"Don't be afraid of making a mistake because you learn by your mistakes." — Helen DeLago

Linda Grunow

I'm delighted to be talking with Helen DeLago today. Helen has been a member of the Garden Club of Old Greenwich since 1990, and she has so many great memories to share. Helen, what was your interest in flowers or gardening before you joined the garden club?

Helen DeLago

My parents always had a garden, vegetables, fruit trees, and a flower garden. My mother loved flowers! My father really had a green thumb and did a lot of interesting things with his garden. He would save the largest tomato and remove the seeds, dry them out in the winter, put them in cheesecloth, and then put them in water to revive them. And then he planted them in the little hotbed that he had, and he'd have hundreds of tomato plants. My mother always had a garden, and it was during the depression when all my other sisters were born. I remember her going into the garden and moving the snow and taking out a celery plant or a cabbage plant. We always had flowers in the house. And that's what I like, flowers. I still love flowers!

Linda

That's wonderful. We all forget those years of the depression and how much people depended on their gardens. Now what are your early memories of projects or activities soon after you became a member?

Helen

I was sponsored by Pat Jackson and Nancy Standard, who were very, very active members at the time. I think Pat probably was president at the time. That was the year of the three hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the founding of Greenwich. Pat thought maybe we should do something to show the garden club in the big parade in downtown Greenwich. And we talked about what we're going to do, and then I said, you know, how about having some kind of a float? We thought it was a great idea, so I contacted Fred Durante’s construction business, and he loaned us a flatbed truck. He put it in my driveway for three days. Then we got to thinking about what to put on the float? Well, the first thing to do is show ladies having a meeting or tea. And so we put sod on the flatbed truck and put wicker furniture and decided we'd have the ladies sitting there with their hats on having afternoon tea. And then we thought, well, we must do something more for gardens than just flowers and tea. So we decided, between the three of us, Nancy, Pat and I, that we would have some type of a victory garden and have planters with vegetables growing on the flatbed truck, and the ladies in their green garden club shirts, and hats and trowels in their hands. We had a huge sign, The Garden Club of Old Greenwich, and that's what we did. Those were fun days!

Linda

I think I remember that parade. Fabulous! Now this is a difficult question. What have you most enjoyed about being a member? That's a tough one.

Helen

I think the most enjoyable thing was meeting new members and the friendships I’ve made and the camaraderie. I enjoyed the enthusiasm of the members who would do a design and take pride in it, and the girls with the horticulture would try to bring their best horticulture to be displayed and judged. And I think it was contagious. It would make you want to do your best.

LindaWhat types of GCOG involvement have you participated in in recent years?

Helen

Well, I love to compete, especially in horticulture. It makes me want to grow the biggest and the best to show. I've also loved design, but I might not have the patience it requires as some of the girls do. I just felt my designs were never good enough. So I kind of stayed away from design and went totally with horticulture. But the enthusiasm of the girls always gave me lots of encouragement to do better and more.

Linda

With that last answer, I think this next question is an easy one for you. What advice would you offer to a new member?

Helen

I'd say get involved! Don't be afraid of making a mistake because you learn by your mistakes. And the other members are very good about making corrections for you. Watch others and learn by what they're doing. But don't always try to follow - make your own designs too.

Linda

Do you have any suggestions for future garden club projects?

Helen

I remember one time that I really enjoyed. We were going to do Christmas arrangements. It was a class that was part of the meeting, and someone from another garden club was showing us different possible designs. We had all the material right in front of us, and members were following what she was doing to show the right way and the wrong way. And it was so amazing how many of us - maybe thirty - were all trying to make the same design, but we were all a little bit different. Hands-on learning. Classes like that one are really special. And I think the other thing I'll suggest is having field trips, especially going to people's gardens to see what they've done. Going on trips to places like New York Botanical Garden on a trip and with a group of people is always a fun thing to do!

Linda

Thank you so much for taking the time to sit with me and reflect on your time in the GCOG and look to the future too. Thanks so much, Helen

"No matter your expertise, you are welcome. We all learn from each other and have a good time together." — Charlotte Wolter

Linda Grunow

I’m delighted to talk with Charlotte Wolter today. Charlotte joined the Garden Club of Old Greenwich in 1994. She now lives in New York, but she was a very  very active member for many years. Charlotte, were you always interested in gardening? 

Charlotte Wolter

My friends in college and graduate school could always tell that I had a paper due because I would be fussing with the plants on my windowsill instead of sitting at the typewriter (olden days before the computer!). Then in our first apartment in New York I tried to grow tomatoes on our windowsill, to no avail.  Finally, after moving to OG I had a real garden to work with, but it wasn't until I joined the garden club that I learned how to garden properly.

Linda

What were the first garden club projects or activities that interested you?

Charlotte

To my surprise and joy the beautiful and unique floral designs at the monthly meetings were what stole my attention. I took all the workshops and flower show schools and Barbara Burgess and Louise Weber became my patient mentors. Making unusual designs every month, trying to fit the parameters of the different ones, was playtime for me.  I must confess I shopped for flowers instead growing them, and we made group forays to a recycle yard for unusual containers and props.

Linda

I’ve heard about the Vulcan Scrap Yard! That does sound like playtime! Over the years, what did you enjoy most about being a member?

Charlotte

Of course the friendships made working on shared projects is the most enjoyable part of being a member of the Garden Club of Old Greenwich. Serving on committees, helping at our flower shows and going to others, and visiting gardens together - these are fond memories.

Linda

What advice would you offer to someone just joining today?

Charlotte

My advice to new members is to jump right into several committees that interest you, because no matter your expertise, you are welcome. We all learn from each other and have a good time together. 

Linda 

Do you have any suggestions for our Garden Club of the future?

Charlotte

In recent years, I have been unable to participate in club activities, so I really appreciated the Zoom meetings forced by the pandemic.  If there were some way to Zoom our monthly meetings, that would be wonderful.  

Linda

That’s such an interesting suggestion to make our meetings more inclusive. Thanks so much, Charlotte, for taking the time to reminisce and look ahead a bit with us today.

"It's a rowdy group of ladies that have a lot of fun and do a lot of work while having a lot of fun. It should be fun, and it is." — Ros Brady

Linda Grunow

This is Linda Grunow, and I'm looking forward to talking with Ros Brady, who has been a member of the Garden Club since 1991. I don't think she's had anything but busy days ever since she joined! What was your interest in flowers or gardening before you joined? What brought you to GCOG?

Ros Brady

I grew up in the desert in Tucson, Arizona, so I got a taste of desert life, I suppose. And then I went to camp in Kent, Connecticut from the age of seven to fifteen. After I was married and living in Old Greenwich, my 12 year-old daughter started growing tomatoes, and I got very interested in vegetable gardening. And from there, my interest sort of took off. Suzanne Harris invited me to join the garden club, and I thought, yes, I could probably do this. I could fit this in. I’d given up nursing to have kids and was doing some school substitute work, so I had some free time. I was sort of a slacky beginning garden club member. I thought, well, this is really nice, but I don't know what I'm doing here! I would be playing tennis and late to meetings and so forth and so on, but people seemed to be friendly and outgoing and welcoming me.

Linda

What are your early memories of projects or activities soon after you became a member?

Ros

I think my first project was working with Louise Weber, who took me into work on the Historical Society garden, which was an herb garden. She was a bit intimidating because she knew so much! I was like a sponge, and we'd go over there every week and tend the garden and suddenly I got really into gardening. And then I was on the board for some time. I started out doing publicity, and we also redid the handbook. We formed a committee, and there was a lot of discussion and changes in format! I’ve run the plant sale and been very involved in the Butterfly Garden at the Point. Lots of other projects too!

I brought you one of my earliest memories of the Garden Club, the Trees and Treasure book that was done in 1975 by Mary Jane Nicholson. I never met her, but this booklet is amazing. She surveyed all the memorable trees in Old Greenwich and then put this booklet together.

It was a very small print booklet, but then somebody had the foresight to enlarge this into a print you can read. The people listening to this interview can't see this, but its hundreds and hundreds of trees. She even put in how to identify some of these trees. So it’s quite interesting, and I'm happy to show this to anyone at any time who would like to see it.

Anyhow, those are the kind of things this group did. And I just remember many, many of the people who are gone now. Pat Jackson was always good fun to be around. She would bring all kinds of toys to the meeting and show us how to crank them up and make them fly or make them sing. Could they weed? That would have been helpful!

Linda

Those are wonderful memories - and the Trees and Treasure booklet is awesome. What have you most enjoyed about being a member?

Ros

It's the people, of course. It's a rowdy group of ladies that have a lot of fun and do a lot of work while having a lot of fun. It should be fun, and it is.

Barbara Burgess was a fun president and a good friend. I think she's the one who got me interested in becoming a Master Gardener. This is Cooperative Extension program from the University of Connecticut, and there are eight programs that go on across the state.

These programs were put together in the 1930s to train people to go out and teach the public. You didn't just go to classes and learn, but the expectation was that you would share your knowledge. And so I took the horticulture class with Lisa Beebe at the Garden Education Center in 2004 and decided that the next year, I would do the Master Gardener program at the Bartlett Arboretum in Stamford. It's a wonderful facility to practice all the gardening that you’ve learned.

The program goes on for a full day every Monday in March, April, and May. And then you put together a workbook which includes many of the native plants of Connecticut. You identify them, and describe their cultural practices and insect problems. Other Master Gardeners help you put this together. And the other thing you have to do is an outreach project. I think I combined mine with vegetable gardening at the Historical Society along with some various other small projects. Then there is a three-hour exam at the end. The summer after you graduate, you do a plant clinic. People bring material to the clinic and you help the answer questions about their plants, possible diseases, and what their cultural practices should be. I think this fits very well with my nursing practice. I moved from people to plants! The Master Gardener program is a lot like going to college. You learn so much, and it's such a great community of people. It’s like the garden club in that way, with everybody learning together and willing to share their knowledge with everybody else.

Linda

I think I know part of the answer to this question, but I want you to fill in what types of garden club involvement you enjoyed in more recent years?

Ros

Well, Linda, you know this because Jan Linskey and I took over the Butterfly Garden at Tod’s. The town turned over the Butterfly Garden to us long ago, and Tommy Bulger and Lynn Davenport worked on this project for years. We love maintaining it and meeting with members every week to weed and work.

I’ve run the plant sale several times - a big undertaking. It was especially difficult during the pandemic years. In 2020, we didn't know what to do, and then we thought we would just sell a few plants. Maybe online? And then it morphed into well, let's just have a very small plant sale, and then it morphed into being given the entire Civic Center! I think that was the biggest plant sale we ever held - and made the most money!

Linda

What advice would you offer to a new member?

Ros

I'd say just get involved. The new members that I've recommended, they got right involved. The temptation is always there to do things yourself. I say, “no”. This is supposed to be a cooperative effort. Sometimes doing it yourself is easier, but part of the fun is learning to work together.

I think people who join the garden club are people who want to participate. I'd say just go for something that interests you. There's something for everyone.

Linda

So now, Ros, with all your experience, do you have any suggestions for a future project that's sitting in the back of your head that you would love us to undertake?

Ros

I think, generally, it goes under the umbrella of climate change. I think that our efforts ought to go into getting ourselves a little more involved with the town in terms of conservation, maybe through the Conservation Committee of the Garden Club. We could start attending some meetings, holding discussions. We could advocate for things locally. For example, the new Civic Center. We wrote our priorities - we wanted to see environmentally friendly building products such as a green roof and no petroleum products. Now we see that there is no green roof and I don't think there are any solar panels. So I think we need to get a little more involved in the politics of the town and advocate for environmental issues. We could also branch out and include other garden clubs. I think we can be quite an influence, just like the ladies of this club who advocated for the road under the railroad bridge in Old Greenwich to become a two-way road. I think that was during Helen Binney Kitchell’s time. They also got all the store signs in Old Greenwich to be black and white only. Other towns have programs for people to sign off on pesticides in their lawn. And there is a map of pesticide-free lawns posted in the library. So everyone can see the green homes and who's doing what to whom. I think that's another project we could do. All this and just general education as well. I don't see people outdoors enough. You know, I just think that we have to make it more fun for everybody to plant something. If you start planting something, you might want to plant something else! That's what I’m for!

Linda

Thank you so much, Ros, for sharing not only your memories but also your vision of the future. Thanks for all you've done.