The Garden Club of the Middle Peninsula

March 21, 2022

gardenclubofthemiddlepeninsula.com

The information that follows is primarily from a history prepared by Grace Phelps Rhinesmith and Marty Taylor with addenda by Laura Anne Brooks.

In the Beginning

In 1993-94, Judy Boyd and Cora Sue Spruill envisioned creating a local garden club. They opened membership to four counties — Essex, King William, King and Queen and Middlesex – an area 70 miles long and 30 miles wide with a total population of approximately 40,000 residents. They invited six more women to assist them in founding the club — two founders from each of the four counties.

GCV President Helen Murphy, a member of The Garden Club of the Northern Neck, provided needed guidance with the help of Sara Ann Lindsey, a member of The Hunting Creek Garden Club of Alexandria and a resident of Essex County.

Forty-one active and eleven associate members were invited to become charter members of The Garden Club of the Middle Peninsula and, at a meeting on June 16, 1996, at St. Paul’s Church in Essex County, they met and elected officers. Using their many and varied talents, they successfully developed a model for the future: educational meetings with exhibits of horticulture specimens and artistic arrangements; community engagement; house tours; conservation, preservation and beautification projects; and legislative action. The club was off to a great start!

GCMP was committed to GCV and its events — Historic Garden Week, restoration projects, educational programs, flower shows, symposia, and horticulture field day.

Bette Albert created a needlepoint square with the club’s logo designed by Ann Chenoweth — one of 47 squares created by member clubs in the Kent-Valentine House.

Eager to participate and learn, the club set the stage in 1998-1999 for what was to follow in the next 25 years.

• Created arrangements for the Antiques and Art Show at St. Margaret’s School
• Decorated a member’s horse and carriage for the Maymont Victorian Carriage Day and received ribbons for “Best in Show” and “Best Floral Design.”
• Entered an InterClub arrangement in the GCV Rose Show and received an honorable mention. (A member won an individual blue ribbon in both the Rose and Daffodil Shows.)
• Provided funds to restore a window at historic St. John’s Church in King William County
• Awarded scholarships to Nature Camp
• Hosted a conservation forum at Middlesex High School in Saluda, open to the public. Well-known national, state, and local speakers promoted awareness of conservation issues facing citizens in the Middle Peninsula, the Northern Neck, and surrounding areas, and encouraged “backyard” conservation for individuals.
• Raised funds selling Christmas wreaths and tickets to a demonstration by the altar guild of the Washington National Cathedral.
• Provided programs at club meetings to enrich members’ understanding of exhibiting (tablescapes and Ikebana designs), and the environment (Ecology of the Rappahannock River, Fear of Cutting Trees)
• Debuted the annual yearbook that included club organization and leadership, member contact information, the annual calendar including major GCV events, and the bylaws.

Historic Garden Week

GCMP Historic Garden Week house tours have been memorable and have won raves from visitors. The first HGW tour hosted by GCMP, in 1999, was located in Essex County and featured five historic homes and a Colonial church. Advised to expect 2000 visitors, more than 3000 showed up. The tour generated a record-breaking revenue of $54,000 — more than any previous single tour. That afternoon, when one of the husbands deposited $34,000 cash in the local bank, it was considered “a suspicious transaction.” Betty Evans never forgot making lemonade for the unexpected crowds on that very hot day, using barrels and a garden hose. Tickets ran out and scraps of paper were used. The sheriff’s department will not forget the tour either, as they tried to control traffic and sent a puzzled driver heading for Virginia Beach down a long dirt driveway to one of the tour houses.

That first tour set the bar high, but each subsequent tour has had its own special characteristics and successes. The club has honored the spouses who have assisted with HGW: Ned von Walter was the club’s first artist for the local HGW brochure; all house tours have had spouses as traffic facilitators and pasture parking attendants; and Byran Childress dressed the part to park the “horses” at historic Chelsea Plantation.

GCMP tours are rotated through the counties with an emphasis on historic houses and churches. Year after year, visitors have noted the quality, beauty, and freshness of each experience.

Out of those early beginnings ….

GCMP has met at churches, at museums, in gardens, in private homes, and on the rivers. Members have learned botanical names, conditioning and exhibiting horticulture specimens, and artistic designs. Participation in GCV events is intricately woven into the club’s calendar. Members have learned how to influence proposed legislative actions that may impact their community. They contribute articles to newspapers, magazines, and journals. Learning opportunities are provided during meetings by notable speakers and by GCMP members, covering informative topics such as artistic arranging, designing gardens, container gardening, building habitats, and preparing garden soils; as well as how to exhibit horticulture specimens and artistic arrangements, create artistic designs, and effectively use the mechanics of artistic arranging.

Making a Difference

GCMP partners with The Garden Club of the Northern Neck to host an annual conservation forum each fall on a rotating host club basis. Forums are open to the public at no charge and call attention to current environmental and conservation topics and issues. Distinguished speakers have addressed topics such as: The Chesapeake Bay, Federal and Local Perspective, Preserving our Marshes; Planned Growth for Better Communities; Rural Landscape Preservation; Pesticides: Your Health and Food; and Solar Farms Pros and Cons.

GCMP was instrumental in Historic Byway designation for Highway 17 in Essex County and Highway 14 in King and Queen County.

The club has funded scholarships to Nature Camp (natural history and environmental science education for students and teachers); Ruby Lee Norris Teachers on the Bay (Chesapeake Bay Foundation marine ecology classes); and an academic scholarship for students pursuing a course of study in college consistent with the club’s mission statement. Local teachers sponsored by the club to Nature Camp have returned bubbling with enthusiasm. Likewise, student campers have surprised even themselves with their delight in such studies as limnology, herpetology, and ornithology, regaling club members with their experiences.

The club maintains membership in the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, the Nature Conservancy, Scenic Virginia, the Mattaponi-Pamunkey Rivers Association, Friends of the Rappahannock, Virginia Conservation Network, Essex County Conservation Alliance, and Friends of Dragon Run. The club follows GCV legislative positions each year and sends members to participate in Legislative Day, at times including local teachers and students as guests. Taking high school students as guests to Legislative Day has proven to be particularly rewarding, as they are always engaged and thrilled to be part of these important processes.

The club has provided financial support to local community projects: landscaping the Essex County Library, the King and Queen Courthouse Tavern Museum, the Middlesex County Museum, and the West Point Historical Society Museum; tree planting at each of the club’s four county courthouses; plantings at Lewis Puller Park in Middlesex; erecting street signs in the historic district of Tappahannock; building the launch site for the Mount Landing Creek Interpretive Water Trail at the Hutchinson site in Essex County, and restoration of King William County’s historic wall, clerk’s office and jail at the King William Court House complex; the community conservation forum; the canoe launch on Mount Landing Creek, Rappahannock Wildlife Refuge; gardens at King and Queen County Central High School, King and Queen Elementary School, Essex Middle School, and Essex High School; and St. Claire Walker Middle School “Hands On Conservation Project.”

GCMP presents plaques each year to recognize neighborhoods, businesses, civic organizations, institutions, and individual actions in conservation, preservation, and beautification of the community. Plaques have been presented for the preservation of historic buildings, leadership in environmental education, creation of local museums, leadership of environmental organizations, and creation of wildlife and marine habitat.

Raising Funds

Successful fundraisers have added monies to the club’s treasury for outreach projects: a Gay Mont Afternoon, sale of Christmas wreaths, notecards created by members, umbrellas, and pocket calendars of HGW flower photos.

Most notable fundraisers were the two very successful, “Designing Women: Inside, Outside, and In My Lady’s Chamber” events featuring nationally and internationally recognized speakers, workshops, vendors, and a luncheon-fashion show. Visitors came from over a hundred miles away. The profitable first “Designing Women” concluded as Hurricane Isabel’s rain bands approached, flooding the venue. Members still tell stories about water to their calves, floating furniture, and shrinking clothes. More recent fundraisers have included a silent auction, sales of oyster shell Christmas ornaments, and decorations made by members at the Urbanna Oyster Festival, as well as sales of booth space at the club’s 2019 HGW tour marketplace.

To celebrate its 25-year anniversary, the club published the cookbook, Food and Flowers: Favorites of the Garden Club of the Middle Peninsula, with favorite recipes from members and photographs of floral arrangements at HGW tours. The committee spent hours at a local diner, the Central Garage Restaurant (named after its location), with locals often chiming in with opinions ranging from the type of book cover to the recipes. The forward notes, “GCMP has balanced hard work and civic giving with hearty laughter and wonderful camaraderie …. has nourished both the community and each other.” Years later, it still reaps sales on the GCV website.

Garden Club of Virginia

In 2006-2007, GCMP hosted the GCV 68th and 69th Rose Shows, “River Reflections,” co-chaired  by Anne Bland and Lexi Byers at Christ Church School in Middlesex.

2006 Rose Show Schedule and Awards

2006 Rose Show Photos

2007 Rose Show Schedule and Awards

2007 Rose Show Photos

In 2017, GCMP hosted the GCV 75th annual Lily Show, “Let’s Celebrate with Lilies,” co-chaired by Betty Anne (Boo) Garrett and Biddie Shelor at Essex High School in Tappahannock — the final GCV flower show that required member club hosting and participation. Public attendance was one of the highest of the shows.

 

2017 Lily Show Photos

With The Garden Club of the Northern Neck and The Rappahannock Valley Garden Club, GCMP shares hosting responsibility for a tri-club meeting every other year that includes a visit from the president of the Garden Club of Virginia.

Club teams and individual members have won numerous ribbons at GCV Flower Show horticulture and artistic exhibits. Laura Anne Brooks has continued her tradition of bringing home ribbons and silver, including several best-in-show in horticulture and tri-color in artistic. The club has exhibited multiple times in Fine Arts & Flowers at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and attended the event programs and luncheon. A group of members attended the GCV Centennial “Back to Nature” and Conservation Forum at Natural Bridge.

Members have served in GCV leadership positions: Director at Large, Conservation Committee, Journal Editorial Board, Bessie Bocock Carter Conservation Award Committee, Rose Committee, Lily Committee, and Conservation Awards Committee, and as the GCV Daffodil Day Chairman. Members have written articles for the Journal, and Gwynn Litchfield’s watercolor “Gardner’s Choice” appeared on the Journal cover in 2013, and her Oriental lily in 2017, in honor of the Lily Show hosted by GCMP.

Club Member Recognition

Every two years at its biennial meeting, GCMP presents awards to members. The Horticulture Award is for the most points received for exhibiting horticulture specimens at meetings, and the President’s Award is for the most points received for exhibiting artistic arrangements at membership meetings. In 2016, two perpetual awards were given to the club, each in memory of a past member. They are awarded at the biennial meeting: one for outstanding leadership and service honors Grace Warren Rowell Phelps Rhinesmith, and one for exemplification of the spirit and mission of GCMP honors Ruth Ellen Edwards Hurley.

Celebrating Friendships

Members have established firm bonds of friendship with ladies of similar interests whom they might not have met otherwise, particularly due to the large geographical area covered by the club. GCMP is a working club, but members like to play as well — Christmas parties, HGW after-tour parties, river parties, “pop-up” parties, and garden parties. Members have taken club trips to the Philadelphia Flower Show; to private gardens in Wilmington, Delaware: and to the WAFA World Flower Show in Boston. Club meetings have included day trips to the winery and vineyards at Barboursville, historic Montpelier, Mount Vernon, Virginia State Arboretum, Old Blandford Church, Lee Park and more.

The club has celebrated its anniversaries; most recently its 2019 Silver Anniversary, held at historic “Windsor Shades,” the home of Lynn Fischer on the Pamunkey River. Two primary founders, Judy Boyd and Cora Sue Spruill, who took the first seeds of a garden club and nourished them to maturity, entertained members. Attendees enjoyed a scrolling slideshow and a lunch under the shade trees by the river. Adele Smith distributed a compilation of member anecdotes titled “25 Years of Good Times: Ladies Laugh at Themselves.”

2020

In 2020, with the advent of COVID-19, GCMP went virtual. President Anne Glubiak dubbed a new committee, the Coronial Committee (a takeoff on the Colonial and historic nature of the club’s four counties and the Coronavirus), which organized a quick pivot and made sure the wheels of the club kept turning. In addition to ZOOM meetings, the website and newsletter became our communication tools through articles and photos. A biennial awards year, recipients received their awards in Laura Anne Brooks’ beautiful gardens, complete with a tour through the woods, but no audience. Board members divvied up the membership roster and called all members, generating much appreciated conversations. It was also the time in which the board transitioned to a new board. It so happened that the outgoing president, Anne Glubiak, and incoming president, Bette Albert, lived across from each other, each at the end of a half-mile long drive. They set up their chairs at the end of their drives and “passed the gavel.”

GCMP looks forward to continuing activities that will promote the welfare of its rivers and this garden spot its members call home.

GCMP Presidents 1996-2020

1996-1998	Cora Sue Spruill
1998-2000	Helen Hopper
2000-2002	Marilyn South
2002-2004	Laura Anne Brooks
2004-2006	Anne Ryland
2006-2008	Ruth Childress
2008-2010	Betty Jo Butler
2010-2012	Grace Rhinesmith
2012-2014	Cean Cawthorn
2014-2016	Anne Bland
2016-2018	Adele Smith
2018-2020	Anne Glubiak