Garden Club celebrates 90 years

The Ringling grounds are just waking up, and for Olivia Haynes, the atmosphere is akin to a religious experience.

It’s 7:30 a.m. The Ca’ d’Zan stands stoic as the bay, turned metallic in the morning light, laps at the former home of John and Mable Ringling.

For Haynes and other Sarasota Garden Club members, it’s a familiar sight as they tend Mable Ringling’s secret garden located just north of the mansion every other Monday morning. They tend the plants that serve as the gatekeepers to the Ringlings’ grave, which rest behind the garden.

It’s a appropriate service for the club. After all the garden, along with its original caretaker, are key characters in the club’s 90-year history.

“Mable was always interested in beauty and flowers,” Haynes said.

It’s a history Haynes feels an acute connection to, particularly as the club prepares to celebrate its 90th anniversary.

“I’m very, very proud of our history and how Mable is so much a part of us,” she said.

“Not only are we a garden club, but, at 90 years old, we’re history.”

The club was founded in 1927 by some of Sarasota’s most recognizable names.

“You have Ida North, Owen Burns, Charles Ringling,” Garden Club President CJ Danna said.

And the list goes on. Marie Selby stands among the founders as well as Mable Ringling, who served as the club’s first president.

“It was a new community,” Danna said. “They wanted to put their stamp on it.”

The club operated in Luke Wood Park in its early days. The park, now bisected by Mound Street near Washington Boulevard, was donated to the city of Sarasota in 1931. Members tended to the grounds in what it called circles.

“Each circle had a part of the park to take care of,” Haynes said. “The founders’ circle did the Mable Fountain, which is still there … There was a lagoon. There were over 1,000 trees, there was a bird sanctuary, all the trees were labelled.”

Tamiami Trail was later constructed through the park and another portion of the land was sold for the Senior Friendship Center, but the park stands as an early example of the group’s grit.

“The garden club put all that in during the Depression,” Haynes said.

From tending to Luke Wood Park to establishing 13 gardens at the Sarasota Botanical Gardens located near the intersection of Tamiami Trail and Boulevard of the Arts, the group, much like Sarasota, has changed in its 90 years.

“Not only are we a garden club, but, at 90 years old, we’re history.” - Olivia Haynes

With almost 200 members and two staff members, the group is hardly diminutive. Each one of its projects, like providing scholarships to beautification awards, aligns with the group’s early aim — to make Sarasota a beautiful place to call home.

However, for Haynes, one of its projects stands out among the rest: the secret garden. When a club member discovered the garden in 1978, it was weed-ridden, a mere shadow of what it was under Mable Ringling’s stewardship. Although it was refurbished, again it fell into disrepair until 2003.

“I was horrified because this was a big weed patch and (Mable Ringling’s) grave wasn’t well taken care of,” she said. “Mable loved gardens and flowers and her grave is overlooking this hideous weed patch.”

So Haynes and the rest of the club made it their labor of love. Every other Monday they head to the Ringling, tools in tow, dedicated to Mable Ringling’s vision for her home.

“She was always into having beautiful places in Sarasota and having every place have some beauty,” she said.