Fannie Marchman Garden Club celebrating 90 years of community

To celebrate the 90th anniversary of the Fannie Marchman Garden Club in Mineola, the club is holding a flower show Friday, April 24 at the Mineola League of the Arts, 200 W. Blair, from 2-6 p.m. Admission is free. 

The object of the flower show, is to offer visitors the opportunity to enjoy and learn from several exhibits. Displays include horticulture, where members will display examples of their favorite plants, shrubs and flowers.

Design entries will include Designers Choice, with arrangements of fresh or dried floral material featuring designs through the years; Table Artistry with place settings and floral display, and Botanical Arts featuring bird houses, garden hats and boots decorated to celebrate the garden.

Accredited National Garden Club show judges will attend the show in private that morning to evaluate the exhibits and award ribbons. Each segment is carefully monitored according to the rules established by the National Federation of Garden Clubs.

In 1936, Nan Adrian, along with some like-minded ladies who loved gardening, started the club.  Fannie Cofield suggested naming the club for Mrs. Fannie Marchman who loved flowers and always maintained a lovely garden.  Thus, the Fannie Marchman Garden Club was established in Mineola. 

Federated in 1937 with the Texas Garden Clubs Inc., there has been a tremendous history of community activity and fellowship forged from a love of gardening. The club’s goal and objective is to continue the beautification of Mineola and share that beauty with others.  The club’s flower, which was chosen in 1938, is the purple iris.

The club is celebrating 90 years of being an important asset to the community. Early projects included caretaking of  the Mineola City Cemetery and establishing a local Mini-Park, now the rest stop on Highway 37 north of Loop 564.

More recent projects include creating a garden area immediately south of the train depot, displaying a memorial plaque to Fannie which is on the north side of the Historical Museum, with courtesy and promotion from the Historical Museum, and installing a Blue Star Memorial at the Nature Preserve, to name a few.

Current activities include geranium sales in the spring, began in 2008, which raises funds to provide a scholarship for a graduating Mineola High School senior, the Yard of the Month program honors area residents for beautiful and unique gardens, remembering nursing home residents at the holidays and presenting an annual garden tour.