The Garden Club of Irvington-on-Hudson is one of 200 member clubs of The Garden Club of America, a 100-year-old national volunteer organization with approximately 18,000 individual members around the country. GCA’s mission is to stimulate the knowledge and love of gardening, hold educational conferences, and improve and protect the environment through programs and action in the fields of conservation and civic improvement.
Members enjoy a full schedule of meetings, workshops, flower shows, and civic and fundraising projects right here in the Rivertowns. Our field trips take us to public gardens and nurseries all around the New York tri-state area.
We invite you to browse through our activities:
Many of us volunteer at local sites including Greenburgh Nature Center (above), Wave Hill, Untermyer Gardens, and Lyndhurst, where we propagate seeds and plants for flower shows, plant exchanges, and hold a public Plant Sale and Garden Fair held on the Saturday before Mother’s Day. Most years, more than 200 community members come to the Plant Sale to enjoy themselves and buy healthy, reasonably priced annuals and perennials grown by club members. Another principal project has been the Rose Garden at Lyndhurst, where club members work, teach and learn. Our fundraising projects include an annual Holly Days event in December at which wreaths and other decorations by club members are auctioned. Funds we raise help support local organizations including Friends of the Old Croton Aqueduct, The Garden Conservancy, Greenburgh Nature Center, Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, Irvington Land Trust, the O’Hara Nature Center, and Untermyer Gardens.
Work in the Rose Garden went on—safely—throughout the pandemic.
In past years, the entire community was invited to a festive Rose Day event in early June, with live music and refreshments.
Our members designed and have maintained the Rip Van Winkle Garden just below Main Street School. The life-size bronze of Rip was sculpted by Richard Masloski.
Another significant long-term project — our role in the Garden Club of America’s Centennial Tree Project — was identifying and labeling the trees in Irvington’s Scenic Hudson Park with handsome signs with botanical and common names.
We enjoy field trips to botanical gardens, and have visited Battery Park Gardens (above), the Bartlett Arboretum, The High Line, and Old Westbury Gardens.
Garden Club members are occasionally given access to exquisite private gardens, such as this one at a home in Bedford.
We have held two successful GCA flower shows, “The Gilded Cage” in 2010 and “On The Sunny Side of The Hudson” in 2016. Our members consistently win awards in horticulture and flower arranging classes at other GCA Zone III and National shows.
Former member Rev. Richard McKeon with his “best of show” ribbons at the 2010 Zone III Meeting in East Hampton, NY.
Fall through spring, we enjoy monthly Tuesday morning presentations and lectures by local and national horticulture experts. Here, popular “garden guru” Kent Russell speaks at the Irvington Public Library about border design with variegated plants. These presentations are free and open to the public. Please check the Home Page for dates and times of upcoming events.
Our members are active in local and national affairs, especially concerning environmental issues, conservation, and historic preservation. Above, Club President Anne Myers (in red jacket), who is also the Garden Club of America Historian, speaks at the 2010 GCA National Meeting in New Brunswick, NJ.
And we always enjoy each others’ company and have a lot of fun.
Interested in learning more? To meet us and learn more about our club, you are invited to attend one of our upcoming public lectures or programs.
Please subscribe to our site and visit often for gardening tips for this area and announcements of upcoming events.
THE GARDEN CLUB OF AMERICA