of a popular flower arrangement movement, based on American methods, having trained speakers and demonstrators, and conducted the first judges schools there.