PhD: Women's Garden Groups & Society

My PhD in horticulture topic is, THE EFFECTS OF WOMEN'S GARDEN GROUPS UPON SOCIETY: NORTH AMERICA 1770-2009.

Philanthropic arms of art & education with social networking. They bind communities. Informing the larger group of crime, deaths, births, illnesses, divorce, marriage, and etc. while making sure weeds, garbage, flowers and more are taken care of.

Impromptu matchmakers in love, career, pets, interior decorators, books, neighborhoods, vacation locations, garden designers, doctors, car, make-up, hairstylists, houses, friends, and more.

Below, I spoke at the Tuckahoe Woman's Club in Richmond, VA this week.

Women with a mission. Arts & education.

They know meetings are about expert speakers not the minutia of topics best left to a board meeting. AND FOOD.

Food. I can never resist the real action. In the kitchen. Their talk & activities are a book. How they use language, their accents, topics, laughter, hushed tones, gossip.

I look forward to the foods chosen, their silver and china.

Over 20 years of Garden Club Food have spoiled me into expecting silver & china. At all neighborhood price points.

And homemade cheese straws, below, are often on the menu.

Nuts in a crystal bowl with a silver spoon. Overkill? Perhaps, but I do enjoy the love behind it.

And their decorating. Colors, art, comfort & attention to detail. The unspoken saying so much.

Below, the tables always set up to check you in, sell a raffle ticket or other type of fund raiser.

Tuckahoe Woman's Club had something extra, the pianist.

Impromptu table, below, for my books. I learned while being the NBC-TV local garden expert to always bring props.

And their sweet marketing, below.

Tuckahoe Woman's Club has their own garden, below. Proving they're Cool Chicks, empty pots.

Pink dogwood, below, beginning to unfurl.

Visiting a private garden after the lecture, below, Mrs. Estes loves the classics

and is a serious plantswoman, the fragrant yellow magnolia, below.

The template of speaker, food, meeting kindred spirits, matchmaking, appreciating interior decorating and table settings, and touring a garden have been part of women's garden groups for decades. Seeing & understanding how communities are bound into civilization vs. chaos.

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Learning how to be a plant society board member & president. How to choose speakers, get the money in, how to spend it as a non-profit aligning tightly with the group's mission statement. Putting together a newsletter, marketing, garden tour and attracting volunteers.

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Wondering why companies aren't approaching these groups to market their services and products?

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Oh, sugars, I'm not getting that PhD at the present time. Too busy living it.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara