A Century of Growth

For 100 years, the Garden Club of Sanford has been helping plants as well as friendships take root.

Organized in 1926, the club became a member of the Florida Federation of Garden Clubs the following year and incorporated as a nonprofit in 1947.

Over the decades, generations of members have gathered to learn, share, serve their community, and of course, talk plants. Today, the club remains remarkably active, with 121 members and a calendar centered on what president Greg Kolojeski cheerfully describes as “plants, plants, and more plants!”

Most months, members meet on the third Sunday for a speaker, plant sale, raffles, show-and-tell, a silent auction, and refreshments. Twice a year, in April and August, the focus shifts to large plant sales featuring offerings grown by dozens of members.

You’ve Got a Friend

“Plant people are the friendliest people in the world,” says Greg, who joined the club in 2013 after attending one of those April sales. “I have developed a number of close friendships since I joined the club.”

Greg discovered gardening relatively late in life, but it quickly became a passion. Today, his Winter Springs home has been transformed into what he calls a jungle, with no grass and a landscape filled with tropical and native plants.

The club itself has changed just as dramatically. For much of its history, members also belonged to smaller, specialized groups within the larger club, known as Circles. Each circle – or club within a club – focused on particular gardening interests and activities, with groups devoted to everything from bromeliads to native and flowering plants.

Members have also supported organizations including the Wekiva Youth Camp, local 4-H programs, and the Central Florida Zoo & Botanical Gardens, where club volunteers planted many of the bromeliads still seen by visitors today.

Branching Out

The club’s educational mission remains broad. Its bylaws call for furthering knowledge of gardening, horticulture, landscape design, conservation of natural resources, and civic beautification. Meetings are open to the public. The Sanford Garden Club also works with other local plant organizations, including the Cuplet Fern chapter of the Florida Native Plant Society, which participates in its plant sales and helps give shoppers access to native species as well as tropical favorites.

Membership in the Garden Club of Sanford was strongest in the 1950s and 1960s, when many women had more time for club activities. By the late 1980s and 1990s, membership had begun to decline. That was when longtime member Frances G. “Fran” Morton saw a way forward.

Fran, who has since passed away, served several terms as club president. She encouraged the traditionally female club to welcome men and believed local plant societies could bring new members and new energy into the organization. In the mid-’90s, she began encouraging the Seminole Bromeliad & Tropical Plant Society to become one of the Sanford Garden Club’s specialized groups.

Paula White, Fran’s niece and another longtime club member, recalls being in attendance when the Seminole Bromeliad Society voted to join the Sanford Garden Club.

“It is a testament to my favorite aunt’s vision that this club – an important part of Sanford and its history – continues,” says Paula, who moved to Sanford in 1994 and joined the club the following year.

Fran’s commitment extended well beyond membership. When the clubhouse needed a new roof, she helped spearhead a fundraising effort that included fish fries, barbecues, bingo and bridge parties, fashion shows, and luncheons. She remained active in the organization into her 90s.

A Nurturing Home

The clubhouse itself has also been central to the organization’s survival. Ground was broken in 1964 for the $55,000 building on land donated by Sanford businessman J. Brailey Odham, who also contributed $5,000 to the organization. The club later paid off the mortgage.

“Having a physical home owned by the club has been critical to its success and continuing viability,” says Greg. “Most garden clubs do not own their own building, and many have faded away since the heyday of garden clubs in the 1950s.”

The mid-century building is not only home to plant lovers. It is also rented for weddings, showers, birthday and graduation parties, meetings, and other gatherings. Paula has seen families return across generations to celebrate their special occasions.

“Many Sanford and Seminole County residents have not only had weddings and receptions at the club,” she says, “but their children have grown up and continued the tradition.”

A century after its founding, the Sanford Garden Club still combines education, community, and friendship while welcoming experienced gardeners and newcomers alike.

For Paula, that continuity is the real legacy.

“The Garden Club of Sanford stands as a testament to all those wonderful women and men who love gardening and plants and our natural environment,” she says.

For more information, please visit SanfordGardenClub.com.