Perennial Garden Club, Garden Club of America
Sally Simms and Jill Deterding Young
The Perennial Garden Club of Washington, DC was founded in 1950 and admitted to the Garden Club of America in 1960. A devotion to the art and beauty of flowers and a dedication to horticulture, conservation and preservation have inspired an ongoing commonality of purpose. Perennial members work together to have an impact on their city.
The Perennial Garden Club has been involved in landscaping projects large and small over the last 74 years, including Decatur House, a National Trust property, the entrance garden of Blair House, and the restoration of the gardens at the historic Woodrow Wilson House. Other projects have included the therapeutic gardens at the National Rehabilitation Hospital, nine Habitat for Humanity gardens, and installing plants along the banks of the Anacostia River, adding oxygen to the waters and a habitat for fish and birds. In 2012, PGC was awarded GCA’s Founders Fund Award for “Growing Minds and Spirits”, an urban educational landscape project at the Bishop John T. Walker School for Boys (BWS) located in a chronically underserved area east of the Anacostia River. In 2020, working with the Georgetown Garden Club, they published “Going Native”, a booklet to encourage people to add native plants to their gardens to attract pollinators and reduce the need for fertilizers and extra watering. In 2022, they published the Olmsted Island Initiative, a folio of all the native plants on the Olmsted Island in Great Falls National Park. Currently, PGC's local work includes partnering with McLean Trees Foundation to remove invasives and save trees in Lewinsville Park, and annual grants to local nonprofits, including the Washington Youth Garden and The C&O Canal Trust.
Our members are a mix of ages and experience and love being involved in the community and getting our hands dirty.
