The work of the Horticulture Committee is the heart of the Garden Club of Santa Barbara (GCSB). We work to stimulate knowledge and a love of gardening, to promote useful and valuable plants, and to conserve plants at risk. The committee supports responsible ways to plant, propagate, grow, and show by sponsoring lectures, demonstrations, meetings, projects, and work days for garden club members in the local garden community.

GCSB works closely with botanical institutions such as the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden and Santa Ynez Valley Botanic Garden and others to educate and promote the love of gardening in the unique and wondrous landscape of the central California coast and mountains.

From time to time, our Horticulture Committee takes on community projects  to restore, beautify, or maintain local gardens like the Arizona Garden and Rose Cutting Garden at Casa del Herrero, the Montecito Triangle project, or the Veterans Memorial Olive Grove at Mission Historical Park. To expand our gardening knowledge, we all learn how to propagate plants. This is often done in the greenhouses at Case del Herrero where we teach our new provisional tricks and tips to propagation.

The Garden Club of America hosts the annual national Shirley Meneice Horticulture Conference, which takes place at important botanical institutions around the country. GCSB sends an annual delegation of members to participate and learn about horticulture, who return to further educate our membership.

Rose Pruning Workshop

Receiving instructions from Dan Bifano, our resident rosarian

January 2024