1947

In its inaugural year 1941, The St. Louis Herb Society became the St. Louis Unit of the Herb Society of America.

“The first major project of the unit was the establishment under Dr. Alice Tryon in 1947 of the sweet-scented Pelargonium Garden at the Missouri Botanical Garden. This collection of the exotic South American natives was described as ‘very valuable’. It was maintained jointly with the Garden for many years and at its height comprised the largest and finest collection of accurately labeled scented geraniums in the new World.” Mary A. Gamble, “The St. Louis Herb Society: Its First Twenty-Five Years”, Missouri Botanical Garden Bulletin, March 1966, volume LIV, number 3, page 7.

Archived records about the Pelargonium Garden suggest that Unit members were the first horticultural volunteers to work outdoors at the Missouri Botanical Garden. (Because of wartime staff shortages, the Garden did permit some volunteers to work in its greenhouses in St. Louis in 1944 and 1945.)

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