A garden club founded in 1924 is hoping to grow its membership as it celebrates 100 years of gardening outreach and fellowship in Western Pennsylvania.

The Linden Garden Club, founded on May 15, 1924, by the late Mrs. William H. Mercur, originally welcomed women residing in and around Linden Avenue in Point Breeze.

Annual dues were $2 and dress code requirements included gloves and hats.

The club for women has since expanded to include members residing outside the Pittsburgh neighborhood.

Its vice president, Becky McGough of Oakland, was raised in the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia and learned gardening alongside her father.

“If you can grow something or share something with flowers or vegetables, it makes me feel good and they feel good,” McGough said.

The club celebrated turning 100 on May 19 with a gathering at the Fox Chapel Golf Club.

Courtesy of Linden Garden Club Linden Garden Club members — (from front) Camille Bondi, Suzie Somers, Joan Ewing, Emily Lisowski and Becky McGough — gather for a luncheon to mark the organization’s 100th anniversary May 19 at the Fox Chapel Golf Club.  

McGough is extending an invitation to prospective new members to join the active roster of about 30 women.

“We would like to recruit new members, and you don’t have to live near Linden Avenue anymore,” McGough said. “Many of our members don’t have gardens any longer because they’re snowbirds or they’re a little older.”

The club is dedicated to educating the Pittsburgh region on gardening, horticulture and conservation.

Major club initiatives include preserving native birds and plants of Western Pennsylvania, encouraging interests in civic preservation and stimulating a love of gardening.

Members have the opportunity to attend nine gardening-centric programs annually.

The club draws members from Beechview, Blawnox, Fox Chapel, Oakland, O’Hara and Shadyside.

The newest member, a retired attorney from Weirton, W.Va., joined last fall and plans road trips to attend meetings.

“We’d love to have between 40 to 50 active members,” McGough said.

Courtesy of Linden Garden Club The Linden Garden Club displayed photographs from the 1970s and ’80s during the group’s 100th birthday celebration last month.  

Annual dues are $40 per person, with a $35 hostess fee that covers lunch at monthly meetings.

The club hosts two annual white elephant-themed yard sale fundraisers every fall and spring.

The most recent one was held May 12, and proceeds benefiting organizations such as Phipps Conservatory, Beechwood Farms, Audubon Society, Tree Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh Botanic Garden, First Tee – Pittsburgh, Western Pennsylvania Conservancy and Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy.

Newest member Rose Angelucci lives in McCandless and joined in 2021 after befriending McGough through Pilates classes.

“My husband is a bonsai enthusiast, and we moved from Michigan to Pittsburgh in 2019 and covid closed down avenues to meet people,” Angelucci said. “I had difficulty meeting people, and Becky asked me if would be interested in joining. I saw it as a social outlet and that it would add to my knowledge base.”

Members take turns hosting the monthly meetings, which are held in members’ homes or at the venue of their choice.

Angelucci hosted the June monthly meeting. The gathering included a bonsai presentation by her husband, Dan, a gardener with more than 40 years of experience with the Japanese art form.

“We are on the cusp right now,” said Angelucci of increasing the membership roster. “We’re a group of all women. The knowledge base of this group is so deep, huge, and they have a great community outreach. We’re hopeful more will join.”

A favorite gardening project of Angelucci’s is maintaining the flowers at the first tee at the Bob O’Connor Golf Course in Schenley Park, part of an ongoing project.

“We weed, rearrange plants that include black-eyed susans, cone flowers, bachelor buttons and daffodils,” Angelucci said.

Participating in a gardening organization with historic roots is rewarding for Angelucci.

“To be in a club that’s been around 100 years is amazing. It’s hard to grow membership and have a relevant purpose. I’m expanding my own personal interest, but you’re also involved in a community that keeps everyone engaged.”

The Linden Garden Club is hoping to join horticultural forces in the near future.

“We’re in talks with Perennial Garden Club to merge,” Angelucci said.

The Perennial Garden Club was founded in 1937 in the East End section of Pittsburgh.

Past horticultural contributions

In 1925, Linden members enjoyed a White House welcome hosted by Mrs. Calvin Coolidge, in appreciation for being named an honorary member.

The club’s original name was a mouthful — The Linden Unit of the Women’s Farm and Garden Association — but was shortened to Linden Garden Club in 1937.

Past historical gardening projects include planting in the lobby of the Pittsburgh Blood Bank, the Lemington Home for the Aged and at the Linden and Sterrett schools in Pittsburgh’s East End.

During the 1980s and ’90s, the garden club helped to design and plant the Daffodil and Daylily Walk in Mellon Park, planted a groundcover garden in Mellon Park inside the walls of the original Renaissance Garden and planted a spring garden on the campus of the Western Pennsylvania School for Blind Children.

Anyone interested in joining should email Dee Dee McGinley, Linden Garden Club’s membership chairwoman, at gem712@aol.com.

Joyce Hanz | TribLive May blooms brighten up a spot in Pittsburgh.  

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