Cary Wins Big at State Garden Convention

Cary, NC – Cary is known for being a good-looking town but that does not all happen naturally. And at this year’s Garden Clubs of North Carolina, Inc. Convention, the gardeners who work to make Cary’s gardens bloom took home several of the night’s biggest awards.

Top Prizes in the State

The Cary Garden Club won nine awards at the 2017 convention in Greensboro, including the Gail Hill Scholarship Award, National Garden Week Award and Club of the Year Award.

But three of the night’s biggest awards went to the Cary Garden Club for their work on the Page-Walker pollinator garden and Hillcrest Cemetery, both Town of Cary projects. These awards were the first place for the Garden For Wildlife Award and Polly Bennett Conservation & Preservation Award, and they were named the overall winners for the Protecting Our Pollinators Award.

Margie Maddox, public relations liaison for the Cary Garden Club, said the work of the club comes from their commitment to the Cary community.

“It’s a wonderful place to live and we want to promote it and keep it beautiful,” Maddox said.

And with these awards, Maddox said the club members get to have their work recognized.

“I think the club members do a lot of things to give to the community,” Maddox said. “We’re not just little old ladies out planting flowers. What we do has an impact.”

The Cary Garden Club’s top awards in the Page-Walker Pollinator Garden

Partner with the Town

With the hard work the Cary Garden Club put in, Maddox said much of it would not be possible without the Town of Cary.

“At the Page-Walker, they had to the idea for a pollinator garden. They cleaned the land for us so we could work it,” Maddox said.

Similarly, with Hillcrest Cemetery, Maddox said much of it taken care of by Cary and they focus on the gardening aspect.

“We do our share and they do more than their share,” she said. “It’s a mutual relationship.”

This June, the Cary Garden Club will be participating in National Garden Week. Among the events and activities they will be putting on is beautifying the InterAct women’s shelter, giving tours of community gardens and doing a program at the Cary Senior Center to highlight local gardens.

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Story by Michael Papich. Photos courtesy of Margie Maddox and Michael Papich. Gardening content on CaryCitizen is sponsored by Garden Supply Company on Old Apex Road in Cary.