Members of the Garden Club of Cape Coral maintain the award-winning Butterfly Garden at the Cape Coral Public Library. PHOTO PROVIDED

The Garden Club of Cape Coral is celebrating its 25th anniversary with a special event this Saturday, at Palmetto Pine Country Club.

Garden Club Co-President Ann Block said with the club beginning in 1997, the members wanted to celebrate their Garden Gala, the “special” anniversary, at 11:30 a.m., Saturday, May 14.

The event will feature a guest speaker, as well as past presidents, who will share a fun, funny or memorable moment.

“We have about seven presidents saying a little something about a special memory,” Block said.

Sherie Bleiler, who was the first president of the club, remains part of the club to this day.

“She does our Habitat for Humanity and has for years. We do a Women’s Build and landscaping around that. She is also our butterfly specialist,” Block said.

The special event will also feature a lunch, as well as a “beautiful” 25th anniversary cake from Lady Cakes.

“It should be a really wonderful day. We have working ladies in our club, which is wonderful, but we do have a lot of elder members, which will be really special for them,” she said.

Block became a member of the Garden Club of Cape Coral in 2017 after she moved to Cape Coral from Connecticut.

“A lot of us are from other parts of the country. I knew nothing about Southwest Florida gardening,” she said.

Although this is her third year as the president, the first two years was during COVID. This year she has a co-president Elsa Shutzman.

“We are having a lot of fun. The club has events monthly, garden tours. It’s a great group of ladies. I am so happy to know these talented ladies,” Block said. “We have so many types of talents. If we don’t know what the answer is, we have experts that do. We have eight to 10 Master Gardeners.”

A big project that was done throughout COVID was the club’s Blue Star Memorial, which is for the Armed Forces, past, present and future.

“In 2020, we did have a very small ceremony at ECO Park. We had it installed,” she said.

She said she enjoys the friendships the most of being a member of the Cape Coral Garden Club.

“Not only do we all work together and fund raise, we develop such genuine happy friendships. We have a social time before our meetings. We all chat. We all chat about plants and trees and flowers and anything garden related,” Block said.

The club currently has 120 members.

The Garden Club meets monthly, from September to May, on the second Wednesday each month at the Kiwanis Hall, 360 Santa Barbara Blvd., Cape Coral. The meetings include a social half hour, a business meeting and a speaker on an educational topic. New members are always welcome.

For more information visit www.gardenclubofcapecoral.com, as well as its Facebook page. The mailing address for the club is Garden Club of Cape Coral, PO Box 152022, Cape Coral, FL 33915.