Milton Garden Club celebrates 25th anniversary
Members of the Milton Garden Club gathered at the fire hall Oct. 22 to celebrate the club’s silver anniversary and look forward to continuing the mission of making Milton beautiful through flowers.
The 25th anniversary celebration was short but sweet, as Kathryn Greig, chair of the club’s anniversary committee, ran through the history of the club and its future plans.
The garden club was started by Jane Clark in 1998. Clark had the dream of putting the town on the map with flowers. The first garden, known as the Founders Garden, was planted in Milton Memorial Park. Since those modest beginnings, the club has gone on to plant numerous gardens around town, host the annual Holly Fest and Milton Garden Tour, and start a scholarship to support college students wishing to study agriculture.
“I think if Jane Clark walked in here today, she would pass out. I don’t think in her wildest dreams she would think the club has grown like it has,” Greig said.
Greig said the original Founders Garden, located just after the footbridge leading into the park, was known as the Anchor Garden because it had a little anchor in it. That anchor was later moved and the garden was renamed. The next garden, Greig said, was around the old gazebo in the park that was filled with iris. A new garden was put into place later after the gazebo was rebuilt. The club’s third garden was planted near the train station in the park.
From there, Greig said, the garden club added box planters on the Union Street bridge, which have largely remained the same for many years, and at the intersection of Union and Federal streets, which Greig said was the hardest for the club to maintain because trucks sometimes run over it.
The club also maintains gardens along the Governor’s Walk behind Bodie’s Convenience Store and around the small clock tower at the Magnolia Street parking lot.
While the club is mainly populated by women, Greig singled out a number of men who helped the club along the way, starting with former town council members Charlie Fleetwood and Emory West, who have both since died. In recognition of their help to the club, Fleetwood’s widow, Barbara, was presented with mums as a gift of appreciation.
Also singled out was now-Mayor John Collier, who Greig said first approached to help after Greig spoke at a town council meeting.
Collier said he’s been proud to help the garden club over the years.
“I am more than pleased with the work of the garden club,” Collier said. “This is not about me but about the garden club, and what a wonderful organization they are and their contribution to the town of Milton.”
For its 20th anniversary in 2018, the club donated two metal sculptures for the park. This year, the club will be planting a 25th anniversary garden along the brick walkway in the park. It will comprise 78 mums that will be in place for a year. After a year, the mums will be available to the general public and replaced with tulips, Greig said.
In wrapping up the celebration, Greig said there’s never a time she’s been working at the gardens or the planters when people haven’t had have compliments or said thank you.
“We don’t really do it for all the thank yous, but everyone likes to be appreciated,” she said. “Remember, it is better to garden than it is to clean.”
