Our Story
The Leander Garden Club is older than most of Leander itself — and its roots go just as deep.
The club was founded in 1957 by the Giddens sisters: Eula Lee Craven, Essa Wiley, Mamie Morgan, and Eva Jones, along with their sister-in-law, Beth (Perkins) Giddens. From the very start, the club was woven into the fabric of the families who had built this community from the ground up. Charter members Irene (Hamilton) Mason and Leona Williamson both descended from the Hamilton family, who first settled this land in the 1850s. Their relatives and close friends joined them as founding members — Bernice (Knox) Wiley, Mary "Jimmie" Alley, Waurane Cluck, Lily May (Branch) Upchurch, and Ethel May — and together they planted something that has been growing ever since.
Community
Throughout the decades, the Leander Garden Club has shown up for this city again and again. In 1968, the club received an award from the Texas Hospital Association for its donations to a local rest home. In 1970, members co-sponsored Leander's first Clean Up Day and organized multiple annual blood drives for the small, close-knit community this city once was. In 1975, the club raised the funds to purchase and install the Leander historic marker on Old 183 near Atkin Street — a piece of local history that still stands today.
The years that followed brought more milestones. The club was an early sponsor of Old Leander Days in 1988, helped establish the original Leander Public Library at Leander High School in 1987, landscaped Giddens Elementary that same year, and went on to landscape the library's first independent location in 1991. Along the way, the club has funded scholarships, helped establish parks, and worked to beautify civic buildings across the community.
The members themselves have left a lasting mark on Leander. Three former members have schools named for them in Leander ISD: Pauline Naumann Elementary, Bernice Wiley Middle School, and Florence Stiles Middle School. And Lois F. Giddens Elementary was named in honor of Beth Giddens' husband — a fitting tribute in a city where the Giddens name helped start it all.
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Always Growing
Alongside its community work, the Leander Garden Club has always been a place of curiosity and learning. A look back through our meeting records tells the story of a club that was ahead of its time — members were exploring hydroponic gardening and square foot gardening as early as 1985, discussing native plants and avoiding invasive exotics in 1986, and embracing wildflowers by 1990. Xeriscape gardening came up in 1994, rainwater harvesting in 2012, wicking beds in 2013, attracting beneficial insects in 2014, and dry gardening in 2015.
The topics change with the times, but the spirit never does. Today, the Leander Garden Club welcomes anyone who loves plants, wants to grow their knowledge, and is eager to share what they learn with the community around them. Sixty-some years on, the small-town warmth that started this club is still very much alive — and there is always room for one more.