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Mar 25, 2024

Taunton Garden Club turns 90, historian Annette Lopes gives tour

TAUNTON — “We have a long history. We have a good history.” Annette Lopes, civic beautification chair of the Taunton Garden Club, as well as the club’s historian, said those words in reference to the

TAUNTON — “We have a long history. We have a good history.”

Annette Lopes, civic beautification chair of the Taunton Garden Club, as well as the club’s historian, said those words in reference to the club’s upcoming 90th anniversary, but they could apply to her own garden as well.

Lopes, who has been civic beautification chair for 30 years, and a Garden Club member for 40 years, has a long, good history with her own garden, which she has worked on for decades and turned into a true backyard oasis.

Her garden is a living memory, full of flowers and plants from family and friends, lovingly nourished over the years.

Ahead of the Taunton Garden Club’s upcoming 90th year, Lopes gave the Gazette a tour of her garden, and shared some club history, as well as its present:

Lopes has cultivated her garden so that, no matter the time of year, something is either blooming or verdant, providing a pop of color even in the grayest months.

“Everything in nature has its purpose and its reason,” she said.

This nurturing spirit runs in her family.

Lopes' parents were born in America; her grandparents were Portuguese immigrants. Her grandmother was from Madeira, and her grandfather was from mainland Portugal, from a little tiny village on the border between Portugal and Spain. They met when her grandfather entered the service.

They had their own garden, and so did Lopes’ parents.

Her grandmother grew roses, as well as perennials, and had a crab apple tree. Her grandparents also grew vegetables.

“My mother and dad were farmers too. Well, my father was the farmer,” Lopes said. “My mother enjoyed it all. She did roses. She had some classic roses.”

Lopes’ grandmother had a giving philosophy when it came to gardening.

“My grandmother, being Portuguese, she used to say in Portuguese to me, ‘The plant is never yours. Your job is to take care of what you have, but you’re always supposed to give it away.’”

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Lopes has followed that advice, sharing her garden with others. And others have shared with her in return.

“Most of the plant material in my yard — I’d say 75% — probably has come from either other Garden Club members or family or friends,” Lopes said.

She had a cherry tree that had been a seedling from her parents’ yard — it sadly took ill and has died.

Her miniature irises came from a Garden Club member; she has plants from her daughter, from her late brother-in-law; a larch tree that a fellow Garden Club member brought her from Maine (its flowers become pine cones); roses in memory of her mother; a plant from Ernie Hirschy, a firefighter who was once president of the club and a “gardener extraordinaire”; and plants that are tributes to old neighbors, and even someone she met by happenstance.

Lopes has a plant she calls “Mary’s plant.” Its flowers look like sweetpeas, and it came from a woman named Mary who used to live on Hart Street in Taunton.

“Every time I would go by her house I would see this plant, and I just absolutely loved it. So finally one day she was out working in the yard and I thought, ‘I’m doing it today.’ I drove up, and I stopped, and I said, ‘Hi, my name is Annette. I’ve been admiring your plant forever. I just absolutely love that plant …. I come by your yard when it’s in bloom and I just think it’s so gorgeous.’ And she said, ‘Would you like a piece?’”

Although that woman has passed away, the plant is still in Lopes’ yard, a gift “from one gardener to another,” Lopes said.

There are also some homages to Saint Fiacre, the patron saint of gardeners. He’s in a planter, and also stands as a small statue in the garden.

She has a "Book of Evidence," a record of all of the blooms and growing things in her garden, and what time of year they’re either blooming or seen to advantage.

Lopes has also repurposed items to make them into sculptures, or conversation pieces in the garden.

An old ironing board is now a sun-faced sculpture; a water container used to check car tires for leaks at a gas station; a fence decoration was once a tabletop.

Some friends live on in her garden in another way: bowling balls.

Many gardens have a gazing ball; Lopes uses bowling balls instead.

One of them says “Linda”: she was a fellow Garden Club member, and the bowling ball is displayed in her memory.

“In a way,” Lopes said, “my yard is like a memory garden.”

There is a Carolina allspice in Lopes’ garden that, when in bloom, Lopes says smells like banana and pineapple on a warm breezy day.

Lopes brings the scents of her garden, and much more, into her home.

She has a quince tree, that she harvests for a friend to make jam and jelly with.

Lopes also likes to make potpourri. She makes her garden pictures into cards.

“Most of my plant material that’s in my yard I grow because I like the colors, the combinations, but I also like to dry stuff,” Lopes said.

She displayed dried peonies, and hydrangeas, during an interview with the Gazette.

She’s also saved birds’ nests over the years.

For Lopes, it’s all about enjoying the fruits of her labor, and Mother Nature.

“Mother Nature is the most fascinating thing.”

Lopes, who has served twice as the Garden Club’s president, is also its historian.

The Taunton Garden Club was founded in March 1934. Dues at the time were 50 cents.

It was founded by both men and women, who saw a need in the community.

“They just felt that it was an important thing to foster, and there was a tremendous amount of interest,” Lopes said.

She said membership at that time was “incredible.”

“It made sense that they would have wanted an outlet,” Lopes said. “It was during the Depression. They had gotten over WWI. They were already aware of the possibility of another war coming. They needed a diversion. And gardening is a wonderful thing to be able to do that. It allows you to be with nature … you can be at peace with what’s outside.”

The club flower is the snowdrop, and club colors are green and white.

Their club motto is: “Let us enjoy, but never destroy.”

During WWII, they sent seeds to Taunton, England, and decorated the hospital wards for Christmas at Camp Myles Standish. They also taught residents about Victory Gardens.

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In 1964, Garden Club wanted to do something to commemorate the occasion. They planted dogwood trees at Elizabeth Pole’s grave in Plain Cemetery. They are still there.

Garden Club now plants yearly, for Arbor Day.

“Every flowering tree and shrub that you see at the Plain Cemetery has been planted by Garden Club through the years,” Lopes said.

Garden Club has had a hand in beautifying not just Plain Cemetery, but other local properties and organizations. Over the years they’ve worked with the YMCA, the library, the fire department, the Old Colony History Museum and many others. They also create floral gifts for nursing home residents.

For their 50th anniversary in 1984, they ate at Benjamin’s, a former Taunton landmark restaurant.

The club was made a 501(c) 3 non-profit organization in 2004.

This historical information comes from “Taunton Garden Club Celebrates 80 Years,” which Lopes wrote in 2014 in honor of the club’s 80th anniversary, and which contains a far more comprehensive club history.

Lopes has been concentrating on documenting the past 10 years of club history, including during the uncertain times of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“My biggest hope was that we could make it to our 90th birthday,” Lopes said.

The Taunton Garden Club will celebrate its 90th anniversary in March 2024.

They meet from September to June, and they elected their current president, Mary Heim, in October 2022. A new president is chosen every two years.

The club meets on the first Thursday of the month; their upcoming season begins on Sept. 7.

All of the funds the Garden Club has come from fundraisers they hold, like their annual plant sale.

They meet at Our Lady of Lourdes School on First Street in Taunton, and on occasion also at The Arbors on County Street.

There is a Junior Gardening Committee that works with young people; Garden Club also has garden therapy for older people. They also award an annual scholarship.

Over the years they’ve taken trips to other gardens and natural places, organized flower shows, worked with neighboring clubs like Dighton Garden Club, and given tours of club members’ gardens.

Garden Club has also taken part in local events like Liberty & Union Weekend, Lights On, the Christmas parade, Raynham Pride Day, and more.

What makes Garden Club special, to Lopes, is the people who are members. Many members are good friends, even outside the club.

“I think that what’s interesting about our club is the people who have made the garden club,” Lopes said. “I’m so grateful for the fact that the women that I met and worked with through the years were so willing to share what they knew, what they had, to make me the gardener that I am today.”

For more information about Taunton Garden Club, or for the latest club updates, follow them on Facebook.

Taunton Daily Gazette/Herald News copy editor and digital producer Kristina Fontes can be reached [email protected]. Support local journalism by purchasing a digital or print subscription to The Herald News and Taunton Daily Gazette today.