Garden Club Has Large Following
May 16th, 2009The Lake Spokane Outpost weekly newspaper published the following article about TIEG…
GARDEN CLUB DRAWS LARGE FOLLOWING
“No Boring Treasurer’s Reports,” Prez Says
Talk about global vision. The Meyer sisters have it. It is called “World Floral Domination” in ViAnn Meyer’s words. After 15 years shaking up Spokane’s gardening scene, and having safely established The Inland Empire Gardeners club as the “funnest” garden club in the country, the Meyer sisters are looking to take on the world, one geranium pot at a time.
But before we go on to the global vision, let’s take a look at how the Meyer Sisters came to dominate the local scene gardening first. Their story, as often times great stories are, started out as serendipity.
In 1994, ViAnn, Della and Chris Meyer were living quietly and minding their own business on their ½ acre garden in their own backyard. One day, some ladies from the Associated Garden Club were doing a drive-by scouting for potential garden tour candidates. They spotted the youngest of the three sisters Chris, in the yard. Chris gave a tour of their young garden. That August, under persuasion, the sisters opened their cat-theme garden to about 3,000 visitors. And the rest, as they say, is history.
Among the gardeners that visited were a handful of the then 2-month old Inland Empire Gardeners club members. “These guys kept coming back to bug us to join the club,” ViAnn recalls. But she would have nothing to do with it. “Garden clubs are for silver-hair old ladies,” she remembers thinking then. Della and Chris went to TIEG meetings themselves, sometimes dragging ViAnn with them to exploit her culinary prowess for the club’s hospitality team. The club had 22 members then. ViAnn endured those meetings reading magazines.
Sometime in 1997, ViAnn was drafted to type meeting minutes. “Only because I am good at typing,” she says. “Those meetings were so damned boring I started to inject my own little humor!” And a colorful revolution began. “I was setting the agenda for the meetings before I was official! I kinda secretly ran things before I was even empowered!” The members enjoyed the humor so much that in 1998 they voted her president of the club.
Since then, the three sisters have become synonymous with TIEG. In the words of Helen Hodson, one of the original founders of TIEG, when the sisters joined the club, they “didn’t just stir the pot. They broke the pot in half!” Together, the sisters present a fierce driving force in the revolution of Spokane’s gardening scene.
As soon as ViAnn became president, out went meeting minutes, treasurer’s report, Robert’s Rule of Orders… “the boring stuff,” ViAnn said. In came door prizes, raffles, parties, and oh, yes, food, lots of it. “It’s got to be all about fun!” The sisters explain. “The secret of the success so far has been making it fun for everybody. We make them laugh,” Della, the quiet older sister observes. “People have a lot of options with their free time today. You got to make it about fun,” agrees the youngest, Chris.
It is hard to distinguish who contributes what to the enormous success this garden club enjoys. The sisters work together seamlessly as a team to nurse a small, obscured local garden club of 28 members to its current 350-member strong non-profit organization. Some of its annual events attract garden communities as far as Seattle and Portland.
ViAnn, dubbed “the Mouth” is the spokeswoman of the group. “I will say anything for a laugh.” she admits. With her gift of gab, her effortless charm, and an ease to entertain a crowd large or small, she runs the monthly meetings with great relish. Della, the quieter oldest one, known as “the Brain” scouts magazines, internets for trends and new ideas for the club to test, and for resource for their award-winning newsletter. She pushes innovation behind the scene. Chris, the youngest, also known as “the Muscle” (because she puts in the most amount of physical work into the execution of meetings, parties, tours, plants sales, etc.) is always the one to turn the lights on and off for all the parties.
In the spring of 1999, the sisters hit upon an idea: what if they had a special theme meeting and invited sponsors to talk about trends in the gardening world? On April 1, 1999, the first Garden Expo was held in lieu of the club’s regular monthly evening meeting. Because they had played it up within the club, 300 people showed up in what would normally be a 60-people event. Phyllis Stephens was the guest speaker. “At that point, we knew we had something really big coming, something really special,” ViAnn recalls. The next year, 95 vendors signed and 2000 visitors followed. The club and the sisters were “blown away.” Spokane was catching on to the vision of the Meyer sisters and unleashing its flower power. But everyone who works hard knows that behind success, there is no fluke, but diligence.
The Meyer sisters have been going to Northwest Flower and Garden Show in Seattle. They always marvel at the show and wondered why there wasn’t one like that in Spokane. They approached unsuccessfully the show’s professional promoters. No one else believed Spokane was ready for an event of like magnitude. Unconvinced and undeterred, ViAnn opened the yellow pages and started compiling her own vendor list. “I have contact information for everything related to gardens in 150-mile radius and beyond.” ViAnn reveals some of her trade secrets. In 2000, when those 95 vendors showed up, they took a leap of faith, along with the Meyer sisters, on the community. The year’s Expo theme “Gardening as an Adventure,” says it all for what lay behind and ahead for the Meyer sisters.
“The Garden Expo is really like a grass root movement,” as Chris explains the philosophy behind the project. “A lot of Mom and Pop businesses need this time and venue to expose itself…” “And we simply provide that venue,” Della finishes her sister’s thought. Likewise, it provides local gardeners a concentrated time and place to get clued in on what is being offered by the region’s nurseries and vendors. And what a happy match-making it is, as it is attested by its ever growing annual attendance anticipated by all gardeners far and near. Last year, by the estimate of Spokane Community College where the event is held, about 15,000 visitors and 250 vendors came together for this one-day garden shopping and selling spree. Vendors like Northland Rosarium have been consistent supporters. “It is the only show of its kind that is completely run by volunteers,” the sisters proudly point out. Because of that, they are able to keep it free to the public year after year.
The theme for this year’s expose is “Gardening around the World–Floral Domination”, which brings us back to the beginning of the story. The timing of the theme is very interesting. If America suffers from the fall from world financial domination, heck, we can make it up in floral domination! And given the Meyer sisters’ vision, dedication, drive and skill, you can bet on it. Consider the garden expose on May 9th a preview to the America’s floral prowess to the world.
Reprinted by permission by Juan Juan Moses
(for more stories, go to www.Lakespokaneoutpost.com)
Cracked Pots, TIEG’s container gardening group, held its first event of the year last Saturday.
