Sarasota Garden Club hosts Civic Beautification Awards

The Sarasota Garden Club has responsibilities involving multiple local gardens, including the Sarasota Botanical Gardens at its clubhouse, but members are always keeping an eye on other locations as well. 

Throughout the year, club members take images of commercial buildings, submitting them to the club, to be selected by members as exemplifying civic beautification. 

“I think everybody feels better when they see a beautiful landscape like we have here,” said club President Emily Yaffe.

Like most garden clubs in the country, the club hosts a Civic Beautification Awards ceremony every year, which this year was held Jan. 29. 

The ceremony awarded plaques to Lefty's Oyster & Seafood Bar, The Sarasota County Operations Center (East County), William Raveis Real Estate, Sarasota Memorial Hospital and Cirque St. Armands Beachside.

The club also awarded certificates to 14 other organizations, including St. Armands Key Lutheran Church and the Peppertree Bay rental business in Siesta Key, who were both in attendance.

“Our belief is good landscaping means good business, and if you see a place that's well-landscaped in the front, you think when you walk in that business, they're going to be paying the same attention to their products and the way they treat you,” said member Sharon Davisson.

Mario Romero, who is vice president of Peppertree Bay called it a "very nice, rewarding feeling" that someone recognized the effort put into the property. 

He said the property was always known as a botanical property, but when it was damaged by floodwaters in 2024, it had to be reassembled.

"We have a pretty big team when it comes to our landscape,"
said Property Manager William Seeley.

He said that includes maintenance staff performing daily checks, bi-weekly visits from a landscaping company, and the watchfulness of property owners to help identify irrigation breaks. 

Romero said the work involved lots of tearing out old plants was expensive, while it was difficult to obtaining plants within budget and find the right people to install them. 

"It's a combination of little jungly, a little beachy, a little tropical," Romero said of the setting. "You want to feel you're on vacation year-round, and I think the landscaping kind of puts you in that direction."