The Garden Club of Dublin was founded in August 1928, under the guiding force of Mrs. Frederick Brewster, an accomplished horticulturist, who determined that the Garden Club of Dublin would be worthy of membership in the Garden Club of America.  When Mrs. Brewster turned the office of President over to her successor in 1935, Dublin had indeed been elected a member of the GCA.

Today the Garden Club of Dublin’s approximately 80 members gather each summer for six meetings, with additional workshops, garden visits, and work on civic projects. The club holds GCA Flower Shows open to the public, as well as judged club shows in Horticulture, Floral Design, and Photography. Though a “summer club,” GCD’s activities in horticulture, conservation, education, and civic projects extend year round in our community. The Seven States Daffodil Show, now a very large event involving numerous garden clubs throughout New England, began with GCD. 

Since its beginning, GCD has sponsored gardening projects for children, including an early campaign to eradicate the gypsy moth, sawfly, ragweed and poison ivy from the village, and to beautify Dublin’s country roads with wild flowers and ferns. GCD has provided scholarships for teachers and students to attend nature study camps, and currently we contribute to a program involving children planting and tending a vegetable garden as part of their Dublin Elementary School curriculum.

Conservation has always played a key role in GCD’s history. In 1938, club members successfully campaigned to control billboards in the town, as well as statewide. Today, in cooperation with the State of New Hampshire, we support a rigorous program of Dublin Lake water testing through volunteer time and financial underwriting. Working with community members, we patrol the lake for invasive plants such as variable milfoil, and help control invasive purple loosestrife using galerucella beetles. Club members have written educational fliers and newspaper articles on the dangers of pesticides and fertilizer use on lakeshore properties, as well as writing, illustrating, and distributing a booklet “Controlling Invasive Plants of the Monadnock Area.” The club played a vital role in rescuing and returning a local 77acre institutional property with environmental issues to its natural state.

Gardens at the Dublin Post Office, Town Hall, Community Church, Dublin Community Center and Parish House, Library, Cemetery, and Historical Society have all benefitted from GCD’s care and contributions throughout the years.  In 2013, the Garden Club of Dublin, in partnership with the Monadnock Garden Club, completed restoration of the historic allees of sugar maples in Cutter Cemetery in Jaffrey Center in celebration of GCA’s Centennial year.