Cultivating pride and petunias;

June 2, 2003, Monday, Metro Edition

Cultivating pride and petunias;
With Rice Park awash in color, the 76-year-old St. Paul Garden Club has turned its attention to preparing for a multistate flower show later this month.

By Joe Kimball; Staff Writer

The green thumbs of the venerable St. Paul Garden Club get credit for the waves of color _ the orange marigolds and Blue Wave petunias _ now on display in the giant terra-cotta planters in Rice Park.

     When the buses aren't idling on 5th Street, you can detect a faint fragrance from the showy annuals as they flutter in the midst of the downtown bustle. Sculpted evergreen topiaries also grow in the giant pots and shade the sweet potato vines and million bells that are also a part of the growing bouquets.

     Members of the 76-year-old garden club gathered in the park one May morning to transplant ornamentals from flats to flower beds. Members worked quickly and purposefully, but they still found time for coffee, minimuffins and conversation.

     They're proud of their efforts, which add a splash to the cozy park _ the picturesque centerpiece of downtown St. Paul's cultural core that is surrounded by the historic downtown library, the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts, Landmark Center and the St. Paul Hotel.

     There's an occasional artistic difference, as club gardeners discuss the merits of plant placement.

     Closer together? More space? How's it going to look in midsummer?

     This is an amiable group, so the gloved hands soon come to agreement and finish the job.

     With Rice Park in bloom, club members now turn their trowels to the big project of the summer: playing host to a multistate flower show June 18 through 20.

     Nineteen clubs from nearby states will come to St. Paul for the Garden Club of America's Zone XI meeting.

     A highlight of the gathering will be a competitive flower show at the Science Museum of Minnesota. The public can view the entries _ which include flower arrangements, plants and photography _ June 19 and 20.

Prominent families

     The club was founded in 1927 by women whose family names were prominent in such fields as timber, politics and manufacturing in St. Paul.

     Mrs. H. T. Drake, Mrs. M. W. Griggs, Mrs. H. H. Irvine, Mrs. Frank Kellogg, Mrs. John Ordway, Mrs. Richard Ordway and Mrs. F.E. Weyerhaeuser are on the list of original members.

     Although many founders "had impressive gardens cared for by professional gardeners, today many of our members are pot gardeners, apartment dwellers and those whose every energy goes into environmental interests," according to a club history written in the 1970s.

     In 2003, established St. Paul families are still well-represented in the club, which has limited membership (90 members _ 60 active and 30 emeritus) and requires sponsorship of prospective members.

     After the club's inception, it took seven years before it was accepted as a chapter of the prestigious, and exclusive, Garden Club of America.

     The club's initial purpose was to "encourage and advance the knowledge and love of flower gardening among amateurs." That remains true today, with the additional goals of promoting conservation and civic planning.

     The Rice Park effort and upcoming flower show are just a couple of the club's activities. There are monthly meetings with speakers and demonstrations, planting and cleanup at Swede Hollow Park, and advocating at City Hall (not lobbying, members insist) for more flower gardens along Kellogg Boulevard and Wabasha Street.

     Over the years, members have been active at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, have planted trees on the Ordway grounds, have supported the Japanese garden at Como Park and have helped start a plant therapy program at Children's Hospital. They have also been active at the historic Gibbs Farm in Falcon Heights.

      For many years club volunteers worked on the gardens at the governor's residence, but a state gardener now handles that job.

     In fact, a longtime club member, Olivia Irvine Dodge, grew up in the Summit Avenue mansion that her family donated to the state in the 1960s after her mother died. Dodge always refers to the stately Tudor residence as a home, not a mansion.

Maintaining Rice Park

     Timelessness, one of the beauties of gardening, is also true of the club.

     Club historians note that one of the first group activities in 1927 was the planting of 1,700 tulips in Rice Park.

     This summer, club members will sign up, two at a time, for weekly garden tending visits to Rice Park, where they'll weed and prune and keep an eye on the plantings.

     They'll clean up a bit, too; they've found over the years that park visitors sometimes use the flowerpots as ashtrays. Occasionally, flowers disappear, dug up by someone who thinks it's a communal garden. It's not.

     One year, the club planted an English garden in the park, but the frothy, lacy plants, with pale colors, were too subtle for the busy park, said club member Betsy Kelly. They've also tried herbs _ rosemary, lavender and oregano _ but those plants disappeared faster than the flowers. They've tried perennials, too, but most haven't fared well in the park pots over the winter months, said Priscilla Brewster, the club's president.

     But hostas, planted on the Landmark Center side of the park in 1993, have thrived; so have the bushes along the walkways. With luck, this year's crop will bloom long and colorfully well into the fall. The downtown traffic and protective buildings moderate the temperature in the park, giving the plants a slightly longer growing season, club members say.

     "One year, I came down in the late fall to dig up the plants and prepare for winter, but they were all still blooming," Kelly said. "So I had a hot dog and went home."