Members of the Hibiscus Garden Club of Bermuda are in high planning for a grand celebration of the founding 55 years ago.

It will be marked by an exhibition on September 20, at St Mary’s Anglican Church Hall in Warwick and the production of a calendar and offering of a scholarship.

Each year the Hibiscus Garden Club hosts an exhibition of plants, flowers, vegetables, and a Hat Show and High Tea.

This year there will be a particular focus of the club’s founders.

Chairperson Sharon Simons for the 55th recalled how the founders “had the vision, determination and strength to reach beyond the limits of circumstance to realise dreams, reach for high heights and achieve their goals”.

Racial discrimination was at ‘gutter-heights’ or depths 55 years ago when Ruth Simons knew she wanted to do something constructive with her love of flowers and gardening.

But there was only one garden club on the Island.

She was blatantly refused when she sought membership because she was a black woman.

The so-called elites who rejected her had apportioned to themselves the name Bermuda.

So Ruth resolved to start her own garden club, where other blacks could foster their interest in flowers and flower arranging, among other things.

It was September 18th, 1959, 11 persons led by Mrs Simons, met at her Warwick home and formed the Hibiscus Garden Club with the aim to enlighten and educate blacks who were passionate about forestry, gardens and plants.

The membership increased rapidly, enthusiasts came from Somerset to St George’s and all the parishes in between.

The meetings soon became too big for members’ homes and moved, first to the Tennis Stadium, than to Manchester Unity Lodge Hall on Victoria Street in Hamilton; later to The Christian Education Hall in Paget and finally to St Mary’s Church Hall.

The ‘distinguished 11’, who in their own spheres have left indelible marks in Bermuda’s history were Edna Scott, Mildred Smith, Viola Davis, Faith Steede, Louise Wilson, Reginald Ming, Laura Bean, Ruth Simons, Julia Lightbourne, Ruth Wainwright and Edna Conyers.

We recovered from our archives this tribute to Founder Ruth written on the occasion of the 30th Anniversary in 1989 in which she related how her aim was to share, through the Club, “a common interest in horticulture in all its facets, to beautify the Island, have discussions on any subject pertaining to gardening, and also hold an annual exhibition”.

Mrs Simons explained how she had invited a group of interested friends to tea at her home, and from that gathering sprang the Hibiscus Garden Club, whose inaugural meeting took place on September 18, 1955.

Shortly after its inception, Mrs Simons invited prominent citizens — male and female — to join the organisation.

They included Mrs V O’Donnell King, Mrs Victor Scott, Reginald Ming and the late Eugene Harvey, who had just returned from taking a course in England.

Mr Ming (who was then Youth Advisor at the Department of Social Welfare) invited the group to use his office at the Tennis Stadium.

Soon, members had gained sufficient expertise and confidence to carry the motion of staging a floral exhibition — an event which has since become an annual fixture. “The first exhibition was held at the home of Mrs Laura Bean, and later held at the St Paul’s Christian Education Centre with several hundred attending,” Mrs Simons said.

Indeed, the event had so expanded to include a floral hat parade, displays of cut flowers, arrangements and vegetables, all of which were entered for competition, and for which the winners received trophies in various categories.

Over the years, members not only gained experience and knowledge from their affiliation with the Hibiscus, but left their mark on a host of events, both local and foreign.

Mrs Simons recalled how they participated in a floral arranging competition in England, and also sent members to represent the Club in Philadelphia; participated in flower arranging in New York’s Cathedral of St John the Divine.

Locally, the Club has participated in all of the major flower arranging competitions, including the international symposium held at No1 Shed.

“We won many prizes and took the shield twice at the Devonshire Flower Show,” Mrs Simons recalled, adding her thanks to Mrs JJ Outerbridge, Sr, whom she described as “an outstanding friend of the Club”, who encouraged it to participate in the Agricultural Exhibition.

Hibiscus made its impact at various flower festivals, and even the funeral of Bermuda’s slain Governor Sir Richard Sharples.

Past Women’s exhibitions members of the Hibiscus Garden Club demonstrating arrangements and parading floral hats.

It was not only in flower arranging that the Club was active.

As part of its aim to beautify the Island, palm trees were planted at the edge of Warwick pond near the secondary school.

Competition in the past Bermuda Citrus Association exhibitions also resulted in prizes.

Affiliations with the National Association of Flower Arrangers of England and the American Association of Flower Arrangers meant that members of the Hibiscus Garden Club also received instructive and informative literature to keep them abreast of the techniques and competition rules.

Founding member Mrs Simons also spent long years working towards her official judge’s badge.

With the changing times, she became an active member of both the Bermuda Rose Society and the Garden Club of Bermuda — all avenues which allowed her to channel her abiding love of flowers and gardening constructively and effectively.

She assured that Hibiscus Garden Club was “my first love”.

Noting that the Club is open to both men and women, Mrs Simons recalled that the late artist Charles Lloyd Tucker represented the organisation at an event in Trinidad and Tobago.

“He was a keen flower arranger and gardener,” Mrs Simons said.

In fact, the Caribbean held fascination for more than Mr Tucker. Once, members used a cruise to the region to study plants.

Former president Verna Eve, explained: “Flower arranging and allied subjects are like golf — you get addicted.”

Looking back on her decades-long membership, Mrs Eve says she has, in developing her natural talent for flower arranging, “gained a lot of experience and confidence”.

Both women agree that arrangers need patience and practice to perfect their art. “I tell the members all the time, ‘you get out of it what you put in’,” Mrs Simons said.

To her, watching members develop their skills and win prizes was a real thrill.

“I get such pleasure out of watching them succeed. One day, perhaps, they can tell their children that they went to the Hibiscus Garden Club, and hopefully in time, those children will take an interest too.”