A message from Yvonne Nilles, President Federated Garden Clubs of Iowa

“FGCI: Come Grow with Us”

Wow – it is still hard to believe that the time for me to assume the duties as your State President has finally arrived!  It seems that almost daily, I discover yet another new task or responsibility that this office has in store for me.  My pile of papers and to-do list is ever growing…

So it seems to be no coincidence then that “Come Grow with Us” is the motto I have chosen for my two-year term in office.   But other than a growing stack of papers and forms, I also hope to grow (and to help you grow) in many ways.  By using the 3-E’s as our goals - to Encourage, Educate and Evaluate, we can all work together and grow together in many various areas.

For example; Growth in club membership; Growth in our knowledge of horticulture and skills in design; and Growth in number of the many new gardening friends we make along the way.  (I won’t even mention the type of growth due to all those delicious refreshments provided at our garden club meetings!)

For our state project, to “Go Green” and to keep funds local, I have selected “Adopt a Nursing Home”.  We all know someone in a care facility, whether a family member or former a garden club member, and every county in Iowa has several homes.  These folks are an underserved population, and most have background of growing, whether through a farming connection or raising a victory garden to preserve food for their families.

I then encourage each of Iowa’s 60 Federated Garden Clubs to hold a workshop, schedule a meeting, or even a flower show at a local nursing home and invite the residents and their families to attend.  Work with the local Activity Director to come up with some fun horticulture therapy projects to involve youth – for generations gardening together.

As you may know, the rose is both our national and state flower, as well as our FGCI logo, thus I have selected the rose for our state plant initiative.  Please take the time to educate yourself and/or help others to learn the culture and care of roses.  One can never have enough roses – so whether it’s your first rose or your twenty-fifth - plant a bush or two more and enjoy the roses you have grown yourself.  Watch the faces of others light up when you share your roses - that is where the true reward lies!

Speaking of home-grown flowers, one of my goals is to promote the use of garden flowers in design.  Protea and Strelitzia have their place – but as garden clubs first started as a way to share gardening information, the use of home-grown garden flowers in design was an extension of that.  So let’s go back to our “roots” and try to utilize more Iowa grown plant materials in our floral designs.

Are you ready?  Let’s spread our roots and grow!

Yvonne