BLYTHEWOOD – The Blythewood Garden Club is celebrating its 70th Anniversary with a garden tour. Eight gardens in Blythewood will be on tour on Saturday, May 13, from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. The tour will include small, carefully designed gardens as well as larger spaces and farms.
The cost is $5, and tickets are available at the Langford-Nord Historic House located at 100 McNulty Street. Tickets and tour maps will be available there from 10 a.m. until noon the morning of the tour.
The Garden Club has been part of the fabric of Blythewood since 1953, when twenty-five women, under the leadership of Mrs. Aaron Brabham and Ann Rorer, organized the club. In the 1950s and 60s they held flower shows for the community and other projects including a roadside park, a bluebird trail and a nature club at Bethel-Hanberry. Later, they planted container gardens for the town’s businesses, the library and post office. They raised money for these projects with plant sales and a large recycling bin for newspapers and magazines.
The Garden Club published the first Blythewood Scrapbook as part of America’s bicentennial celebration in 1976. Two revisions of the scrapbook were published in 1994 and again in 2004. The 2004 edition is available at the Langford-Nord House and at Town Hall for $10.
For over ten years the Club has sponsored an annual community gardening event with outstanding speakers on gardening and environmental topics. The club also developed and maintains a Carolina Fence Garden at the Langford-Nord House featuring native South Carolina plants and recommended pollinators.
Today, the Club’s membership numbers 20 and includes second generation members as well as members new to the area. All work together to promote good gardening, civic beautification, and care of our natural world.
