It's true that there are, yes, real garden clubs where serious-minded men and women sit around discussing
black spot and the latest trend in
hybrid tea roses. They're said to florish in
England and in various
upper-class communities along the various
Gold Coasts, and I haven't much experience with them. Then, there are the others.
Women's garden clubs, and their ilk, were a feature of American life from the Thirties on through mid-century -- patterned after the reading groups and Bible societies of the Victorian era, they existed only tangentially to talk about gardens and gardening. The rest of their time and meetings tended to be split between consuming coffee and sweets, planning and holding Ladies' Lunches, Bridge parties, and fund-raising, mangling parlimentary procedure, gossip, and sniping at each other. Nonetheless, garden clubs managed to be a major force in the conservation movement, a percursor of today's environmentalism, provided support and a social outlet to stay-at-home housewives, and aided many public beautification efforts.