The Portland Garden Club was founded in August 1924 by seventeen women and two men – all members of the Portland Rose Society who wished to explore broader interests in horticulture and gardening. The membership quickly grew to reach two hundred fifty, and in 1928 The Portland Garden Club was invited to join the Garden Club of America as its eighty-ninth member. Of the 200 GCA member clubs throughout the country, the PGC is one of only three with a clubhouse. In 1954, after much deliberation, fundraising and a pause during World War II, the PGC clubhouse was built on a half-block site donated by the heirs of an early PGC member, Nanny Moale Wood. Designed by Portland architect John Storrs, one of the fathers of Pacific Northwest Architecture, the clubhouse is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The original garden was designed by PGC members and pioneering landscape architects, Elizabeth Lord and Edith Schryver, who founded the first successful women-owned landscape architecture firm in the Pacific Northwest.
For over a century, The Portland Garden Club has been notable for their efforts to preserve and protect natural landscapes and enhance public access to nature in the Portland area and throughout the broader region. In the late 1920’s the PGC was instrumental in supporting and saving the Rose Test Gardens, until the city assumed responsibility as part of its Parks system. Contained within Washington Park, the International Rose Test Garden is now one of the most visited sites in the city. The club’s active involvement and support for community and regional projects and initiatives continues to this day.
Monthly educational programs and lectures at the PGC clubhouse are open to the public and feature prominent national and international experts in horticulture, garden history and design, floral design, conservation, and photography. In addition, the PGC’s Community Outreach supports organizations and projects that align with our mission, and awards scholarships to students engaged in conservation, horticulture, and botany research at Oregon State University and Portland Community College. Currently, the club oversees two active GCA Partners For Plants programs located at Baltimore Woods Natural Area and Earl Boyles Park in Portland.
Our mission is: To stimulate the knowledge and love of gardening, to aid in the protection of native trees, plants, and birds, to encourage civic beauty and to improve and protect the quality of the environment through programs and action in the fields of conservation and education.