OCTOBER
October 6 Judges club – Columbia
October 6 CGC Membership Meeting
October 12-26 SC State Fair

NOVEMBER
November 7-9 Landscape Design School – Charleston
November 14 CGC Membership Meeting
November 27 GCSC/CGC State Christmas Tree and Governor’s Carolighting at State House

DECEMBER
December 2        CGC Janie Dent Memorial Arbor Day Project
December 2        Arbor Day – South Carolina
December 2         Christmas Tea at the Governor’s Mansion

JANUARY
January 6        CGC Board Meeting
January 12        CGC Membership Meeting
January 26        GCSC Board of Directors Meeting – Headquarters

FEBRUARY
February 2    Scholarship applications Due to GCSC – Scholarship Chairman
February 3        CGC Board Meeting
February 10        CGC Membership Meeting

MARCH
March 1        SC Judges Club – Columbia
March 2         CGC Board Meeting
March 8        CGC Membership Meeting
March 21        West Sandhills District Meeting – Lexington

APRIL
April 13        CGC Membership Meeting
April 14        Youth Symposium – Riverbanks Zoo and Gardens
April 26        GCSC Board of Directors Meeting – Headquarters
April 27        GCSC State Meeting – Columbia

MAY
May 3-4        Judges Club, Symposium – Columbia
May 4            CGC Membership Meeting – May Luncheon
May 8-9        Bus Tour to Athens, GA
Mary 18-19        NGC Convention – Buffalo, NY

The American Boxwood Society
Ted Mays, boxwood grower and horticulturer announces that The American Boxwood Society Annual Symposium is being held in Charleston, SC – March 25 – 27th. It is both a fun and educational event (they are partnering with the Charleston Horticultural Society for the private garden tours) and they have some great speakers.

—————————————————————————————-Follow The Blooms
South Carolina’s gardens are legendary in their loveliness and long have attracted visitors and residents to glory in their beauty. Our Founding Mothers appreciated this fact. Lucy B. Pomeroy, our Second GCSC President, established the “Visiting Gardens List”, enabling members and visitors to view gardens throughout the state, capitalizing on peak periods of blooms. We return to Lucy B’s example, following the blooms from the southernmost sections to the upper reaches of the state, opening garden gates to visitors.

Commencing this spring, the Follow the Blooms Tour, a continuing project, will couple the efforts of our statewide organization with clubs and councils, functioning not only to raise funds, provide beneficial opportunities to engage local clubs with other GCSC members, but also to increase statewide and regional awareness of our work.

What a marvelous method for clubs and councils to raise funds! Tourists flock to South Carolina, savoring the beauty of our gardens, while residents visit new and long-favored garden spaces. Follow the Blooms Tour allows us to capitalize not only on one of our greatest assets, our members, but also our garden treasures.

Join the fun! Follow The BloomsTM and visit a glorious variety of gardens throughout small-town South Carolina over four weekends. This very special tour is about more than just azaleas and daffodils, though you’ll see plenty of them. Each garden, handcrafted by its owner, teaches a lesson. You’ll learn how to grow your own vegetables, design prettier boarders, and create outdoor rooms worth coming home to. Explore historic properties, contemporary landscapes, horticultural sculpture, and spaces never before open to the public.

Tour Schedule

Saturday, March 24 Holly Hill, Santee, and Allendale
Our tour kicks off in Madame President’s own county. Start in Holly Hill and get ready to be inspired by these can-do landscapes. Order your box lunch to refuel before heading to Allendale, where you’ll stroll the grounds of McKenzie, a Pink Garden, and have the opportunity to buy fresh produce from a community garden.

Sunday, April 1 Hilton Head Plantation
Looking for an excuse to head to Hilton Head? Now you have one: Don’t miss these three crowd-pleasing gardens. A bonus: Your ticket also gets you into the Hilton Head Plantation Flower Show and then take notes from a National award-winning school garden.

Saturday, April 14 Conway
History buffs, this ones for you! We’ve skipped Easter weekend, but the wait will be well worth it! Stroll through four historic downtown gardens and then catch two others just a short drive away.

Friday, April 20 Lake City and Bishopville
How’s he do that? Let Pearl Fryar tell you in person as you tour his awe-inspiring topiary garden. Work up an appetite and then join us 45 minutes down the road at the amazing Moore Farms in Lake City. Order your luncheon ticket early as seats will be limited for SC’s First Lady Patricia Moore-Pastides cooking demo and book sale.

Ticket Prices

$50: See ALL gardens
$20 Day ticket: See gardens on ONE day
lunch extra

Purchase tickets through PayPal via a link at gardenclubofsc.org
or Checks: Follow The Blooms, 362 Bryan Street, Allendale, SC 29810
or Day-of ticket sale locations to be announced

For more information: followtheblooms2@gmail.com
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Historic Columbia Foundation
Dollar Sundays
Third Sunday of each month | 1:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.

Robert Mills House and Gardens

1616 Blanding Street, Columbia, SC 29201

Price – $1

Take a guided tour of one of our historic house museums for just $1.  Visit the Robert Mills House, Hampton-Preston Mansion or the Mann-Simons Cottage.  General admission prices apply for any house tours after the first.  Purchase tickets at the Museum

Shop at Robert Mills House.  803-252-1770, ext. 24

Contact Information – For more information, call 803.252.1770, ext. 25 or email aposner@historiccolumbia.org

Woodrow Wilson Hard Hat Tour
First Tuesday of each month | 11:00 a.m.
Woodrow Wilson Family Home
1705 Hampton Street, Columbia, SC 29201

Purchase tickets at the Museum Shop at Robert Mills
1616 Blanding Street
$6 for adults

Phase 1 of the Woodrow Wilson Family Home rehabilitation is complete.  This tour allows guests the opportunity to visit the stie which is currently under construction and review the significance of this historic house and what is being done to preserve it from additional deterioration.  Guests will also learn about the progress made during the first phase of the project then walk inside the house to gain a better understanding of the work that lies ahead.

Contact Information – For more information, call 803.252.1770 ext 24, or email aposner@historiccolumbia.org

Garden Tours
Third Thursday of each month | 11:00 a.m.
Robert Mills House and Gardens
1616 Blanding Street, Columbia, SC 29201

$6 per person

This 60-minute guided tour features the gardens of the Robert Mills House.  Guests can compare and contrast the visual aesthetics of late 18th and 19th century landscape gardening to an earlier styled English Boxwood garden based on formal French gardens.

Contact Information – For more information, call 803.252.1770, ext. 24 or email aposner@historiccolumbia.org

The volume fosters beautification and conservation through education and encouragement harvested from the diverse members of the Columbia Garden Club.

This illustrated guide offers specific tips for planting by season as well as details on cultivating perennials, annuals, trees, and lawns. Additional sections address the basics of soil analysis, heirloom plants, container gardening, landscape design, and attracting and discouraging animals in your garden.

As a special project, the Gardening Notes for South Carolina, which was published in 2001 to celebrate the club’s 75th Anniversary, was sold as a fundraiser at the annual Garden pARTy. Fifteen hundred copies were sold, necessitating a second printing in 2005.

With income from these projects and investments, the Foundation has made contributions to projects that embrace the purposes and objectives of the Columbia Garden Club including the Woodrow Wilson Boyhood Home, Columbia Museum of Art, Riverbanks Zoo’s Botanical Gardens, the South Carolina State Museum, Carolina Children’s Home, EdVenture, the City of Columbia, and the Memorial Rose Garden on the USC campus.

To purchase Gardening Notes, see Amazon.com.

The Norwegian Spruce was first considered the best choice in shape and branch strength and was obtained from neighboring North Carolina.  However, after realizing that the strength of the Spruce was insufficient, a 35+ foot White Fir was selected as a better choice to support the over 10,000 Christmas lights and 900 ornaments.

The selection of the tree begins in July, with the State Forestry Commission, The State Budget and Control Board, South Carolina Electric and Gas and Bruce Vollnogle of Timbertech providing expertise and staff to assist club members in the selection, watering, decorating and erecting of the State Christmas tree.  In 2009, the Garden Club of SC also joined forces with The Columbia Garden Club.

Thousands of South Carolina residents and guests attend the tree lighting ceremony in wonder and delight to see the magnificent State Christmas tree.

The enormous commitment from all parties involved is a gift of love to the people of the State of South Carolina.

Columbia Garden Club maintains a marker on Highway #1 (Two Notch Road) near Sesquicentennial State park.  Members plant and care for flowers to beautify the marker.

Additionally, Columbia Garden Club donates annually to the Garden Club of South Carolina to care for “orphaned” markers.