- November 16, 2025
Garden Club at Palm Coast President Denise Garcia poses next to the display of the club's 50-year timeline, clippings, books and DVDs. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Garden Club members from Brevard, Volusia and Flagler counties gathered at the Hammock Dunes Club for the Florida Federation of Garden Clubs' District VI fall meeting and the 50th anniversary celebration of the Garden Club at Palm Coast. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Sharon Smith, Debbie Lashinsky, Ann Fleming and Marinus Grootenboer volunteer at the plant sale at the Garden Club at Palm Coast's 50th anniversary celebration and the Florida Federation of Garden Clubs' District VI fall meeting at the Hammock Dunes Club. Photo by Brent Woronoff
In 1975, 12 residents of Palm Coast got together to establish a garden club. Fifty years later, the Garden Club at Palm Coast has 98 members with deep roots in the community.
The club celebrated its 50th anniversary on Thursday, Oct. 23, at the Hammock Dunes Club while also hosting the Florida Federation of Garden Clubs’ District VI fall meeting.
“We’ve been looking forward to the celebration,” FFGC President Christy Linke said before the meeting. “We’re lucky to be here for that.”
The FFGC has 153 clubs in 12 districts from the Panhandle to Key West, Linke said. District VI includes clubs in Brevard, Volusia and Flagler counties totaling 950 members.
When the district was looking for a host for its fall meeting, Garden Club at Palm Coast President Denise Garcia said she raised her hand right away.
“I said, ‘we’re doing it,’ because I knew it was going to be a special time for us,” Garcia said.
Over the years, the local garden club has grown and branched out like a Southern live oak. It hosts the annual Spring Festival the first Saturday in April at Flagler Palm Coast High School. The club’s Propagation Guild grows a lot of the plants that are sold at the festival. The club’s Arranger’s Guild focuses on floral design for homes, churches or flower shows and offers floral design classes.
The club hosts an annual competition for high school digital media students to design the cover of the Garden Club’s yearbook. It celebrates Arbor Day by planting a tree within the community. It celebrates a home’s landscape with the Selection of the Month.
It offers agriculture, horticulture or environmental sciences related college scholarships to high school seniors and sponsors two youngsters each year to FFGC’s Wekiva Youth Camp. And it sponsors junior garden clubs at Belle Terre and Rymfire elementary schools.
The club has funneled FFGC grants to the Palm Coast Historical Society and Museum to replenish their garden in 2021 and to families to rebuild their yards after storms.
“This club is awesome,” said Garcia, who has been club president for three years. “You don’t have to be a gardener to be in the club. You can come and learn how to garden.”
She said the first thing she did when she moved to Palm Coast 11 years ago was to find a garden club. She had belonged to the garden club previously in Needham, Massachusetts.
“That was where I actually learned about garden clubs,” she said “I grew up in Miami, Florida. I had my own flower shop, and I didn't know about garden clubs.”
Garden Club at Palm Coast membership is $50 a year, $65 for couples. The club meets every second Monday from September to May at 11:30 a.m. at Club 51 in Palm Coast. For more information, go to gardenclubatpalmcoast.org/
