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2005 Common Wealth Award Winners Melba Trenary, Chairman The Garden Club of Warren County
It was with much anticipation and excitement that the 2005 Common Wealth Award winners were announced at the Board of Governors’ banquet in Ashland. Congratulations to the winner, The Huntington Garden Club, which won $5000 for the proposal Virginia's Botanical History, 1607 to Today. The Virginia Living Museum in Newport News will celebrate “Jamestown 2007” with the installation of an exciting permanent botanical exhibit. The 2007 landscape will be presented showing man’s impact on the land over the past 400 years.
The Huntington Garden Club: Virginia's Botanical History, 1607 to Today
The Virginia Living Museum in Newport News will celebrate “Jamestown 2007” with the installation of an exciting permanent botanical exhibit, Virginia’s Botanical History, 1607 to Today. An introductory sign will describe Virginia as it appeared in 1607 when the colonists first arrived to see vast forests, swamps, rivers and the Chesapeake Bay. There will be display gardens of native plants used by the indigenous peoples for food and medicine, gardens of plants that the colonists used for survival and gardens of species the colonists collected, named and introduced to European botanists and gardeners.
In addition, the 2007 landscape will be presented showing man’s impact on the land for the past 400 years. It will include plants introduced to Virginia as well as descriptions of endangered and extinct species. The gardens will demonstrate how the use of the land and the use of native plants changed the landscape of Virginia. By viewing the gardens, it is hoped that visitors will be encouraged to consider the use of native plants. The Virginia Living Museum provides environmental education to 140,000 school children each year through more than 2,700 SOL-correlated classroom programs held at the Museum and offered as outreach programs in schools across the Commonwealth. The Huntington Garden Club is proud to support this remarkable facility with funding and with volunteers.
Virginia’s Botanical History, 1607 to Today, an educational living exhibit, will open in April 2007, named “Horticulture Month” by the organizers of the “Jamestown 2007” celebration. Hardscaping and plantings must begin soon, and therefore The Huntington Garden Club is requesting financial assistance for this project through the 2005 Common Wealth Award. The project meets all of The Garden Club of Virginia’s areas of interest: conservation, beatification, horticulture, preservation and most especially education.
Congratulations also to the runners-up each of which received $1000.
The Albemarle Garden Club: Morea, A Living Classroom Runner-Up
In 1834 Dr. John Patten Emmet, a foremost professor of natural history, botany and other sciences at the University of Virginia built Morea, a large brick house near the University on Sprigg Lane. A close friend of Thomas Jefferson’s, Professor Emmet began to plant and create a botanical garden for his studies and for the use of professors and students. The name Morea is said to derive from the Chinese Mulberry, Morus multicaulis, which he cultivated in order to produce sewing silk. After Dr. Emmet’s death in 1843, a succession of faculty members lived at Morea and the use of its grounds continued as a teaching garden for botany and horticulture. In 1962 the Albemarle Garden Club established the Albemarle Botanical Garden at Morea. Since that time, the garden - now encompassing three acres – has been partially replanted, maintained and the plants labeled. With the much appreciated help of students from the School of Landscape Architecture at the University, we also have a partial garden plan. An up to date plan is now needed. Over 85 varieties of plants, some original to Emmet’s time, have been catalogued, including the famous Kentucky Coffee Tree, Black Walnut, Linden and Locust. It is said that some of these trees and others, notably the Osage Oranges, originate from seeds brought back from the Lewis and Clark expedition. Meade Palmer, the distinguished landscape architect at the University, referred to Morea’s botanical garden as his “living classroom.” This Living Classroom is what the Albemarle Garden Club is trying to maintain and continue to plant. Our planting consists of native and non-native shrubs and trees, replacing original or early plantings where possible and introducing new plants to show what grows well in our area. The garden of Morea is open to the public and we are now planning to place a permanent sign giving the history of the property and a general plan for the site with its major trees and shrubbery / perennial borders.
The Nansemond River Garden Club: The Cedar Hill Cemetery Project Runner-Up
Civic Project of the Nansemond River Garden Club Memorial Garden Addition
Beneath ancient cedars and muted sunlight, hushed sounds welcome visitors to this spiritual spot in the heart of historic Suffolk. On the site of the original settler’s homestead, Cedar Hill Cemetery (c.1802), downtown’s only greenspace, is the final resting place of distinguished Virginians, including Governor Mills E. Godwin, Jr., and was the encampment site of Union troops during the Occupation. A civic project of The Nansemond River Garden Club since 2001, revitalization, restoration and beautification began with a $10,000 investment to:
Club members volunteered hundreds of hours in planning, overseeing and executing this project. Besides planting, they:
To provide a beautiful place for families and guests to learn about Virginia’s heritage, The Nansemond River Garden Club seeks the Common Wealth Award to establish a garden. It will have berried/ fragrant native and Victorian-era plants with wheelchair-accessible pathways and history signage (with Braille) and will face the river and hotel/convention center, providing an ideal location to highlight the history of Suffolk during Colonial and Civil War periods. The Award will enable The Nansemond River Garden Club to greatly enhance this historic treasure.
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