COLORS OF VICTORY
Forest Hills garden club honors women’s fight for the right to vote
In a colorful salute to generations of American women who campaigned for the right to vote, purple, white and yellow flowers are blooming this year in five Forest Hills gardens.
“We’re honoring wonderful women,” said Linda Hyde, one of 25 members of the Forest Hills Late Bloomers Garden Club.
Miriam Meislik, a club member, suggested that color scheme because American women adopted it during their 72year battle for the ballot. Many suffragists planted flower gardens in those shades. Aug. 26 is the 100th anniversary of the day when the 19th Amendment became law. Ms. Meislik, a member of the Pittsburgh Suffrage 100 committee, wanted to spur community involvement.
Like the suffragists who planted seeds of change, garden club members divided into teams to tackle tasks. For the two largest gardens, Mrs. Hyde grew many of the annuals from seed. That’s a major savings because 500 seeds can be purchased for $8 while a single plant can cost $5, she said.
Barbara Martin, club president, is a certified master gardener who chose plants for the large pollinator garden at Ardmore Boulevard and Morrow Road. Passing motorists offered praise.
“We would be working in there, weeding and deadheading and watering. There would be people riding by, waving at us, calling out thank you. One guy was blowing kisses at us. He came back again. I guess he likes the flowers,” Mrs. Martin said.
A few years ago, Mrs. Hyde visited Chris Hoke, her former Forest Hills neighbor. He now lives on Rising Moon Farm in Middlebourne, W.Va., where Mrs. Hoke runs a cut flower business.
“She grew everything from seed. She was telling me how much fun it is. I thought, ‘Well, I’m going to start it,’” Mrs.
Hyde recalled.
In March, Mrs. Hyde planted seeds for annual flowers — 200 ‘Benary’s Giant’ zinnias, 100 blue ageratum, 200 gomphrenas, 200 ‘Super Hero’ marigolds and about 30 sunflowers. She grew some of the plants in her first-floor sun room and the rest in her basement.
Mud and dirt were everywhere, she said, adding that her neat husband, Ed, hung grow lights and set up cold frames for her.
“As they got larger, I had to transplant them. My husband put more lights in the basement,” Mrs. Hyde said.
Twenty years ago, the garden at Morrow Road and Ardmore Boulevard consisted of rocks and an azalea bush. Club members cleared the rocks and planted a Japanese maple. It’s now surrounded by marigolds, purple and white petunias and white vinca with red centers. Purple and yellow zinnias are as round as teacup saucers and contrast with ‘Archangel’ angelonia, a fluffy white perennial.
“We changed it into a pollinatorfriendly garden to attract butterflies and bees,” Mrs. Martin said, adding that the garden includes butterfly weed, goldenrod, Joe Pye Weed, soapwort, Virginia bluebells and her favorite, Dutchman’s breeches. Penn State certified it as a pollinator garden.
A garden at Bevington Road and Ardmore Boulevard showcases Knockout roses and daylilies. Other gardens are near Drew’s Restaurant and Roman Bistro.
Garden club members chose plants that could stand up to summer heat; small groups of women water the flowers, especially on 90-degree days.
“When you get this heat closer to 90 degrees, they have to be watered practically every day,” Mrs. Martin said.
“The borough supplies water buffaloes and they fill them based on our needs.
They come out if we call to refill them. They give us a budget for plants and mulch. We provide the manpower,” Mrs. Martin said, adding that this is the garden club’s 21st year.
The granddaughter of a farmer, Mrs. Martin has been growing flowers much of her life, planting pink phlox that remind her of her grandmother and peas in memory of her late mother.
“It’s a nice way to still have them in the garden with you even though they’re gone,” she said.
Mrs. Hyde, a retired finance director for the School Sisters of St. Francis, is looking ahead to next spring.
If the borough gives her a permit, “we’re going to build a greenhouse in the backyard,” Mrs. Hyde said, adding that it would measure 20 by 8 feet.
“Maybe I can increase production next year,” she said.