2025 SESSION

INTRODUCED

25107290D

SENATE RESOLUTION NO. 282

Offered February 18, 2025

Commending the Petersburg Garden Club.

—————

Patron—Aird

—————

WHEREAS, the Petersburg Garden Club, an organization devoted to enhancing Petersburg, its surrounding communities, and the Commonwealth, celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2025; and

WHEREAS, the Petersburg Garden Club was established on May 5, 1925, and a year after its inception quickly gained a strong reputation by winning the Sweepstakes Prize from the Charlottesville Flower Fete; and

WHEREAS, the Petersburg Garden Club was officially recognized as a member of the Garden Club of Virginia (GCV) on May 19, 1932, and completed a number of beautification projects at locations across the city shortly thereafter, including at the Petersburg Hospital, Bishop Payne's Divinity School, Trapezium House, and Camp Lee; and

WHEREAS, in 1948, the Petersburg Garden Club won the Massie Medal for Distinguished Achievement, the oldest and most prestigious award of the GCV, following the creation and preservation of an educational herbarium that included 337 flower paintings and specimens of endangered plant species; and

WHEREAS, in later years, the Petersburg Garden Club was dedicated to landscaping the historic Petersburg Courthouse and hosted the GCV's Board of Governors meeting in 1977; and

WHEREAS, since 1995, the Petersburg Garden Club has supported beautification projects throughout Petersburg with its spring fundraiser, “Splashes of Spring”; and

WHEREAS, following a major restoration project of scrapbooks from the organization's involvement with the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in the 1930s, the Petersburg Garden Club received the Common Wealth Award from the GCV in 1998; and

WHEREAS, two years later, the Petersburg Garden Club released the book With Paintbrush and Shovel: Preserving Virginia's Wildflowers, which showcases 222 exquisite botanical watercolors by Bessie Niemeyer Marshall, serves as the primary surviving records of the club's WPA project, and recounts the efforts of a diverse group of women who established a botanical preserve in Petersburg's historic Lee Park, now known as Legends Park; and

WHEREAS, the Petersburg Garden Club hosted the GCV's 2009-2010 Lily Show at Petersburg's historic Union Station and annually sponsors a tour of local homes and gardens as part of the GCV's Historic Garden Week; and

WHEREAS, the Petersburg Garden Club was distinguished in 2023 when the Flowerdew Hundred, a property on its Historic Garden Week tour, was selected for the cover of the Garden Club of Virginia's guidebook for Historic Garden Week; and

WHEREAS, the Petersburg Garden Club's longstanding commitment to horticulture, conservation, historic preservation, and the environment and the impressive efforts of its members have helped to make Petersburg a wonderful and more beautiful place to live, work, and raise a family; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED by the Senate of Virginia, That the Petersburg Garden Club hereby be commended on the occasion of its 100th anniversary; and, be it

RESOLVED FURTHER, That the Clerk of the Senate prepare a copy of this resolution for presentation to the Petersburg Garden Club as an expression of the Senate of Virginia's admiration for the organization's history and its contributions to Petersburg and the Commonwealth.