MAPLEWOOD, NJ — Celebrating 90 years in existence and 80 years of their now legendary plant sale, the Maplewood Garden Club continues to be a staple organization in the community, laying claim to both a unique membership base and a commitment to the enhancement of Maplewood.
In 1927, two progressive Maplewood women, Miss Mildred Ock and Mrs. E. Stuart Mills, joined together to sponsor the new club, uniting a women’s club and a civic association to become one entity. The founders had a specific goal in mind though: They wanted to create a gardening club that was not only open to men, but also met at a time that would allow their husbands to attend the meetings.
“Their goal was to get the men in the Maplewood community involved at a time when the new Mid-Direct train line meant that the town was growing rapidly,” longtime Maplewood Garden Club Member Laura Nial said in a recent phone interview. “Most garden club meetings at that time were held during the day and only attended by women.”
From the outset, meetings were held the first Monday evening of each month from September through May and featured speakers on various aspects of garden life — such as propagation, growing plants from seed, perennials, shrubs, trees, birds, etc. — as well as artistic design and horticultural exhibits.
In keeping with the mission of having men involved in the organization, the first president of the MGC was Lewis Morley, who served in that role from 1931 to 1932. In fact, this garden club continues to earn its reputation among New Jersey garden clubs as the “husbands and wives” club. A list of its past presidents shows a generous mix of men and women, as well as a number of husbands and wives who, separately, have held this office.
“My husband David and I are both former presidents of the club, and at least three other couples have both done that, so we have that distinction in the state,” Nial said.
The Maplewood Garden Club is a 501(c)(3) corporation, and a member of the Garden Club of New Jersey and National Garden Clubs. It currently has approximately 180 members and has been led by 53 presidents — 31 women and 22 men.
The club also has had the distinction of winning the Garden Club of the Year Award twice in its history, in 1993 and 1999, from the Garden Club of New Jersey.
The Maplewood Garden Club sponsors a plethora of educational programs, activities and events throughout the year for the community, including: the 1979 development continued maintenance of the Durand-Hedden House Herb Garden; the creation of a Rain Garden in 2012 at Hilton Library, and adding a Monet-style bridge in 2013; and donating various ornamental trees to the township, including ginkgos in Maplewood Village, disease-resistant elms, bald cypress, yellow magnolia and tricolored beech.
Scholarships are awarded annually to Columbia High School and Rutgers University students studying in the fields of horticulture, environmental studies or related areas.
The MGC also decorates the Maplewood Train Station for the holiday season with wreaths and swags created by club members and a holiday tree with decorations made by club members, and participates annually by decorating a mini-conservatory using all natural plant material in Dickens Village.
All these activities are funded by the club’s only fundraiser, its wildly popular plant sale, held every year the Thursday, Friday and Saturday before Mother’s Day at the Maplewood Community Pool. Plants are grown from seeds, cuttings, division and bare-root. Wholesale orders and member-grown items are also added to the options. Customers come from around the state for their annuals, perennials, vegetables, herbs, trees, shrubs and container plants.
The MGC’s plant sale has become so well-known that its members have begun holding “potting parties” during the first two weekends of March, when they sign up to take turns bringing the plants into the Maplewood Township Greenhouse, where they are placed in a special mixture of soil and covered to keep warm and continue growing until the plant sale in May.
“We have had some good weather and some bad weather with the plant sale. One year the tent company that we rent from did not send tents and it was raining sideways, but our customers still came out,” Nial said. “Usually we have 100 people in line before we open on Thursday and it’s a great bonding experience, great experience to meet new people in the community, get some great plants and support some good causes.”
Nial and her husband, David, have been members of the Maplewood Garden Club since moving to Maplewood in 1987 after attending a “Welcome to Maplewood” event, hearing about the club and the opportunity — open exclusively to Maplewood residents — to rent 3 feet of space inside the township’s greenhouse.
“My husband is a keen gardener now, and when he became a homeowner he became more interested,” she said. “And the chance to grow whatever you wanted in the greenhouse was so good that we couldn’t pass it up, so we got involved with the club. After our second year, we were asked to be hospitality chairs and that’s how we became involved with the board.”
For Nial, the three major contributions the Maplewood Garden Club has made to the community are the donation of the municipal greenhouse; the development and maintenance of the Durand-Hedden Herb Garden; and the rain garden at the Hilton Branch Library.
Donated to the township by MGC in 1974, the greenhouse contains 160 benches, which are rented to Maplewood residents from October through May. A Garden Club crew oversees the greenhouse operations and the MGC pays for the ongoing maintenance. Volunteers maintain the watering system, keep soil and compost supplies filled, and are often on hand for advice when the greenhouse is open.
The Durand-Hedden Herb Garden was designed and installed by the MGC in 1979 as a formal garden to complement and enhance the historic Durand-Hedden House. This award-winning garden contains one of the largest collections of herb species on the East Coast. The garden is often used to demonstrate the propagation and cultivation of herbs and their use for culinary, medicinal, fragrance, ornamental and craft purposes.
Supported by a $10,000 grant from the New Jersey American Water Company, and with the assistance of the Maplewood Engineering and Public Works departments, members of the club designed, constructed and planted a 1,200-square-foot rain garden adjacent to the Hilton Branch Library. The garden is able to capture approximately 200,000 gallons of stormwater runoff from the library’s roof and parking lot, redirecting it to the Arthur Kill Watershed. It also provides an expanded habitat for local pollinators seeking the native species of plant material that were selected for inclusion. The Hilton Rain Garden is the largest in New Jersey.
Photos Courtesy of Laura Nial
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