Tredyffrin Easttown Historical Society
History Quarterly Digital Archives

Source: Summer 2007 Volume 44 Number 3, Page 114

The Men's Garden Club of Berwyn

Page 114 (continued)

The Men's Garden Club of Berwyn began on October 19, 1833 by William Armstrong, Henry T. Barnard, Floris Ferwanda, Henry C. Potts, and the Reverend Robert H. Walker. They were interested in chrysanthemums and 2 weeks later sponsored their 1st Chrysanthemum Show in the gymnasium of the Easttown Grammar School on Bridge Street. This show was an annual event up through the time an article about the club by J. Alden Mason was published in the April 1956 Tredyffrin Easttown History Club Quarterly.

Meetings were usually held in members' homes. Annual dues for active members were $1.00 and .50 cents for associate members. By 1956 annual dues were $2.00. It was the only men's garden club on the Main Line and drew members from as far as Cynwyd. Meetings were always held on the 2nd Tuesday of every month and had guest speakers, trips to such places as Longwood Gardens and local gardens and garden suppliers, and an exhibition contest by members of a particular flower or plant of the season. The host's wife always served refreshments.

Two months after the 1st Chrysanthemum Show—in January 1934—a member offered a prize to high school students for the best essay on “The Chrysanthemum.” Dahlias were becoming of great interest and in 1938 the club co-sponsored a dahlia section at the annual show of the Berwyn Garden Club, a women's group which had started on April 20, 1933. By September 1946 the club organized the Main Line Dahlia Show, an annual event through 1956. The men's club promoted and judged Victory Gardens, planted many dogwood trees in the area, and sponsored an annual dinner to show appreciation to all the judges who served gratis at their exhibitions.

— Editor's note: the drawings here are from the 1956 article and are by Franklin W. Wandless. All our Quarterlies going back to 1937 were digitized early in 2007 and we are now able to reproduce illustrations from all of them.