The West Chicago Garden Club

Mission

“The purpose of the West Chicago Garden Club (WCGC) shall be to increase interest in gardening through sharing our ideas and knowledge, promoting and participating in community beautification, and protecting and promoting a clean, sustainable environment in which to live. “

Meetings

We meet on the fourth Thursday of every month at the St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church. We start at 6:45pm with conversation, sharing time and refreshments. At 7:00 we have a brief business meeting and then a speaker at 7:15. Past presentations have included talks on Perennials, Organic Gardening, Composting, Creating a Backyard Wildlife Habitat, Vintage Roses, Building a Backyard Pond and Shade Perennials. We also have meetings where we exchange plants or trade gardening tips and tricks. During the summer, we try to hold a couple of meetings in a few of our members’ gardens. For the last few years we have had a cookout for one of our summer meetings. Please see the calendar of events for information on upcoming meetings and events.

Most of our meetings are held at the St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church, 155 N Prince Crossing Rd, West Chicago. The church is located on NE Corner of Prince Crossing & Geneva Road. 

Please note that some of our summertime meetings are held in member’s gardens. Please check the calendar of events for the location of the next meeting. Since Thanksgiving is on the fourth Thursday in November, our November meeting will be held on the 3rd Thursday of the month.

Membership

There are two types of membership in our garden club: Individual and Family. Both levels include our monthly newsletter and access to all club activities.  An individual membership is $20.00  per year per person and a family membership is $30 per year for individuals who reside at the same address. – Click here for a membership form.

History

The West Chicago Garden Club was founded May 8th, 1925. It was born out of the West Chicago Women’s Club and met twice a month. Soon membership got too large, and another unit of the club was formed. Ultimately there were four units, two of which met in the evenings. The original unit called Columbine was followed by the Iris, Delphinium and Tulip Units.

From the beginning the Garden Club was active and ambitious. One year after its inception, the club held a garden competition and its first flower show. The flower show gained popularity with birdhouse competitions for boys and prizes awarded for flower arranging and individual flower specimens. In 1929, six hundred attended the show at which a pageant was held entitled The Enchanted Garden. It featured children dressed as bumble bees and assorted flowers.

Throughout much of its first 53 years, the Garden Club collected flowers from gardens and with the help of the Chicago Plant Flower and Fruit Guild, distributed bouquets to the poor and the ill. They maintained a library for gardeners and made donations to civic projects in the community.

By the 1960’s only two of the four units remained. Times were changing and in 1978 the Columbine unit that had founded the West Chicago Garden Club more than 50 years before, disbanded. The Iris Unit did the same by the years end. Although the club appeared to be dead, it was merely dormant. In 1998, residents interested in gardening and local history, engineered its revival. Today the West Chicago Garden Club has more than 100 members.