Our Founder

The Cedarburg Garden Club was founded in 1957 by Rita Bert, a long time Cedarburg resident.  While raising five children, Rita started the club as a way to spend time doing her favorite hobbies: gardening and crafts.

How it Started

The club concentrated on Rita’s two hobbies, gardening and crafts. The monthly club meetings started out in members’ homes.

As the club membership grew, they started meeting in various meeting rooms around town. And now the Cedarburg Garden Club meets monthly at the Cedarburg American Legion on the third Tuesday of each month.

More than Crafts and Gardening

Over the years, the club has been involved in many activities and fundraisers.  In fact, the club focused more on crafts relating to gardening. Members did flower arranging and judging at flower shows around the state.

Once a year, the members went on a trip to gardens and garden centers throughout the state. This tradition stuck and a bus trip is planned each year during the summer.

Additionally, an expert in the horticulture field was invited to give a program on a related topic such as perennial planting and annual selection, weed ID, herbal benefits, garden art, hybridization, and much more. To this day, the club still sponsors a guest speaker once a month and opens its doors to the public to enjoy before their monthly business meeting.

Plant Exchanges

For many years, the club members exchanged plants among each other every spring. That activity led to an Annual Plant Sale, which is now held as a time-honored tradition to fund various give-back programs in the community.

For over 20 years, the Cedarburg Garden Club has been selling home grown plants to the public every spring.

Commitment to Learning

Fundraising for education has also been important to the club.  The fundraisers provide education to the members and public, as well as monetary scholarships to horticulture students, organizations involved with nature, and city gardens.

We Thank You, Rita Bert

Because of Rita Bert, today there are many long-time members (some as long as 40 years!) who continue to pass along their knowledge and enthusiasm of gardening to new members.