The Garden Club of Buzzards Bay:
A Historical Summary

Mission Statement

The mission of the Garden Club of Buzzards Bay (GCBB) is to stimulate the knowledge and love of gardening through education in development of gardens, their design, management and culture and to restore, improve and protect the environment through education, programs and activities in the field of conservation, horticulture and civic improvement.

Early Years

The GCBB was founded in 1930, with twenty-nine members, five of whom were men.  We were admitted to the Garden Club of America (GCA) in 1935, having been proposed by the Cohasset GC, and the Chestnut Hill GC. The early years were spent entering Boston Flower Shows, sponsoring Bill Board Law defense work, decorating window boxes for town buildings, hosting meetings and flower shows in private homes.

Tree Projects

The first major civic improvement project was planting sixty Japanese Cherry trees on Buttonwood Pond in 1931. Other major tree projects through the years have included the planting of twenty seven trees along Elm Street, South Dartmouth in 1974, and the planting and nurturing of one hundred and twenty disease resistant Liberty Elm seedlings which were donated to the City of New Bedford for installation around the city between the years of 1993-96. Raising funds for the spraying and planting of the new elm trees continued until 2005.

Greenhouse/Plant Sale

Our greenhouse activities began in 1953, when members were able to indulge their interest in propagation, working in the greenhouses of several of the GCBB members. In 1982 we were able to greatly expand that interest with an opportunity to fund and restore an abandoned greenhouse on the property of the Rotch-Jones-Duff House and Garden Museum (RJD) in New Bedford. Currently, the greenhouse is the backbone of our primary fundraiser, the Annual Plant Sale in May. Revenue supports community projects, including the grants program.

Boxwood

The club began its long history of nurturing and propagating boxwood after Mary Plowden-Wardlaw and Sue Underwood took a propagation course at the Arnold Arboretum in 1954. In 1961 club members took cuttings of 14 varieties from Mary’s mother’s home in Quissett, MA and grew them in several private greenhouses and gardens in Nonquitt. The collection, under the direction of Edie Knowles, was moved to the RJD from 1986 to 1993, where 46 varieties now flourish. Over the years, cuttings from the boxwood plants have been shared with clubs and private owners throughout the country. Boxwood shrubs are also sold each year at our plant sale.

Woodland Walk/GCA Founder’s Fund

In 1985 the GCA awarded the GCBB its Founder’s Fund for a proposal to restore a wild flower walk around the perimeter of the RJD property and use it as a base for a botany program for New Bedford area fourth grade students. Each May, when the wildflowers are in bloom, students and their teachers take part in the classes and the walks guided by our members. Annual student attendance has risen to five hundred. Through the years this area has developed into a four-seasons garden and has been renamed the Woodland Walk

Collaborative Projects

Because of our love and knowledge of gardening various collaborations have evolved with other New Bedford area groups. In the late seventies we assisted the New Bedford Whaling Museum in designing, planting and maintaining a garden on the south side of their property. More recently, in 2006-09, we joined the Buttonwood Zoo in creating a stream garden (using only indigenous plantings) and a butterfly garden for their visitors to enjoy. In 2009 the New Bedford Historical Society engaged us to design and plant a cook’s garden, including an espaliered pear tree, for the historic home of Nathan and Polly Johnson.

Rotch-Jones-Duff House and Garden Museum

The relationship with the RJD has flourished with the renovation of the greenhouse on its property, the restoration of the Woodland Garden, the planting of the Boxwood Garden, and the design of the Civic Perennial Garden. It continues today as we work together to plan and plant a small orchard reflecting a historical connection to the 1880 era of the landscape. The collaboration combines a recommendation to the RJD from the Olmsted Center for Landscape Preservation for this installation, and the GCA challenge to our club to participate in the 2013 Centennial Tree Project in a significant way.

Publications

Garden publications produced by the garden club include:

  • Brave Houses and Flowery Gardens of Old New Bedford 1976
  • A Wild Flower Walk Coloring Book 1984
  • Culinary Cultivars 1990
  • Boxwood Booklet 1992
  • Wild Flowers at The Rotch Jones Duff House 2008
  • Buttonwood Brook Plants-A visitor’s Guide 2009
  • Nathan & Polly Johnson House Booklet