Bethlehem Garden Club
P.O. Box 1183
Bethlehem, PA 18106-1183
About Us
Since 1931, the Bethlehem Garden Club has been actively improving the Southeastern Pennsylvania environment—both indoors and outdoors. Men and women join the Bethlehem Garden Club to learn many aspects of gardening, and they willing share their experiences.We also encourage civic planting to beautify Bethlehem’s tomorrow.The protection of native plants and wildlife is a major objective.
We currently have about 170 members—the second largest club in PA. We are members of National Garden Clubs, Inc., and the Garden Club Federation of Pennsylvnia.
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We meet on the third Thursday of the month at Advent Moravian Church, 3730 Jacksonville Rd., Bethlehem PA 18017—that’s in Hanover Township. Our annual dues are $20 (Members 80 Yrs. & Older pay - $15). DUES have just been REDUCED: cut in half for the Recession.
In addition to fascinating speakers at our monthly meetings, we have a wide variety of educational and social activities. We have workshops and classes in Design and Horticulture—and tournaments in both. We also teach Oriental Flower Arranging. We maintain two large civic gardens in Bethlehem, and decorate the two branches of the Bethlehem Area Public Library for the holidays. Some members also decorate the Kemerer Museum of Decorative Arts, Historic Bethlehem Partnership.
Want to join a busy club? Click here.
Bethlehem Garden Club History
78 years of Service to our city
In Bethlehem, in the mid-1880s, a horticultural association held its first floral exhibit, thus beginning a long history of displays of fine plants, cut flowers and floral designs. Fifty years later, in May of l930, the Bethlehem Garden Club was organized. A year later, the Club became a charter member of the Garden Club Federation of Pennsylvania, and assumed the dedication to become deeply involved in community beautification, conservation, volunteer services, and philanthropic projects.
Through the decades that followed, it has made its mark on dozens of projects that have brought honor and beauty to the city and its surroundings. In 1938 the Club adopted the Star of Bethlehem as the Club flower.
In the l940s a Junior Garden Club was initiated, and the Club was invited to provide hostesses for the Philadelphia Flower Show. During World War II, the Club planted Victory gardens and trees to honor servicemen, and raised funds for mobile kitchens for the Red Cross.
The Club first entered an exhibit the Philadelphia Flower Show in March, 1952. In 1956, the Club became a charter member of the National Council of State Garden clubs.
In 1970 the Club awarded a friendship citation to Yoshnga Sakon, landscape architect from Japan, who designed the Garden of Serenity that now lies next to the Bethlehem Public Library. By 1979 the Garden had fallen into disrepair, and members volunteered to restore it to its original glory. The Club has continued to maintain the Garden, and over the years has twice restored and redesigned it following major acts of vandalism. In 2006, the Garden won the Suburban Greening Award, of the PA Historical Society.
In 1983, the Club designed and planted—and continues to maintain--an 1870s-period garden near the Miller’s House in Historic Bethlehem. For this work, the Club received the Garden Club Federation of Pennsylvania’s Preservation of Beauty Award in 1990. In addition, the Miller’s House garden as featured in The Herb Quarterly in 1995, and in 1996, Garden Design presented the Club with its Golden Trowel Award.
The Governor’s Trophy was awarded to the Club for the first time in l958 in recognition of the Club’s performance and exceptional achievements. That Trophy was awarded the Club again in l962, l966, l970, l979, and l995.
The Club continues to participate actively in the community by stimulating the love of gardening by amateurs promoting the art of flower arranging through exhibition and study; aiding in the protection of native trees, plants, and birds; and generating interest in enhancing the community environment through conservation and recycling. 8/18/09
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