Garden Club celebrates 85th anniversary

By Kathryn Rice

The Maryville Garden Club is celebrating its 85th anniversary and has been instrumental in beautifying Maryville during those decades.

One of the things the club does is hold two annual plant sales to spread local plants through the community. The next sale is the Iris and Day Lily Sale from 7 to 11 am, Saturday, August 20 at the Nodaway County Senior Center, 1210 East First Street, Maryville. Then the next sale will be in the spring.

The Maryville Garden Club, Northwest District, is a member of the Federated Garden Clubs of Missouri, Inc. It received a certificate of merit from the National Garden Clubs, Inc.

The club has 37 members with each gardener being different and diverse in their interests.

Current projects of the garden club include a flower show held at the First Christian Church, Maryville, every other year during the Nodaway County Fair. The flower show competition has judges from the Missouri Federated Garden Club officiating. At the flower show, the horticultural categories have to be out of the presenters’ gardens. Arrangements can have other elements added to it.

The club undertakes the upkeep of the Mabel Perkins Memorial Garden at Lincoln and Main streets, Maryville.

Evolution of this project started in 1937 when a gas station was built on the site in the shape of a giant gas pump. It was the first electric gas pump in Maryville. The gas station was closed in 1978. 1980 saw the building placed on the National Register of Historic Places. In 1981, the city bought the land and the building was moved in 1982. It is now in King City.

1984 saw the Maryville City Council create a project beauty spot and decided to fill the two islands at the intersection with soil instead of concrete. At this time, the Maryville Garden Club assumed the care and planted three ash trees in one of the islands.

Highlights of 1987, include Mabel Perkins was president of the garden club for seven years, an accredited National Master Flower judge, project leader in charge of planting trees in Judah Park, historical marker and Eugene Field Elementary School, a state life and national life member, Northwest district director and state convention chairman.

Perkins requested that a statue of St. Francis of Assisi be moved from Mount Alverno Convent which was closing and be placed in the project beauty spot. She died of a massive stroke in March. The statue was unveiled as a city garden in May. At the ceremony the garden was named the Mabel Perkins Memorial Garden in honor of the many contributions she had made to Maryville gardening.

Since then many perennials have been added to the garden. Burning bushes and spirea have been planted. It is the goal of the garden club to have something blooming at all times during the growing season.

The gardeners also plant flower beds at Judah Park. In the past, the club has planted trees in the city parks.

The garden club was instrumental, along with the Nodaway Chapter of DAR, in erecting the white marble tree stump currently residing in the lobby of the Nodaway County Administration Center. At the 2010 dedication of the facility, the club gave the history of the marble stump which commemorates the white elm tree under which the first Nodaway County court met on April 7, 1845 on property owned by Colonel Isaac N. Prather, eight miles south of Maryville. Prather had brought the elm tree from Kentucky in 1841.

Clinton L. Allen Monuments donated the marble statue in the 1940s. The original elm died in 1962. It was decided the monument would be placed on the east side of the courthouse under a seedling from the original elm. The monument was moved to the Nodaway County Administration Center when the seedling died.

To celebrate its 85th anniversary, Co-chairs Joann Espey and Billie Mackey put together an informational booth during the 2022 Nodaway County Fair showcasing the club’s activities including the upkeep of the Mable Perkins Memorial on South Main Street and Judah Park and also included historical information.

The amateur gardeners meet at 6:30 pm, the first Tuesday of March through December at the First Christian Church. During the summer, the club tours members’ gardens. The meetings are educational and members are friendly and welcoming, Mackey said.  For more information, contact President Martha Moldaver at 660.254.9658.