Dolley Madison Garden Club

March 22, 2022

dmgcvirginia.org

1995-2005

Members of Dolley Madison Garden Club (DMGC) continued their activities in both the Garden Club of America (GCA) and the Garden Club of Virginia (GCV), as well as in the local community. The club focused on conservation for proper pesticide pickup and disposal. Members organized a one-week Natural History Day Camp for youth at Montpelier, historic home of James Madison. The club’s major project was the continued maintenance of Taylor Park, which won the Orange Downtown Alliance “Green Thumb” award.

 Mrs. Gilbert K. Queitzsch (Virginia) won the Violet Niles Walker Memorial Cup and the Eleanor Truax Harris Cup, and Mrs. James H. T. McConnell, Jr (Mary) won the Sponsor’s Cup at the 1996 GCV Lily Show. Mrs. John James won the Jacqueline Byrd Shank Memorial Trophy at the 1996 Daffodil Show.

The club voted to support the Dorothy Hunt Williams Book Collection for its GCA millennium project, Project 2000. A selection of horticulture, botany and garden design books were donated to the collection at the Orange County Public Library, including gardening books for adults and children. Mrs. Williams was a past president of Dolley Madison and a former President of GCV.

In 1999, DMGC celebrated its 80th anniversary with a luncheon meeting, inviting members to dress in attire appropriate for 1919.  Montpelier invited DMGC to join other groups in laying a wreath at the grave of James Madison on the occasion of his birthday. In 2001, the Dorothy Hunt Williams Book Collection was completed with over 300 books — a remarkable gift to the community. DMGC members entered Fine Arts & Flower at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts with great success.

 

In 2002, DMGC celebrated the “Year of the Rose,” with a special program, “An Afternoon of Wine and Roses.” The club hosted Mary Tonetti Dorra, author of Beautiful American Rose Gardens, who presented a lovely and educational program that was open to the public.

The club held several fundraisers in preparation for its highly successfull GCV Zone VII meeting in September 2004.  Japanese maples were transplanted by members from the woods near the Japanese Garden at Montpelier for a plant sale, and the monies from this endeavor were given to Montpelier for further restoration of the Japanese Garden.  The club continued assisting Habitat House, donating $1,500 for plantings, as well as plants from members’ gardens, and also pledged $2,500 for a grounds project at the historic Orange County Courthouse. DMGC continued its support of GCV and GCA goals and programs, as well as expanding its community outreach and a growing number of programs benefiting youth.

2005-2015

During this decade the club continued to provide educational programs for the public that included a daffodil program with Brent Heath and a huge conservation forum, “Energy Conservation and Renewal Resources: What Will Tomorrow Bring?” The club also presented a program with a panel of experts on renewable energy that was open to the community. Many fundraising projects — poinsettia sales, bake sales, and notecards made using photographs taken by members — netted funds to be used for community projects. Landscaping at the Orange County Animal Shelter was a huge success using monies from the club’s community project funds and plants donated by members.

As its project for Jamestown’s 400th birthday celebration, the club again worked with Montpelier to plant an educational garden around the new visitor center that opened in 2007. The homes and gardens of two DMGC members, Mary Lew Sponski’s Tre Sorelle, and Marge Grills’ Holmlea, were photographed, submitted and accepted into the Smithsonian Archives of America Gardens collection of outstanding homes and gardens.

In 2009, the club pledged Montpelier monies for a new tree identification brochure, and supported the Boys & Girls Club of Orange in purchasing raised beds and garden tools. Members worked with the children at the Boys & Girls Club once a week to plant and maintain the beds, as well as to provide gardening education. Page Sullenberger designed the club’s first digital club newsletter, Dolley Madison Musings. The newsletter was a vital communication asset for members, providing business minutes and announcements, as well as educational articles, photographs, tips, Q&A, and Worker Bees columns.

The June/July 2011 issue of GCA Bulletin featured an article by member Pam Hudson about member Bridget Bryant and her Egg of the Day photographs. Mary Zocchi was appointed to the North American Lily Society board for a three-year term. She was a judge for the mid-Atlantic lily show in Philadelphia.

In 2011, Bernice Walker was the first Dolley Madison member to earn “Queen of the Rose Show” in more than a decade with her specimen, ‘Marilyn Monroe.’ DMGC presented “Bringing Nature Home” with the renowned Doug Tallamy, organized by chairman Zan Thomas. The club achieved local and statewide recognition for the presentation and enjoyed a large community attendance. Fifteen vendors were present for sales of conservation-related material. At the 2012 GCV Lily Show, DeLane Porter won the prestigious North American Lily Society Award for the best potted lily, Lily Looks™ Tiny Skyline. In 2013, DMGC remained committed to assisting the Orange Downtown Alliance with plantings, and the Boys & Girls Club of Orange and the Free Clinic Valentine’s Day benefits with floral arrangements. Continuing in the DMGC tradition, Jane McKinney won the 2013 North American Lily Society Award for the best potted lily, ‘Tiny Sensation,’ and Adrianne Foshay won in 2014 for ‘Little John’ and in 2015 for ‘Mona Lisa.’

Trish Falcon won the Virginia Ewers Queitzsch Memorial Bowl, awarded for three stems of the same species, variety or cultivar, and the James A. McKenney Award for the Best Longiflorum/Asiatic hybrid lily. Pam Gottschalk won the Sponsor’s Cup, awarded for best Asiatic lily, and the Spotswood Garden Club Award in honor of Laura Dansby for best up-facing Asiatic hybrids. That same year, DMGC sponsored campers to attend Nature Camp and the Montpelier Mud Camp. Member Mary Zocchi’s article on fertilizing lilies, “Lily Libations,” was published in the 2013 Spring GCV Journal.

In 2014, the club organized historic hotel tours of Orange, “Decorating for the Holidays,” to raise funds for the Board of Governors meeting.

The Dolley Madison Garden Club hosted the 95th Garden Club of Virginia Board of Governors meeting in 2014 at Montpelier, co-chaired by Pamela Hudson and Alice Smith.

The Board of Directors was welcomed on Tuesday, October 14 for a tour of The Inn at Willow Grove and luncheon prior to the Board meeting A celebration of recognition was held for Bernice Walker for fifty active years of participation in DMGC, GCV, and GCA. DMGC members purchased an engraved silver pitcher in her honor to serve as a perpetual trophy. The donation of the trophy was announced at the meeting.

BOG attendees were invited for cocktails and Dutch treat dinner on Tuesday night at the Market at Grelen. During dessert, owner Dan Grelen presented “Agritourism, Field to Feast, Open Space — How Each Plays a Role in Virginia’s Economic Development.”

Optional tours on Wednesday morning included the Montpelier Oriental Garden or the Annie duPont Garden and Mansion and were followed by lunch at Palladio with a warm welcome from Mr. Luca Paschina of Barboursville Vineyards.

The meeting was adjourned for the day and attendees boarded buses and headed back to Montpelier for cocktails and the awards banquet. The Common Wealth Award was awarded to the Ashland Garden Club for the Ashland Train Station project in the amount of $8,500. Second place, in the amount of $4500, was awarded to the four Richmond Clubs — the Boxwood Garden Club, the James River Garden Club, Three Chopt Garden Club and the Tuckahoe Garden Club of Westhampton for the Canal Walk in Shiplock Park.

2014 BOG Photos

2015-2020

These five years began with enthusiastic participation by club members. DMGC continued to promote principles to encourage gardening, horticulture, conservation, beautification, restoration of historic gardens, and the protection of our native trees, wildflowers and birds. Many plans were made in anticipation of our one hundredth birthday in 2019.

The DMCG Community Project for 2015 was selected to take place at the Dogwood Village of Orange County. Members donated and planted a tree in the village garden to honor Virginia Mason, then a current resident, and a past president of DMGC. The project was a multifaceted event involving the residents who made edible bird ornaments for the newly planted tree. DMGC celebrated members Delane Porter and Carla Passarello, who received an Honorable Mention for Trillium grandiflorum in the GCA’s  2016 Montine McDaniel Freeman Medal recognizing North American native plants.

The club’s conservation, horticulture and flower design committees presented Colston Burrell to the community speaking on “Can A Garden Have Everything?” This event, co-sponsored by James Madison’s Montpelier and Virginia National Bank, was an excellent example of the community working together to provide educational and informative material for the public.

Member DeLane Porter was presented with the GCV’s Horticulture Award of Merit. Mary Queitzsch published “Flowers of Historic Garden Week” to be sold on Amazon and at events with photographs of the arrangements for the 2017 tour. In 2017, Ada Harvey, centennial committee chairman, met with community project chairmen to outline criteria for the club’s centennial project. The centennial committee announced the Honorable Helen Marie Taylor, DMGC emeritus member, as the honorary chair. Taylor Park was bequeathed to the Town of Orange, in part, by Helen Marie Taylor and her husband Jack in the 1970s. Under Gail Babnew’s leadership, the park was archived as a public garden by the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Gardens.

For the years 2018 to 2019, the focus was on the preparation for DMGC’s centennial celebration. In 2019, DMGC hosted the Centennial Garden Tour as part of Historic Garden Week. The homes and gardens featured in the centennial tour were all related to early members. At Taylor Park in Orange, DMGC held a 100-year celebration ceremony. Many members, politicians — including U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, seventh district congressional Rep. Abigail Spanberger, State Sen. Bryce Reeves, and Del. Nick Freitas — GCA President Dede Petri, GCV President Jean Gilpin, and the Smithsonian Gardens Manager of Collections and Education, Cynthia Brown, attended as VIPs. During the celebration DMGC held a ribbon cutting and dedication of a new Taylor Park lotus flower sculpture fountain. The centennial celebration continued during the year with a DMGC-sponsored Summer Concert Series in Taylor Park, and a Community Zinnia Show. The centennial celebration was a spectacular success thanks to Ada Harvey, chairman, and members Suzanne Aiello, Anne Cantrell, Joanna Davies, Jacque Johnson, Mary Queitzsch, Normie Sanford, Mary Lew Sponski and Annie Vanderwarker.

In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic hit. DMCG’s planned fundraising event, “Dueling Arrangers,” to feature designers David Pippen and Tom May challenging one another for the top spot, was canceled. HGW in Orange County, “Salute 100 years of the GCV,” was also canceled, but DMCG organizers, in conjunction with Orange County Tourism and the Orange County Review were able to provide a “virtual” garden tour of the properties that would have been featured on the Orange County tour.

Several DMGC members wrote gardening articles for the Orange County Review, a local newspaper. Carla Passarello, president, Suzanne Aiello and Gail Babnew wrote about many interesting and informative gardening subjects that helped all of us during the pandemic.

Club meetings were conducted via Zoom with great success. DMGC held the first virtual, and judged, flower show put on by any GCA or GCV club. The show was chaired by DMGC lily committee members Mary Queitzsch, Jacque Johnson, DeLane Porter and Mary Zocchi, and connected not only DMGC members, but also members from across the state. This event was rewarding and fun during this time of isolation and inspired GCA and GCV to pursue virtual, judged shows.

The club closed out 2020 with a great sense of survival and thankfulness that all DMGC members stayed healthy and were able to move forward by the brilliance of our leaders and by the willingness of members to find ways to move ahead by using technology.

DMGC Presidents 1995-2021

1995-1997	Molly Barrow
1997-1999	Mary McConnell
1999-2001	Jean Ince
2001-2003	Bernice Walker
2003-2005	Marge Grills
2005-2007	Jane Henley
2007-2009	Page Sullenberger
2009-2011	Suzanne Aiello
2011-2013	DeLane Porter
2013-2015	Mary Beth Wells
2015-2017	Gail Babnew
2017-2019	Annie Vanderwarker
2019-2021	Carla Passarello