“To stimulate the knowledge and love of gardening and to contribute to the beautification of the community”:  This is the purpose of the Hancock Park Garden Club, and our programs and fund-raising reflect this purpose. 

HPGC monthly meetings feature horticulture, conservation, flower arranging, and garden history and design.  Our biennial fund-raiser has provided funds in the past for such projects as a teaching garden and education program at the children’s residential facility at Hollygrove, flower planters for the Larchmont Boulevard shopping district as well as the creation and planting of a median strip on Larchmont Boulevard, and a botanical tour pamphlet for the Los Angeles Zoo and Botanical Garden. 

In addition, our Club has extensively restored, with money and loving hands, the rose garden at Getty House, which is in our neighborhood and which serves as the official residence of the Mayor of Los Angeles.   
As a member of the Garden Club of America, the Hancock Park Garden Club provides many national opportunities to its members.  We were resoundingly successful in proposing the 24th Street School project to the GCA’s Founders Fund Award committee:  it won the national voting and we were given $25,000 to be awarded to this project. Membership in such an active and respected national organization also involves responsibilities.  The Annual Meetings and Zone Meetings require us to send delegates to host cities, and Conservation and Horticulture meetings are also held around the country.  These have been excellent opportunities for some of us to meet other Garden Club members and thus expose ourselves to further education and the ultimate enjoyment of gardening.  As individuals, we may also visit gardens in member cities, join trips here and abroad, and attend flower shows presented by other member clubs.

Within our club, new members serve on the Horticulture Committee, along with other members.  We learn to propagate a variety of plants, and most are sold to ourselves at our meetings or at our fund-raiser.  General meetings are held on the fourth Tuesday of each month, except for June, July, August, and December.  We meet at 10:15 a.m. for business, enjoy a presentation by a guest speaker, and have luncheon following.  A field trip is often included in the year’s schedule.