By Coral Gables Gazette staff

When the Coral Gables Garden Club was organized in 1925, George Merrick’s mother Althea and his wife Eunice were among its founding members, with Eunice later serving as the club’s second president. The city they helped shape was barely a year old. More than a century later, the organization they helped establish is still planting trees, funding scholarships, restoring habitats, and helping shape the civic landscape of the city that grew up around it.

The club marked that continuity recently with its 101st installation luncheon at the Coral Reef Yacht Club in Coconut Grove, where outgoing President Bonnie Seipp formally handed the gavel to Barbara Reese, a member of more than 20 years who will lead the organization through the 2026-27 season.

A year of civic work

The season ending under Seipp’s leadership reflected the club’s continued evolution from a traditional horticultural society into a civic organization with broad environmental and educational reach.

Its environmental restoration work remained especially visible at Camp Mahachee, where club members joined volunteers from several organizations to plant another 2,500 trees, bringing the total planted at the historic Girl Scout camp to 5,500 since 2022. The club also contributed to the camp’s Plant It Forward campaign to support additional native tree planting and habitat restoration.

The club’s cultural preservation efforts extended to the Coral Gables Public Library, where members unveiled a centennial sculpture by artist Xavier Cortado and placed historical exhibition boards documenting the organization’s century of service into the Miami-Dade Public Library’s digital collections — preserving a historical record that stretches back to the city’s earliest years.

Its annual fundraiser, the fourth Fashions and Florals event, themed A Nightfall in the Garden and featuring designer Julian Chang, raised more than $50,000 through a silent auction.

Garden Club members also participated in the city’s Arbor Day observance, delivering three speeches and joining in the planting of five Dade County pine trees at Fewell Park at Granada Boulevard and Coral Way.

The season closed with statewide recognition for former club president Susan Rodriguez, who received the Florida Federation of Garden Clubs’ Blanche Capel Covington Leadership Award, one of the federation’s highest honors.

“I am deeply grateful to our 2025-2026 Executive Board for their commitment, friendship, and tireless efforts in helping our Garden Club continue to grow, flourish, and plant new seeds for the future,” Seipp said during the installation ceremony. “Together, we have cultivated not only meaningful projects, but lasting friendships and a shared legacy of service to our community.”

New leadership and the year ahead

Reese assumes the presidency with an agenda focused on extending the club’s environmental work through new partnerships and public-facing initiatives.

Among the group’s priorities for the coming year are the Coral Gables Micro-Forest Project Canopy, developed in partnership with the city; the refurbishment of the Butterfly Garden at the Coral Gables Public Library; and expanded educational programming at Camp Mahachee to support the Girl Scout badge program.

The club will also participate as citizen scientists in Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden’s Million Balcony Project, adding a research dimension to its longstanding relationship with one of Coral Gables’ signature botanical institutions.

“It is an honor and a privilege to follow in the footsteps of our illustrious past presidents,” Reese said. “I look forward to working with our new board fulfilling our mission and moving forward with our main initiatives of the Micro Forest and Camp Mahachee as well as seeing the Butterfly Garden becoming a reality.”

The incoming executive board includes Jo Wanda Peterson, Denise Glasser, Alexis Ehrenhaft, Liz Parnes, Jo Anne Matthews, Gail Pinon and Sandy Milledge.

A century of civic stewardship

The Coral Gables Garden Club remains a nonprofit organization dedicated to education in gardening, horticulture, environmental issues, civic beautification and floral design.

Its members have helped shape the city’s green infrastructure for more than a century, from the earliest beautification efforts of Merrick’s Coral Gables to the urban forestry initiatives now taking root across the city.

In Coral Gables, where history often survives through architecture and streetscapes, the Garden Club offers another form of continuity — the quieter persistence of civic stewardship, renewed each season by the people willing to plant for a future they may never fully see.