The only Federated garden club in Selma was founded in 1940 and named, simply, City Garden Club. It was not until 2004 that its name was changed to Butterfly Capital Garden Club, appropriately, as its present treasurer and longtime member is Mallieve Breeding. Due to her sponsorship, Selma is known as the Butterfly Capital of Alabama. But her interests and those of the Butterfly Capital Garden Club extend beyond even the beautiful butterfly.

The club was organized “to promote interest in gardens, their design, management and culture, to cooperate in the protection

of wildflowers and trees, to exchange experiences and to protect birds and beautify our highways,” so states Article 2 of its Constitution.

Club officers are: Lili Wolfe, president; Barbara Ryan, vice president; Seleta Cook Llewelyn, secretary; Norma McCrory, parliamentarian; and Margaret Prestel, chaplain. At their monthly meetings, held from September to June, ongoing projects are discussed and new ones planned.

The most recent, and charming, is “Liddie the Litter Lady,” who was first created with litter in a Birmingham garden club, which requested other garden clubs to do the same. The challenge was given

three creative members of the Selma club:

Kathi Needham, Susie Honeycutt, Billy Rogers and Barbara Ryan.

“And our beloved Liddie was born,” says President Wolfe.

Liddie is sent to area schools to help create awareness of litter and how to be better stewards of the environment. Currently, she is at Morgan Academy reminding students to be creative with their litter by recycling it. Area schools, preferably Fourth Grade teachers, may call Wolfe at 874-3882 and schedule a classroom visit from Liddie.

Any class that creates a companion for Liddie may enter it in the garden club contest, which will be judged at Earth Day Exhibition. The winning class receives a pizza party at their school.On Earth Day a booth is set up at the Old Armory and school children attend and are taught about garden related subjects. Last year and again this year the subject is butterflies, native to the area. They discuss its life cycle, flowers they like to eat and how they help the environment. Liddie is also present.

Memorial tree planting is an ongoing project of the club. Last year they planted trees at the Methodist Children’s Home in front of the chapel. In years past trees have been planted at area schools, at Cahaba Mental Health Center, and this year a tree will be planted at the new home being built by Habitat for Humanity.

Butterfly Capital Garden Club also oversees a garden plot deeded to them years ago on Highway 80 East. Native wildflowers have been planted there, providing a beautiful glimpse of nature at its best.

Scholarships are promoted for university students, in a continuing effort by the club.

At the Vaughan-Smitherman Museum there is a federated garden club room on the second floor. Too small for the club’s increased membership to meet in, the room holds a collection of scrapbooks, yearbooks, donated antique furniture and awards.

For the past two years the club has received the Alabama Gardeners Gold Seal Club of Distinction Award.

President Wolfe has set two goals for the club:

to reach out to area students and make them aware of the importance of taking care of their environment – and to remember that Selma is the Butterfly Capital of Alabama; to make the schools aware of the scholarship money available to students show want to major in horticulture.

The City Attorney of Papillion, Nebraska, was a recent visitor to the museum. Upon his return home he wrote to the Museum of the history of his community, which was first visited by French fur traders in the 1700s. Noticing that the area was a nesting site for Monarch butterflies, they gave it the French name for butterflies, Papillion. And he enclosed an emblem to the “flower club membership.”