Our History
The year was 1947, well to be more precise it was May 19, 1947, Monday afternoon at
3:30 p.m. Three ladies of the Liberty Garden Club (more on that club later) met with 11
“young matrons” to organize a garden club. This new club would be under the
sponsorship of the Liberty Garden Club. Those 11 ladies who became charter
members of the Rose Garden Club had no idea at the time the impact this meeting
would have on the Town of Liberty for the next 77 years.
In doing some research we found that Liberty Garden Club was organized in 1939, 8
years before the Rose Garden Club and had 15 members annual dues were $1.00.
According to their yearbook the Aims for the Year 1943-1944 were to co-operate with
the Red Cross in doing war work, sponsor home nursing instructions for members and
to encourage “Victory Gardens” among 4-H members by offering a $25.00 War Bond to
the best garden for the season as judged by the county agents. The last yearbook that
we found for the Liberty Garden Club was dated 1995-1996, not sure what happened
after that, if they disbanded or joined the Rose Garden Club. The Rose Garden had
some big shoes to fill in the coming years.
On June 3, 1947, Tuesday afternoon at 3:30 p.m. the young club held their first meeting
at the home of Mrs. Don Kesler with all 11 charter members present. The president of
the Liberty Garden club was present and gave the club helpful suggestions as to what a
Garden Club means and gave suggestions on naming of the club. They decided on the
Rose Garden Club, officers were elected, by-laws were voted on and the Rose Garden
Club was ready to take flight. Most of the format, procedures and traditions that the
Liberty Garden Club had were used by the “young matrons” of the Rose Garden Club. It
was important to them to let people know how special garden club work was and that
they were not just a social organization, but a service organization – one that is run very
much like any other small business. The annual yearbooks which included, officers,
member roster, meeting times, calendar of events, yearly projects, committees and
hostesses for each meeting has been carried on for 77 years. In those early years the
meetings were held at a member’s home with two hostesses. Usually, after the meeting
an article was written and submitted to the Liberty Newspaper with detailed descriptions
of the program, the floral decorations and food used for the meeting. The tradition of
meeting in a member’s home continued up until 2019 when our membership outgrew
such a meeting place. The First Baptist Church of Liberty graciously offered to let us
use their Fellowship Hall for our meetings.
Some of the community projects are still carried out today, the Patterson Cottage was
especially a favorite of the club back then. Our Annual Plant Sale started out as a plant
auction between club members only. Jumping forward the Plant Sale was opened to the
public in 2019 and has become a huge success every year to help raise funds for our
ongoing projects. People look forward to our sale every year.
Our community projects have also grown since 2018. At the present time we have 11
ongoing projects. The Patterson Cottage is still at the top of the list with mulching
around crepe myrtle trees and cottage and decorating the cottage for Christmas every
year before the Christmas Parade. The urns at the Farmers Market are pressured
washed every year and decorated for Christmas as well. A garden at Liberty Elementary
School is maintained by the Garden Club with annual plantings every year. The brick
planters in front the of Roy C Reitzel Center are also a responsibility of the Rose
Garden Club which has a committee assigned to it. The “Welcome to Liberty” sign
planters were made possible by a grant from the Randolph County Tourism
Development Authority and hard work from our members. On the corner of Swannanoa
Street, the club had trees trimmed back, new soil and mulch put in and added new
plantings. The Pollinator Garden at the Liberty Library has come a long way and
welcomes visitors to the library. One of our newest projects at American Legion Post
#81 was to completely re-landscape the front and side of their building. The post allows
us to hold our plant sale there every year as a community service and we felt this was
our way of giving back. All the plantings have thrived and enhanced the entrance. The
Rose Garden Club has been giving a scholarship for several years to a local graduating
high school senior who will be attending college and major in Agriculture or Horticulture.
We started out with a $200.00 scholarship and due to our very successful plant sales
we have been able to increase that amount to $1000.00. The biggest project that the
club undertook in 2018-2019 was to build a Monarch Butterfly Waystation on Hwy 49 in
Liberty from the ground up. This project was also made possible with a grant from the
Randolph County Tourism Development Authority and contributions from local
organizations and individuals. Clyde and Ruth Fulk allowed us to build this project on
their property and use a small cottage on the property for storage. The garden is
enclosed by an 8’ tall by 100’ deer fence with deer resistant plants on the outside. Our
Waystation #24541 is listed on the national registry of Monarch Butterfly Waystations.
This project has received recognition from numerous newspaper stories to coverage on
Roy’s Folks (Fox 8, WGHP). The site has also been visited by several Master Gardener
organizations and other gardening groups from the NC Agriculture Extension Agency.
All these projects could not be maintained without the dedication and hard work of all
our members. When a workday is called, anyone that is available shows up and does
their part.
In closing, here’s to you our 11 charter members and all the members that have been a
part of the Rose Garden Club for 77 years. We can only hope that we are still making
you proud of the organization that you started in 1947 by making a difference in our
community one project at a time.
Written by:
Gail Morgan- Member since 2016
Judy Hernandez–Member since 2011
Ruth Anne Chilldres-Member Since 2018