The Women of the DCA Greenhouse
By PAMELA DEY VOSSLER, photos by BAMBI RIEGEL | riegelpictureworks.com
DCA Greenhouse members: Back row: Liza Smith, Flora Smeaton, Alice Watson, Susan Wilson, Sue Hayes, Mary Bloomer, Laura Mosher, Donna Gunya, Robin Ackerman, Front row: Nancy Goell, Ginger Morgan, Sheila Sherwood, Caroline Burke, Eve Mauger, Kristy Barclay, Madeleine Treesh, Patty von Jena, Carolyn Eddie
It’s earthy, pungent. You know that smell. It’s the rich, all-is-right-with-the-world scent that comes from dirt, good dirt. The sort used for potting. It’s the smell of a greenhouse filled with plants grown with the kind of care and got-your-back bonhomie that could erase all discord if we could figure a way to package and distribute it. There’s a dampness behind it, a hospitable humidity that encircles you with a sense of peace and possibility.
Such is the greenhouse of the Darien Community Association (DCA) and the group that operates it: the Greenhouse Girls, as they call themselves.
“The DCA strives to offer something for everyone in the community, and one of the ways we do this is through groups that are organized around a particular common interest or passion,” said DCA Executive Director Amy Bell. “The Greenhouse Group, established 35 years ago, not only provides a vehicle for members to share a love of gardening, it is a wonderful example of camaraderie, new friendships and community connection which is an important part of our DCA mission,” she continued.
Reliable and reassuring, the DCA Greenhouse is a place of plants cultivated organically in community—with much talk, a lot of laughs, and learning, by a group as solid and inspiring as the space they steward—through their shared love of growing things and the energy, good cheer and generosity of spirit that come with it.
And no wonder.
When your game is growing things—hope and optimism are the lines on the field, faith and patience the rules of engagement. Vision too. With all that, of course your cup is half full—nurturing life from a seed, keeping out the bad, locking in the good through water, warmth, properly timed re-potting, some good organic fertilizing and steady de-bugging, all aimed solely at making the world more beautiful.
“The thing with gardening, what you do now, doesn’t bear fruit until six months later,” said Greenhouse member (and our own Darien Cooks contributor!) Carolyn Eddie. “That’s why I think of it as hope and optimism,” she said.
Greenhouse members nurture plants on benches along the outside of the Greenhouse; plants in the middle are for the plant sale
“It’s like you’re giving a gift to yourself for the future,” said current Greenhouse President and 18-year Darien resident Sue Hayes of gardening, particularly perennials which comprise the majority of the plants the group cultivates.
They are an eclectic mix of 27 women. Their ages span up to 30 years from youngest to oldest. Some are retired—from banks, law firms, schools, fashion houses …the RAF even. Others are not. Some are still raising children; others have grandchildren. There are master gardeners, beginning gardeners; people who’ve dabbled with plants but want to know more and people who design gardens for a living.
Without the Greenhouse, most would never meet. With the Greenhouse, they are rooted in each other’s lives like the oldest growth forests.
“We are a group of women in different stages of life who share our love of gardening and learn so much from each other,” said Sheila Sherwood, a 15-year member of the Greenhouse and longtime resident of Darien. “Some came to the Greenhouse, as I did, a novice. Others are master gardeners. We share a joy in seeing the Greenhouse filled with our plants each year. It is interesting to me, what varied backgrounds we have,” she added.
“Despite the quite vast difference in ages, we all get along so well, support each other in times of tragedy or illness, and share a common love of plants and gardening,” said Eve Mauger, a landscape designer and the longest standing member of the Greenhouse. She joined 25 years ago, shortly after her arrival in town from Seattle.
“I was deeply touched by the kindness of my Greenhouse friends 11 years ago when my husband passed away,” said Sheila. “Many worked with me in my garden and brought meals for my family,” she continued.
The social aspect, too, is a big part of being a member, according to Eve. “We have a Christmas party every year as well as an end-of-year lunch at someone’s home. We try and visit at least one public garden a year and also have ‘cocktails in the garden’ at our own homes during the summer, to show off our gardens and discuss our favorite topic—plants!” she added.
Left: Sheila Sherwood (left) and Alice Watson “potting up” in the DCA Greenhouse, Right: Bug teams work in groups of four to identify plants for dipping in an organic wash to rid them of the pests
“(The group) is generated from affinity but then it becomes friendship through affinity,” said Sue.
…and hard work.
This group knows good things take time, and commitment.
“You get out what you put in,” said Sue, who grew up in northern England, the daughter of passionate gardeners who continue to tend a plot, though in their late eighties.
New members join the propagation (prop) team. Led by experienced members, they raise plants from seeds, plugs or cuttings, giving hours each week to planting, watering, learning which plants need to be under lights, how often they need water and when to divide and transfer them to progressively bigger pots.
“Plants are like cats,” explained Sue. “They like to be cozy and contained, so plants need to be re-potted as they grow.” Thus the shelf in the Greenhouse piled high with stacks of 3-inch, 4-inch and quart-sized pots.
While each member has their own or a half share of a bench, space in the Greenhouse on which up to 80 or so plants that have graduated from propagation reside, all take turns with the various leadership roles needed to run the place—president, treasurer, secretary, membership chair, prop team leader, plant sale leader, bug captain, supplies chief and more. No ego. Just a willingness to get the job done and not overburden any one member. Regardless of whether or not a plant belongs to them or a fellow member, all trade off with daily watering, the fertilizing, the looking for bugs, the ridding of bugs through organic washes, the potting up of those cat-like plants at intentional ‘potting parties’ and on ad hoc afternoons, the checking to make sure the Greenhouse heater kicks on as it should during the cold months, that no panes break in storms and the warmth and extra light stays on the propagating seeds that need it, the pinching out and the hardening off as spring arrives.
Through it all, there is chatter, that easy conversation that flows when tasks are easy, manual and repetitive—releasing the mind to wander as it will.
“Going there for a quick check-up (on my plants) usually turns into a much longer event if there are other members coming and going,” said Eve. “We always have much to talk about!” she added.
“The ladies are fun, interesting, worldly and passionate about gardening! I really enjoy our chats as we pot and plant,” said first-year member Liane Hamilton who moved to Darien in 2020.
And no topic is off the table. “What’s said in the Greenhouse stays in the Greenhouse,” said Sue, laughing.
“What’s said in the Greenhouse stays in the Greenhouse,” said Sue, laughing.
Starting in September and culminating with an annual plant sale in May to benefit the DCA mission (including college scholarships for Darien High School graduates), the Greenhouse Group operates out of the historic Lord and Burnham Greenhouse behind the Meadowlands, the main structure of the DCA. Original to the 100-year-old estate, the Greenhouse was built to service the formal gardens designed by Ellen Biddle Shipman, one of the first female landscape architects. A marvel of early 20th-century mechanics that has stood the test of time, it features automatic openings linked to a thermostat to regulate the temperature inside.
From their shared affinity and work together, the concern the Women of the DCA Greenhouse have for one another grows tallest. Like the bugs, the water, the temperature of the Greenhouse—what affects one, affects all. While some know each other better than others, with friendships that extend beyond the dirt, they are committed equally to one another in an all-for-one approach of care and respect.
“I’ve made some very close friends with some of the women. Some of them I see outside of the Greenhouse. Some of the women I really only see at the Greenhouse or at Greenhouse functions, but that doesn’t make us any less caring or respectful of each other,” said Robin Ackerman,
a retired men’s fashion executive who joined the Greenhouse in 2009, shortly after she moved to Darien from New York City to join her new husband.
There’s such a generosity of spirit among these women. And trust. They show up for each other. And they don’t keep score. Not just in the Greenhouse where members seamlessly cover for members who may be traveling or otherwise unable to tend their plants or take their turn with an assigned task, but in all else as well.
“It’s a given that we’re there for each other,” said Carolyn.
They attend all DCA events in support of members who also hold board positions within the larger organization …and those wildly popular DCA high teas led by Carolyn Eddie each fall and spring? Nearly every one of her helpers is a member of Greenhouse.
Left: Newer member Liza Smith at work in the Greenhouse with Eve Mauger, the longest standing member of the group, right: Members of the Greenhouse Group rally each fall and spring to help Carolyn Eddie (far left) with the elaborate teas she leads for the DCA
Fundamental to the growing is giving, certainly—and that includes the plants themselves. Members give them to their friends, to the plant sale and to each other, creating a history of the DCA Greenhouse in gardens throughout town, each plant representing its grower.
“I have a whole section of monkshood in my garden that came from Eve’s garden,” said Susan Wilson who joined the Greenhouse seven years ago, after years of donating plants from her own garden in Darien to the plant sale.
“When other Greenhouse people come to my garden and walk around, they know all the plants so they feel at home in my garden. Because we’ve all grown it,” said Sue.
The plant sale, run and supplied entirely by the Greenhouse Group—from what they grow throughout the winter in the Greenhouse, from what they harvest from their own gardens, and from what they source from other gardens, generates up to $10k a year for the DCA.
“It really is a sharing community,” said Carolyn.
Perhaps most of all, the Greenhouse is a refuge.
“When there’s a blizzard, there’s no better place to be than in there,” said Susan. “It’s just full of life. It smells great. If there’s snow accumulating on the glass, it creates shadows that bounce off the plants. There’s just something about it. It just feels good. You’re all alone. It’s quiet. It’s peaceful.”
“People view it more as a sanctuary. Somewhere to decompress,” said Carolyn.
“You breathe out,” agreed Sue.
“But it’s also where you can hang out and put your hands in the dirt and …it’s other worldly to be honest,” said Carolyn.
“The plants don’t give you trouble. They just grow. And they just do what they’re supposed to do and they’re grateful. They’re always so grateful—plants, aren’t they?” added Sue.
When the biggest controversies center on how often to water, and how to manage the beautiful but buggy plectranthus (to banish or not to banish it from the Greenhouse!) is about as sinister as it gets, the women of the DCA Greenhouse, and the world they inhabit, are hope and optimism for us all—the best dirt for any kind of growth.
