Cambridge Plant and Garden Club.

The Cambridge Plant Club, originally known as the Floricultural Society, was founded in 1889 and was one of the earliest garden clubs formed in the United States. It was intended to be a club for women with an interest in the "serious study of horticulture." In 1966 the Cambridge Plant Club merged with the Cambridge Garden Club (which had been begun by younger, less-experienced gardeners in 1938) to form the Cambridge Plant and Garden Club (CPGC). Over time, the club's objectives have broadened to include the care and study of gardens and house plants, partici-pation in horticultural exhibitions, civic planting and landscaping projects in Cambridge, Mass., and action on behalf of local and global environmental concerns.

The club was accepted for membership in the Garden Club of America in 1968 and is affiliated with the Garden Club Federation of Massachusetts. One of its past presidents was the landscape architect Lois Lilley Howe.

The club has received awards for its many urban beautification projects, including two awards from the Garden Club Federation of Massachusetts (1952 and 1984), the Sears Roebuck award (1967), and the Founders Fund Award of the Garden Club of America (1980) for planting and restoration at Fresh Pond Reservation. The club's civic contributions were formally recognized by the City of Cambridge and the Massachusetts State Senate in 1989 on the occasion of the club's centennial.

Many individual club members and the club as a whole have won awards in the Masssachusetts Horticultural Society's Spring Flower Show and in the Garden Club of America flower arrangement competitions.

For further information on club history see the Timeline and Centennial history (#8).