April is Native Plant Month!  The Loveland Garden Club, along with the Nebraska Statewide Arboretum, were recognized on Tuesday April 1 by Governor Pillen with a proclamation that is part of a national effort by the Garden Club of America to increase awareness of the important role native plants play in our ecosystems.

The Garden Club of America and its local chapter, the Loveland Garden Club, support federal, state and local efforts which:  promote awareness and conservation of native species, specifically those listed as rare, endangered or threatened.

Encourage landowners to increase native habitat through replacement of lawn areas with native plant ecosystems.

Support measures to prevent and limit ecosystem damage.

Encourage public land-use policies that incorporate native plants, control invasive plants, discourage the use of toxic pesticides, leading to the preservation and restoration of healthy ecosystems.

LGD provisionals created a floral display for the St. Cecelia’s 40th annual Cathedral Flower Festival Jan. 25-26, 2025. Sponsored by the Cathedral Arts Project, “Let There Be Light!” was the theme. Lillian J. led the group and also created a display or her own.

Members gathered December 10th for the annual Holiday Brunch at the delightfully decorated home of Marilyn M. The food was scrumptious, the company delightful, and a good time was had by all!

Exciting News!! LGC Garden History and Design Chair, Dawn D. announced that the club’s submission to the Garden Club of America Collection was accessioned to the Smithsonian Archives of American Gardens. This was a years’ long endeavor that included many club members and is the first Omaha garden documented for the archives since 2011. It will be found at Smithsonian Online Virtual Archives of American Gardens website (SOVA) early next year.

Author and poet Camille Dungy was the speaker for the LGC Lecture Series at Lauritzen Gardens November 7, 2024. LGC members had the privilege of meeting her for dinner before her presentation. Camille discussed her book, Soil, the Story of a Black Mother’s Garden.

“The green of growing things calms me. Plants stabilize me,” Camille Dungy writes in Soil, this brilliant and beautiful memoir of her deepening relationship with the earth, a relationship, a deepening, that necessarily demands she consider questions of family, history, race, nation, and power. The deepening demands we witness what erodes or frays or severs the stabilizing roots between us. Whatever seduces us into believing we are not in fact connected. To each other, to the earth. The soil though, just like Soil, teaches us we are connected. And fundamentally so. Let us try to listen. Let us put our hands in.” 
-Ross Gay

Members met to discuss the book earlier in the month.

An engaging evening with renowned author, photographer, and conservationist Michael Forsberg. was held October 15, 2024 at Lauritzen Gardens. He shared insights on his latest project, a long-awaited study on whooping cranes.

On September 4, 2024, LGC members toured two community gardens. The Dundee Community Garden is located at 49th and Underwood Ave. One of the founders, Mary G., led the tour. The DCG has 45 assigned plots, 3 open plots, a small orchard, a shed run by solar power, a composting area, a Little Free Library, and a neighborhood produce donation box. Pollinator plants are spread around the garden, and extra produce is donated to the residents at Underwood Tower across the street.

City Sprouts was one of Omaha’s first community gardens founded in 1995. It is located at 40th and Sprague and is a nonprofit 503(c)(3) volunteer organization. Its mission is to “use urban agriculture as a platform to develop equitable food systems, provide educational opportunities, and build community” Shannon K., manager of the garden, gave an overview and tour of the garden.

Thanks to the Horticultural Committee for arranging this fun and educational event! And, of course, lunch together followed.

The August monthly meeting was held at Lauritzen Gardens. Members toured the just newly-opened Horticultural Center where plants are propagated and the garden’s orchid collection resides.