2025-26 Year-in-Review Highlights

What a year for Fort Lauderdale Garden Club! Guided by our theme, Inform, Educate, and Inspire, we hosted six General Membership Meetings and 12 circle programs featuring topics like Moon Gardens, Edible Gardens, Petite Floral Design, Orchids for the Backyard Gardener, The Tree Canopy, and even Bats & Our Endangered Neighbor. Members also rolled up their sleeves for three workshops (Totally Teacups, Food Styling from the Garden and a Holiday Floral Design Workshop), explored on three field trips (The Kampong, the Florida Everglades, and the Spanish Monastery), and celebrated together at four holiday parties. Our Tinsel and Topiary party featured a Chico’s fashion show at Jacaranda Country Club. Fundraising flourished as well, led by our biennial Secret Garden Tour featuring six homes, plus ongoing Plants for a Purpose.

Our mission showed up powerfully in service: we continued Shade House propagation in support of Hugh Taylor Birch Park and our plant sales, our Youth Gardening with two Broward County elementary school partners and supported our BFF middle/high school group seven meetings including 3 service projects. Youth Gardeners participated in NGC Youth Flower Shows (2 elementary & 1 Middle & High School)— two Poetry awards and two Sculpture awards were awarded by FFGC!

Through Community Outreach & Reinvestment, we awarded $1,000 grants to seven Broward County schools for Learning Gardens and sponsored 42 students for Wekiva Youth Camp plus three for SEEK.

We were awarded by FFGC the Blue Diamond Certificate for 95 years with FFGC, the Arbor Day Celebration Award for Moringa’s Celebration Garden, two Youth Poetry awards, two Youth Sculpture awards, and the 120 Flower Show Focal Area Award for the Moulin Rouge focal point at last year’s Movies with Rhythm Flower Show.

This year also brought important transitions: for 2025–26 we moved our General Meetings to the George English Park Recreation Center (from Birch’s Glenn F. Bates Garden Center) and will be meeting at Sanctuary Church for the 2026–27; our BFF meetings and elementary field trip visits also transitioned from the garden center to the Elks Youth Camp at Birch. We paused to honor members we lost—L. Thomas Chancey, Jesse Durko, Sue Kreusser, and Sally O’Laughlin—and welcomed 20 new members as we moved from 124 to 117 total members. Thank you for being part of a club that continues to grow and give each season.

Sincerely,
Michelle Di Maria
President, 2025–2026