Casa Bendita and the Blossoming Legacy: The Garden Club of Palm Beach’s Century of Community and Conservation
This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast:
March 28, 1928
Dearest reader,
On this day, the illustrious Margarita Grace Phipps, wife of John S. Phipps of the famed Phipps family, hosted a gathering at her splendid home, Casa Bendita, to launch The Garden Club of Palm Beach.
Only fifteen women attended that inaugural meeting, but among them was Mrs. Frederick E. Guest, whose original vision sparked the formation of a club that would grow to become a vital force in the community’s horticultural and civic life.
Casa Bendita, with its once sprawling six-acre garden, has blossomed into what is now known as Casa Phippsberger, Palm Beach’s most stunning private botanical garden.
The Garden Club itself remains a beacon of conservation and beauty, ensuring its voice is heard by maintaining a presence at every town meeting—a strategy that keeps it ever ready to support community opportunities.
The club’s achievements read like a gardener’s dream. In 2010, they erected a beautification and education garden at the Southern Oasis Traffic Circle, filled with plants perfectly suited to the Palm Beach climate. The same year, xeriscape landscaping was installed in eight Kaleidoscope Flower Beds along Royal Poinciana Way, promoting water-wise gardening. The following year, the club’s vertical “Living Wall” transformed the façade of Saks Fifth Avenue, becoming an iconic element of Worth Avenue’s restoration.
In 2021, the club demonstrated its ingenious spirit with the creation of the four-acre Bradley Park Tidal Garden. Facing challenges from frequent flooding caused by king tides—high, powerful tides that threaten the landscape—the club partnered with SMI Landscape Architecture LLC to design sunken gardens with channels that safely divert water. Native plants and climbable cap-stone boulders invite both resilience and play, making the garden a lasting refuge for both nature and children.
Looking forward, the club now embarks upon the restoration of the Chinese Garden at The Society of the Four Arts, where nine themed demonstration gardens teach and enchant visitors. These gardens include the fragrant Moonlight Garden, Bromeliad Garden, Jungle Garden, and many others, each a living classroom for beauty and ecology.
Dear reader, might the story of The Garden Club of Palm Beach inspire you to dream of what careful stewardship, thoughtful design, and community spirit can achieve?
How does your garden reflect not just your taste, but your commitment to nature and the generations to come?
