Where Every Season Blooms Together.

Celebrating gardening, friendship, and community in Suffolk since 1928.

Pre-Order Peony Plants

Plant a peony this fall and it will outlive you. That is horticulture, not sentiment. Sited well and left alone, a peony can bloom in the same spot for a hundred years, which makes it one of the few things you can buy in October that your granddaughter will cut for her own table.

Peonies with a Purpose is the Nansemond River Garden Club's annual sale. Eight varieties, offered as bare roots in three-packs and as established clumps, shipped directly to your door in time for fall planting. You order, we handle the rest, and the plants arrive when the ground is ready for them.

The blooms come in May. The work they pay for starts now.

Outline of a bouquet of flowers with detailed floral patterns.

Our Mission

To Celebrate the Beauty of the Land, to Conserve the gifts of nature and to Challenge future generations to build on this heritage.

The Difference We Make

Close-up of a sign with text about landscape beds and a town crest, with a black metal fence and gravel ground in the background.

Preserving Our Heritage

At Cedar Hill Cemetery, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, we continue to maintain the Heritage and Scatter Gardens. Established in 2007, these gardens were honored with the Garden Club of Virginia's prestigious

Common Wealth Award - a living tribute to our region's rich history.

View of an entrance area in Suffolk, Virginia featuring potted red flowers, tables, and lampposts, with a colorful mural and blue sky in the background.

Beautifying Our Community

We're transforming shared spaces like Festival Park with vibrant landscaping, trees, and the newly named gardens.

Our $10,000 contribution helped create a welcoming green space for community events and gatherings - a new heart for Downtown.

A box titled 'Watershed Explorers' leaning against a metal bench outdoors, with a map of the Connecticut River Watershed and informational pamphlets nearby.

Supporting Watershed Education

We're proud to support the Nansemond River

Preservation Alliance and their "Watershed Explorers - WE Can Make a Difference" program. This hands-on experience teaches 3rd graders how they can protect and preserve our local waterways.

A bouquet of pink flowers, including gerbera daisies and other blossoms, in a striped ceramic pot, placed on a decorative black metal table, with pink and white patterned fabric in the background.

Inspiring The Next Generation

Since 1981, Ecology Camp has connected rising 3rd and 4th graders with nature, sparking curiosity and care for the environment. This week-long June camp encourages voung minds to explore the human-nature connection and their role in protecting ecosystems. And, is a cherished outreach project of the Garden Club, building environmental awareness in the next generation.

Four women stand under a black patio umbrella, smiling behind a table with a large floral arrangement, in a garden setting.
Colorful flower arrangement with hydrangeas, lisianthus, and other flowers in a wicker basket on a table, with pastel-colored glasses, napkins, bamboo utensils, and a floral tablecloth in an outdoor setting.

About the Nansemond River Garden Club

The Nansemond River Garden Club was founded on October 26, 1928, by a group of Suffolk women who thought their city deserved better than what was growing in it. Eight years later the club was admitted to the Garden Club of Virginia, and it has held that membership ever since.

Nearly a century on, the work is still done by hand. Members funded the preservation plan for Cedar Hill Cemetery, an effort that went on to win a state award for the landscape architects who wrote it. They have worked to beautify the Suffolk Museum, supported the Nansemond River Preservation Alliance in getting water-monitoring instruments into elementary school classrooms, and sent teams to Richmond to arrange flowers in the old Senate chamber for two governors' inaugurations.

The river in the club's name is not decorative. It is the reason for the conservation work, the ecology camp, and the letters members have written to Richmond over the years on behalf of the Virginia landscape.

NRGC Board & Committee Chairwomen

  • Amy Birdsong

    PUBLIC RELATIONS; HISTORIC GARDEN WEEK

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  • Mary Alice Dorschel

    CEDAR HILL ADVISORY BOARD

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  • Sandy Hart

    EXHIBITS

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  • Paige Jessee

    Second Vice President

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  • Sara Ann Johnson

    ECOLOGY CAMP

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  • Susan Lawrence

    First Vice President

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  • Kristy McCormally

    WAYS AND MEANS

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  • Linda Minnix

    PRESIDENT

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  • Lynda Odom

    ARTISTIC DESIGN

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  • Troy Rapoport

    CONSERVATION

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  • Norma Spain

    HORTICULTURE

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  • Donna Standish

    FINANCE

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  • Catherine Wass

    CIVIC

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  • Terry Yates

    MEMBERSHIP

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