For Immediate Release
September 5, 2006

Potpourri Garden Club of Millis is
Recipient of the MGC 2006 Civic Award

Millis, Mass. The Millis Garden Club warmly recognizes the Potpourri Garden Club of Millis for its years of dedication and service to the town of Millis. Potpourri Garden Club members will receive the MGC 2006 Civic Award at a ceremony scheduled for Wednesday, September 20th at 7pm. The event will take place at Veterans Memorial Building, Room 229, 900 Main Street, Millis. All are welcome to attend. Starting at 6:30 pm, a slide presentation will be available which chronicles their garden at VMB and this past summer’s blooms.

The Potpourri Garden Club of Millis has a long-standing history in the town and Kathleen Conroy Pueschel, leader of the club, tells us that “in 1985, a band of Millis women with a common interest in gardening and habitat set a goal of meeting every third Thursday of the month to experience a gardening adventure! This ‘daring dozen’ were continuing the activities of a garden club started in the early 1940s by women who were primarily members of the Church of Christ in Millis. While a lot of emphasis by the reorganized Potpourri Garden Club went into visiting each other’s gardens, the club members did ‘take off’ to dozens of nursery sites, private and public gardens, including Audubon parks in the greater Boston area, and attended classes at the Arnold Arboretum in Roslindale.”

Conroy Pueschel details the club’s civic beautification projects over the last 15 years, beginning in the 1990’s with the “growth of The 109 Garden Bed, a 50-foot-long strip of flowers and shrubs that the ladies (and their spouses) developed along the sidewalk on Route 109, near the Ann and Hope building in downtown Millis. This project gave motorists and pedestrians a continuous show of beauty from early Spring through Fall each year. Countless people came by The Bed to take pictures of the seasonal displays, and to chat about what each flower was called and what they were trying in their own gardens. Some even said that this was their first opportunity to see such an array of flowers up close!”

In 2003, the new road construction along Route 109 posed concerns for the longevity of The 109 Garden Bed. Conroy Pueschel further relays, “due to the anticipated widening of Route 109, the Millis Potpourri Garden Club physically moved the garden bed from its location near Ann and Hope to a 25-foot-square plot in the small park next to the Millis Veterans’ Memorial Building, creating once again from scratch a place of beauty for the community to enjoy.” With support from the Millis Lions Club, the Potpourri Club has made this new garden bed a focal point for the many people of all ages needing to visit or use the Town Hall. Parents, children and visitors from other towns view the garden as they drive into Clyde Brown School and Town Park. Conroy Pueschel further adds “Millis town employees working in the building now have something that relaxes and refreshes them whenever they look out a window!”

Conroy Pueschel simply sums up the essence of the club by saying “so that desire kindled 65 years ago by a group of local women is carried on today—the desire to engage passersby with a meditative garden experience, maintained by women who love the joy of gardening--and the joy of friendship that a garden brings—the Millis Potpourri Garden Club.”

The Millis Garden Club annually recognizes those who contribute to the civic beautification of our town. In 2005, MGC proudly recognized two Millis residents for their dedication to helping to improve our town’s landscape. Jeanne Maier was recognized for her years of dedication to the garden beds at the Millis High School, Clyde Brown School and the Millis Public Library. Cheryl Prufer was recognized for beautifying and maintaining the traffic island at Middlesex, Exchange and Orchard Streets.

The Millis Garden Club is a non-profit civic organization established in 2004. The Millis Garden Club is a member of the Garden Club Federation of MA, Inc www.gcfma.org, New England Region of National Garden Clubs, Inc, and the National Garden Clubs, Inc www.ngc.org.

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