Growing Together
Behind the Columbia home of Karen Blackmore, a gallery sits on display. The pieces are impeccably kept, each marked with a detailed metal marker. On the marker, specifics such as formal name and hybridizer, if known, offer background and guide expectations for viewers of the hand-selected pieces. As curator of this backyard garden, Blackmore reinvents her gallery annually; she fills the confines of her space with as much or as little color and style variety as she sees fit. Last year’s exhibit was marked by an abundance of daylilies and irises, though she’s never met a plant she didn’t like.
“As the daylilies open, I think, ‘Oh gosh, that’s my favorite,’” said Blackmore, president of the Columbia Garden Club. “Right now, my very favorite is named Julia’s Love. It was hybridized by one of our local members, Julia Semon.”
Blackmore joined the Columbia Garden Club in 2006 after retiring in 2004 from State Farm, where she worked for 37 years. In addition to her work with the garden club, Blackmore is also a master gardener and member of the Central Missouri Hemerocallis Society and the Show Me Iris Society. She attributes her love of gardening to her early upbringing. “I was raised on a farm in Arkansas, and I had a mother who was, by necessity, a gardener,” Blackmore said. “I’m not a vegetable gardener. I have a few onions, tomato plants, pepper plants, eggplant and rhubarb, but what I really like is flowers. My mother really liked flowers, too; I can’t imagine that I wouldn’t.”
Like many of the members of the Columbia Garden Club, Blackmore’s home garden serves as the perfect place to work on her hobby; it’s also ideal for experimenting with new techniques. Not uncommon among mid-Missouri gardeners, Blackmore is in a constant battle with the deer that mistake her flower beds for food. Although garden club members don’t typically garden together, they do swap tips for addressing problems and offer expertise. “A few of our members have been garden club members since the mid-1950s,” Blackmore said. “There’s a lot of knowledge there.”
Historical roots
Organized July 21, 1919, and federated May 19, 1934, the Columbia Garden Club celebrated 90 years in summer 2009. The club operates under the objective: “To stimulate knowledge and love of gardening; to encourage civic plantings and beautification; to aid in the protection and conservation of all natural resources, forests, wildflowers, birds, water quality, etc.”
The club began with a group of women who wanted to beautify the city, Blackmore said. Back in 1919, few women worked outside the home; a gardening club not only offered them a chance to learn more about gardening, but it also provided the opportunity to improve the way certain places in Columbia looked.
Since then, the make up of the group has expanded to include women and men from all different walks of life, though that founding principal of beautification through civic plantings remains an integral part of the club’s mission. The garden club continues to serve the community by caring for some of the flower beds at the Bluffs Nursing Home and taking flowers monthly to the Wyatt Guest House at Ellis Fischel Cancer Center and Daniel Boone Regional Library. The club also gives a yearly scholarship to one high-school student, selected from a group of applicants with an interest in pursuing horticulture.
Another group project is an after-school program at Russell Boulevard Elementary School, a junior garden club appropriately deemed the Russell Sprouts. After the regular Columbia Garden Club meeting, members go to the elementary school and hold a meeting with the junior club. Together, they do a variety of projects such as planting seeds, planting outside and working on garden-related arts and crafts.
Growing new membership
At its peak, the Columbia Garden Club boasted 132 members; membership as of May 2010 stood at 67. “There’s no reason Columbia should only have 67 people in the garden club; we should have many more active members,” Blackmore said. Current membership stands at 62, according to the group’s website.
One explanation for the lower membership could be the meeting time. The club is still largely made up of individuals who do not work outside the home, many of whom are retired, so the monthly meeting reflects that flexibility of schedules. The group meets at 1 p.m. the second Monday of every month, except July and August. “We have a member looking into starting an evening club,” Blackmore said. “Several people have expressed an interested in joining but can’t attend our club because they work during the day.”
Programs at the meetings cover topics of interest to gardeners such as harmful and beneficial insects or selecting and planting trees. At the upcoming June meeting, members and their guests will have the opportunity to tour some of the members’ gardens. Blackmore’s garden has previously been included on the tour. “Our annual member garden tour is held in June, so lots of things are blooming, and it really is very nice,” she says.
Planting for the future
The Columbia Garden Club will hold its Annual Plant Sale, the group’s only fundraiser of the year, on April 30 at Trinity Presbyterian Church. Club members will sell countless blooms of all shapes and sizes, most donated from their own gardens, with proceeds from the sale used to pursue its next projects.
When asked what tips she has for new gardeners, Blackmore sat back and smiled. “I think gardening is just like anything else,” she said. “A good photographer takes a lot of pictures and keeps the good ones. A gardener does much the same. There’s a lot of trial and error involved. I plant a lot of different plants, and if they don’t do well, I plant something else in their spot. That’s just how it works for me.”
The Columbia Garden Club meets at 1 p.m. the second Monday of each month (except July and August) at Trinity Presbyterian Church, 1600 W. Rollins Road. For more information about the club or how to become a member, contact Karen Blackmore at [email protected] or (573) 442-1873.
(This story originally appeared in the June/July 2010 issue of Columbia Home.)