On Sept. 16, the Wachusett Garden Club held a dinner for its members, an end of summer celebration, at the home of Carol Schrader and Erik Garcia in Princeton. Due to two years of limitations from COVID-19, we had not had a big social event and wanted to have a bash. Tents, tables, chairs and lights were assembled, and a catered dinner was delivered. Thirtyfour members and guests came to the dinner, and a great time was had by all.
During the dinner, we recognized three longtime garden club members, to thank them for their years of service to the club. Each has shared their love of gardening, helped develop the direction of the club and participated in social and community activities. The certificates were designed and awarded by Dot Odgren, club president, and each member received a special gift.
Beth MacAdams was one of the club founders in 1986. She was editor of Meanderings, the club’s newsletter, helped with publicity, became treasurer, and was on the club’s board. She also helped with fundraising by designing a beautiful quilt to be raffled. She has extensive knowledge of plants and helped with the initial design of what is now the Princeton Veterans Memorial Garden.
Elisabeth (Lis) Murphy was recognized for her leadership, having served as club president for five years and treasurer for 14 years, with continued guidance on the board of directors. Lis is a Master Gardener and a collector and breeder of daylilies. Her garden, Laurel Ridge Garden in Princeton, opened to the public in 2020 and was recently highlighted in the Massachusetts Master Gardener magazine. She has encouraged members to get to know each other and foster relationships to expand their gardening knowledge and skills.
A special recognition was given to Gina Constantino for her 34 years in the club. Although she is continuing her membership, she is stepping away from the many roles she has held in order to enjoy being a grandmother and focus on her own gardens. Gina has served as club president, is on the board and, most recently, has coordinated many of our annual plant sales and hosted “potting parties” to prepare for the plant sale. She also loves to welcome members and has been responsible for membership and hospitality.
In addition, all three members have been very involved in contributing floral arrangements to highlight local Princeton artists in the Princeton Arts Show. They have designed and helped to maintain the Veterans Memorial Garden on the common.
The day after our dinner, we were contacted by Ken Cleveland, Landmark writer, and his wife, Jan Gottesman, who were sorting through his late mother’s cookbook collection and came across two copies of the Wachusett Garden Club cookbook, published in 1988 — 34 years ago! In addition to recipes, the cookbook has many anecdotes about Princeton people, businesses and landmarks from long ago. The opening of the cookbook is an article about the 19th century Harrington Farm and talks of them hosting guests for dinner, where they would place three long tables together so they could seat … 34 people.
I’m not a believer in special significances of numbers, but certainly am struck by the recurrence of 34: number of guests; years of service; age of cookbook; seating of people at a historic locale. You might want to think about using it in a lottery ticket. (And, if you want to discover some of the history of Princeton, a copy of the cookbook has been added to the Princeton Library’s Princeton collection.)
Many thanks to the three of them. And, if you’d like to learn more about plants and gardening from them and others like them, consider joining the Wachusett Garden Club (wachusettgardenclub. org). Membership is open to anyone from any town.
