Longtime Los Alamos Garden Club members Trish Spillman,left, and Nancy Bartlit outside the Los Alamos Daily Post after a recent interview. Photo by Bonnie J. Gordon/ladailypost
The Los Alamos Memorial Rose Garden as it looks today near Fuller Lodge. Photo by Bonnie J. Gordon/ladailypost.comBy BONNIE J. GORDON
Los Alamos Daily Post
bjgordon@ladailypost.com
The Los Alamos Garden Club is one of the longest standing community institutions in town. The Club will celebrate its 70th anniversary 1-3 p.m. Saturday Sept. 9 at the Memorial Rose Garden, located near Fuller Lodge. Everyone is invited and refreshments will be served.
The Los Alamos Garden Club held its founding meeting in January 1947 at the home of Pat Kellogg. According to an article in The Los Alamos Times, the objectives of the Club were:
- To promote interest and coordinate efforts of those interested in gardens
- To aid the development of home gardens
- To stimulate interest in cooperative gardening
- To aid in the protection of wild flowers and birds
- To study in all its aspects the fine art of gardening
According to a history of the club written for its 20 year anniversary by Marjorie Bell Chambers, the Club’s first service project was to bring the matter of the need of residents for outdoor faucets at their homes to the attention of the Town Council in April 1947. History is vague on how the Garden Clubbers got their faucets, but they did! The Club held its first flower show in September 1947.
The Club continued to meet and help each other struggle with the tough gardening conditions in Los Alamos. The Los Alamos Garden Club, along with other local groups, put on a number of large flower shows, attended by hundreds. The Club published a book, “High Altitude Gardening,” in 1967.
The best known project of the Los Alamos Garden Club is the Los Alamos Memorial Rose Garden, the oldest public rose garden in New Mexico. According to a history compiled by Garden Club member Irene Aikin, in 1958, the Zia Parks Dept. gave the Club a plot which became the first home of the rose garden. When Los Alamos was under Federal control, there was no cemetery. The garden represented the desire to build a living memorial to loved ones in Los Alamos. Proceeds of the Club’s annual plant sale were used to purchase 50 rose bushes. With the help of Zia Parks Dept. staff as well as Club members, the project was landscaped and beds were planted.
The Rose Garden rapidly outgrew its space and the Club enlisted landscape architect and Club member Lila Garden to design the current garden next to Fuller Lodge. In 1959, the arbor, known as the garden house was added and a test plot of 20 roses as well as 46 memorial roses were added.
In 1961, a Sears grant and the work of club members made many projects possible, including a memorial to Enrico Fermi, a birdbath in memory of Ernest Lang Sr. donated by his wife, a sundial donated by Mary Strickfadden in memory of her husband, William Strickfadden. The more than 450 rose bushes and care of the garden was the sole responsibility of the Los Alamos Garden Club until 1968 when the County assumed some of the maintenance duties. The club continues to prune, plant and do gardening chores in the Rose Garden to the present day.
By 1985, there were more than 500 rose bushes in the Garden and the club had to stop accepting donated rose bushes.
The garden continues to change and improve. In 1987, the Lanther Memorial Arbor, dedicated to longtime Club member Norma Lanter and her husband Robert was added to the Rose Garden.
In 1999, a fountain created by Hans Van de Bovenkamp was purchased by the Club with matching funds from Los Alamos County. In 2002, the Garden began accepting donations for rose bushes once more and rose expert Lee Builta and Club members Nina Hecker and Irene Aikin planted 15 bushes. Builta and Aikin were honored in 2003 for the hundreds of hours they spent working in the garden.
The Veteran’s Blue Star Byway Historical Marker was installed in 2007 and in 2013, the Memorial for Fallen Los Alamos National Laboratory Workers were installed. In 2014, the Garden was declared a Certified Wildlife Habitat.
From its founding to the present day, the Club treats its members to programs, outings and hands-on projects. The Club’s long history is documented in beautiful yearly scrapbooks, some of them illustrated by Los Alamos artist Doris Jackson. Currently, the scrapbooks are housed in the Historical Society Archives. Some of them will be on display at the 70th Anniversary Celebration.
Garden Club members Trish Spillman and Nancy Bartlit joined in 1968. Both served as president of the club. Longtime members have built lasting friendships as well learned a lot, given back to their community, and of course, had lots of fun, they said. Both of their daughters were married in the Rose Garden.
“Most of our members specialize in one thing or another,” Bartlit said. For some, flower arranging is primary, while for others, soil, water and ecology top the agenda. Some grow flowers. Others are vegetable gardens. Everyone comes together to share their passion for gardening, she said.
Doris Jacksoon and Sally Warner continue to represent the club at the New Mexico Garden Clubs, Inc. and National Garden Clubs Inc. conventions, Bartlit said.
Currently, the Club has approximately 40 members, Spillman said. The Los Alamos Garden Club meets at 9:30 a.m. on the third Monday of the month at Crossroads Bible Church in Los Alamos. The club happily accepts new members. Contact Club President Joyce Zaugg at 412-1864 for more information. The next meeting is Sept. 18. The program will be on mushrooms.
