The Pasadena Garden Club Centennial Celebration/Flower Show 2016

Matilija poppy (Romneya coulteri)

On April 23rd and 24th, the Pasadena Public Library will be transformed into a botanical paradise. “Reflections – A Centennial Celebration”, a Garden Club of America Flower Show presented by the Pasadena Garden Club will be open to the public, free of charge during the library hours of 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Saturday and 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Sunday.

A grand opening ribbon cutting ceremony will take place on Saturday, April 23rd at 8:45 a.m. to honor the Pasadena Garden Club’s centennial year and the club’s involvement in the Pasadena community for 100 years.

Philanthropist Arthur C. Noble, a Star-News headline announced: “Prominent people form organization to aid beautification of the city.” Now 100 years later, members say, the Pasadena Garden Club maintains that core mission, continues its early influence on preserving the Arroyo Seco; and works to restore, improve and protect the quality of the environment, through programs and actions in the fields of environment, conservation, civic improvements and education.

Myron Hunt one of the club’s founding members was the architect for the Pasadena Public Library and the architect for the Casita del Arroyo, a community meeting house, with a water demonstration garden and butterfly sanctuary, which has been the major community project for the Pasadena Garden Club since it was conceived, designed and built as a public works project during the Great Depression. The building was a joint project between the Pasadena Garden Club and the City of Pasadena. Its walls include boulders from the Arroyo, and its original roof shakes cuttings from fallen trees in the upper canyon. Virtually all the lumber came from the bicycle track built inside the Rose Bowl for the 1932 Olympics.

The purpose of this Garden Club of America flower show staged within the Library is to set standards of artistic and horticultural excellence. Judges from all over the United States will offer their evaluation of the individual entries.

Viewers will be inspired by floral designs including period style botanical hats, miniature arrangements, and traditional and modern interpretive designs.

A horticulture division will feature Pasadena landmark gardens created to miniature scale; display containers of native plants; succulents in a salvaged container; window boxes displaying culinary herbs as an ode to Julia Child; and cut roses from the gardens of garden club members. Judges will look at 35 ‘Heuchera Maxima’ challenge plants to decide what makes one stand out as the blue ribbon winner?

Another division ‘Pasadena in Focus’ is a photography exhibit of creative views of the city as seen through the lenses of talented photographers. In Botanical Arts entries of necklaces and crowns made only of botanical dried material are transformed into adornment worthy of the city’s celebrated Rose Queen and Princesses.

Needlework canvases in this division take La Casita del Arroyo as their theme.

And last but not to be missed the POP Conservation Garden Exhibit will present how to make your local garden a haven for bee, bird and butterfly pollinators.

A visit to the library to see this show will be a morning or afternoon well spent.

For more information, contact Robin Stever at (626) 695-2846 or email robinstever@yahoo.com.

For more information about Pasadena Garden Club, visit pasadenagardenclub.com.