BUCYRUS –A local garden club has definitely grown since its humble beginnings, but it’s also been “cultivating” the community along the way.
Earth, Wind and Flowers will celebrate its 35th birthday Sunday with a reception from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. at the Hord Family Farm Visitor Center, 911 Ohio 98 south of town.
The public is invited to attend as members “dig up” the past and look to the future.
“We have planned a gathering designed to share with our community the many experiences which have come to define our garden club,” said Earth, Wind, and flowers president Mary Lee Minor, one of the founders. “We live by our state affiliation motto – ‘Knowing, Growing, Showing and Sharing.’”
The garden club, best known around town for its perennial plant sale every May, is setting up photographs and displays for the reception, along with cut flowers and potted plants from their home gardens as a way of sharing their love of horticulture, Minor said.
Mary Ann Basinger will play the violin, and members will showcase their talents by designing fresh flower arrangements using carnations, the club flower. Refreshments will be served, with door prizes awarded every 15 minutes and gifts for everyone attending, she said.
Earth, Wind and Flowers, a member of the Ohio Association of Garden Clubs (OAGC), was formed in 1986, Minor said, shortly after she and her family moved to Bucyrus from Newark.
Charter members were Minor, Basinger, Betty Ausenheimer, Aurelia Brombacher, and Martha Hall.
The group started out small by putting in flowers at Bucyrus Community Hospital, then launched the hanging basket project for the city. They also showed up to decorate the Historical Society’s museum for the holidays and later planted shrubs, trees, and an herb garden on the grounds.
“It is such a diversified group with interests just as wide,” Minor noted in her weekly newspaper column, which she shared. “We plant.
We grow. We make flower arrangements. We show horticulture and take ideas to Heartland as therapy. We support conservation.”
The “Company’s Coming” plantings at the Crawford County Fairgrounds were also the brainchild of the organization, Minor said. To this day, members still participate in flower shows during the fair and beautify the outside of that building as well as the Camp Millard Memorial.
Another mainstay for the club has been its 35-year relationship with junior gardeners for monthly meetings and special events, Minor said. Several times members also traipsed to Columbus to join other garden clubs for plantings at the Ohio State Fairgrounds.
Last year, although COVID-19 put a damper on some of their plans, Earth, Wind, and Flowers rallied residents to help them “bomb” Bucyrus – a project to bury more than 10,000 yellow daffodil bulbs around town in conjunction with the city’s Bicentennial celebration.
As part of Sunday’s reception, Minor said, club officers will be introduced, and Bucyrus Mayor Jeff Reser will offer remarks. Local member June Gebhardt, the newly elected president of the OAGC, will also speak. It’s the same position Minor held in 2012-2014.
The gardening guru said that over the years, Earth, Wind and Flowers has been more than just a hobby for its members.
“Taking that labor of love from your own yard and into the community adds a richness to many other lives,” Minor said. “This garden club serves month after month, year after year, finding support from the Bucyrus community. That magnifies each blessing.”