Floraphile Garden Club of Cranford Dedication Ceremony

Floraphile Garden Club of Cranford held a ceremony at Girl Scout Park on Springfield Ave in Cranford on Thursday, June 22, 2023, to celebrate winning the National Garden Clubs Plant America Grant

Award and to dedicate the garden. After winning the grant in 2021, the Floraphiles planted the garden and had a rustic wood post and nautical rope railing installed in 2022. Cranford Township Recreation and Parks Dept. matched the grant so that the railing could be installed by A. Cossa Landscape Design.

National Garden Clubs, 165,000 members strong, is an organization that provides scholarships, grants, seminars and printed information to promote their theme "Plant America.” Their website is…gardenclub.org.

Floraphile Garden Club of Cranford's goal was three-fold: to encourage park visitors and locals to "Plant America,” to provide a safe entrance to Girl Scout Park by installing a stairway railing, and to
beautify the park for everyone's enjoyment. National Garden Clubs required that the creation of the park should be a community effort and many Cranford people and organizations enthusiastically helped support the project and bring it to fruition.

FGC President LeAnne Durner introduced those present and gave some history of Floraphile Garden Club which was founded in 1950.
Jon and Liz Richart of Dreyer Farms in Cranford discussed the various perennials that are in the garden. Dreyer Farms was instrumental in planning the garden, rototilling the area for the garden, selecting the very sturdy plants and the soil which Floraphile GC purchased from them. The Cranford Jaycees offered to help and provided the tent for the rainy day ceremony. And the river rocks came from Hanson Park.

Floraphile member, Brenda Flahault presented the history of the garden itself, including the grant application, the process and thanked all those involved. Providing the highlight of the day was Cranford Mayor Brian Andrews who unveiled the dedication rock which was designed by FGC and obtained from and hand engraved by Rock-it Creations
in Idaho. He also spoke about the Scouts' use of the park for their bridge promotion ceremonies as well as the very attractive benefits of living in Cranford Township.

It takes a village to plan and complete a project like this one, and, as usual, the generous and helpful Cranford community came forward, for which the Floraphile Garden Club is extremely grateful.

Find Floraphile Garden Club on Facebook and Instagram. And contact membership chairperson Patty Wisnefski, Patty_villa@yahoo.com for more information.