Federated Garden Clubs at the CGC

Federated Garden Clubs and the Civic Garden Center (CGC) go way back. In fact, if it weren’t for a couple of prescient garden club women—Emilie Ormond and Natalie Bosworth—the Civic Garden Center might not even exist! Recognizing an essential need for a local Victory Garden movement during World War II, these women studied garden centers in neighboring cities, then came up with the idea for an organization to serve as a central gardening education resource in our region and convinced the Federated Garden Clubs to donate $500 to help get it started. The rest, as they say, is history.

The CGC’s history ever since has always included Federated Garden Clubs. We continue to host garden club meetings, make educational presentations to garden clubs, and invite garden club members to volunteer, attend classes and events (like our annual plant sales) and serve on our board. Our home within Hauck Botanic Garden also features two specially engraved memorial stones that pay tribute to the long and enduring relationship between Federated Garden Clubs and the CGC, making this long-standing partnership known to all who visit our serene urban oasis.

For more than eighty years now, our two organizations have been able to support one another around our shared goals, find the kind of human connection we all crave and passionately devote our energies and expertise to our gardens and other projects in our communities. Even our missions echo one another, highlighting our common purpose. It seems like there’s never been a time when this mattered more.

Economic uncertainty, ever-shifting donor priorities and evolving community needs all require the CGC to stay adaptable, innovative and mission-focused—things our history tells us  we can do! While these times can make fundraising and program sustainability more challenging, they also present opportunities for growth, creativity and renewed commitment to our mission. Through resilience, transparency and collaborating with partners like Federated Garden Clubs, the CGC can emerge from uncertain times stronger and more impactful than ever to continue fulfilling our mission: building community through gardening, education and environmental stewardship.

Be Part of the Legacy!

When you make a financial gift to the Civic Garden Center, you’re supporting more than 40 programs for people of all ages in the Greater Cincinnati area. These include:

• Lil’ Sprouts: a free program that gets kids ages 3-8 out into nature

• Nurturing the Mind: a dementia-friendly series presented in partnership with Episcopal Retirement Services

• Hands On at Hauck: weekly education-based volunteer workdays to maintain Hauck Botanic Garden, which serves as both an outdoor classroom and an urban oasis

We also added a new service this summer: Garden Helpers! Use it next time you need help with a garden project or someone to water while you’re away.

For more information about what we do, including our financials, please see our 2024 Annual Report. You can also meet some of our staff members and hear their stories in our most recent Summer Newsletter.

Want to participate in our educational programming? Join us for a hands-on workshop or free tour! Our calendar is packed, and we would love to see you at an event. Here’s a sampling:

The best way to stay in touch with us is to subscribe to our twice-monthly eNews, The Civic Gardener. We would love to keep making history together!