by Patti Connor
Staff Writer
Back in 1922 when she was hosting intimate gatherings in the living room of her home on Riverside Avenue — now the Cummer Museum of Arts & Gardens — for a handful of neighborhood ladies who shared an interest in horticulture, Nina Cummer undoubtedly had little inkling that the Garden Club of Jacksonville would blossom into the biggest garden club in the country.
As word spread and membership continued to grow, members, lacking a permanent home base, were relegated to what was available, including a primitive structure with canvas sides and a sawdust floor where they actually managed to hold a couple of flower shows.
For several years, they operated in the Jacksonville Women’s Club, before moving into Cohen Brothers department store in the St. James Building, which is now City Hall. After building a clubroom in 1950, the club moved into its current location at the corner of Riverside Avenue and Post Street.
With its enchanting gardens and picturesque setting on the banks of the St. Johns River, the clubhouse is the site of functions both numerous and varied.
Said Virginia Kirby, the club’s president, who moved to Jacksonville 24 years ago from Atlanta: “Almost every weekend someone gets married here. We also have business events, debutante parties and fashion shows. Just last week, someone called wanting to do a Marine ceremony.”
The club now boasts a membership of 1,452. The city’s sheer geographic scope dictated that it be divided into neighborhood circles, of which there currently are 57.
“They’re very much involved with reaching out to the community. In fact, a lot of the HabiJax of Jacksonville homes were planted by our circles,” said Kirby. “We also planted several raised beds at the I. M. Sulzbacher Center. We go in the late afternoons, so the kids there can come out and help us.”
Although membership is supposedly by invitation only, “As long as you show an interest, there’s a circle you’ll fit into, either by membership or personality. Some, of course, are so big they won’t take any more people. And a few are so old that they won’t let anyone else in — basically, six old ladies who meet and eat,” she said.
Kirby has been involved with the club for about 10 years.
“I first became interested when a woman I played golf with, who was a member, asked me to go to one of the meetings with her. The moment I met [then-president], Delia McGehee, I fell in love with her. I thought she was just such a class act. Her husband Tom was very generous. He would say things like, ‘Those curtains are a little frayed; why not buy some new ones?’ He did a lot for the club.”
They no longer have flower shows, per se; instead, to raise money they host periodic home and garden tours within the community.
“We like to find four or five [homeowners] who are willing to let us come in and arrange flowers for tours that are open to the public at a cost. It’s been a huge drawing card for people to be able to come in and see the homes,” said Kirby.
Like anyone who has ever been fortunate enough to witness first-hand the beauty of an Atlanta spring, Kirby admits to missing one of that area’s staples: the pink and white dogwoods that proliferate, especially in April and May.
“When I first moved here, I asked someone why you didn’t see more dogwoods. From what I was told, the problem is that parts of Jacksonville are so low, and they don’t like to get their feet wet,” she said.
Of course, Jacksonville does boast its own share of beautiful flowering plants.
“We do get day lilies, here,” said Kirby. “And, of course, we have azaleas like crazy. As a matter of fact, one of our guest speakers in 1923 was from Charleston, and he came and spoke to the club about azaleas in the South. He’s actually credited with bringing a lot them into the area. And we have bougainvillea, which seems to do pretty well, although, if it gets too cold, they’ll freeze.”
Does she possess a green thumb?
“We put in a Florida-type yard that’s pretty much drought resistant,” said Kirby, who lives in Ortega, “so mostly, I pull weeds.”
If it’s true that women’s clubs, nationwide, are fast becoming a thing of the past, Kirby attributes that largely to a lack of household help, coupled with the fact that more and more women today are working.
“Back when I was coming up, just about everyone had help at least one day a week. And people work, now. So for a lot of people, there just isn’t the time anymore,” she said.