Beautifying Leigh Plummer Park

Calusa Garden Club of Marco Island is starting early on a project to be completed in the fall of 2023. The project is installation of a garden in Leigh Plummer Memorial Park, located on Barfield Drive and Piedmont Circle, in order to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the club’s affiliation with Florida Federation of Garden Clubs and National Garden Clubs, Inc. Members Marianne Foley and Sue Oldershaw are chairpersons of the project.  They chose Leigh Plummer Park as the location of this garden because Calusa Garden Club worked with Collier County in 1982 to establish the park as a native plant educational area. Foley contacted the City of Marco Island Parks and Recreation department and was pleased that the City of Marco Island agreed to go ahead with the project. A plaque commemorating the Club’s work in Leigh Plummer Park is located just south of the parking area of the park.

In 1982, Calusa Garden Club of Marco Island contacted Collier County to propose that the Barfield Drive park would be a native plant educational area. The Deltona Corporation developers had set aside the area for a park. Under a collaboration between Calusa Garden Club and Collier County, Leigh Plummer Memorial Park was established in 1984, and garden club members chose the park’s trees and plants and planted many of them.  At the dedication of the park, the county officials announced that the park would be named Leigh Plummer Memorial Park. The namesake for the park, Leigh Plummer, was a Marco Island resident and longtime Board Member and President of Marco Island Civic Association.  Nell Plummer, Mr. Plummer’s wife, was a member of Calusa Garden Club.  The county officials also announced that the pond would be named Calusa Lake, after the first Native American settlers of Marco Island.

Calusa Garden Club members enthusiastically supported Foley and Oldershaw’s proposal to establish the garden and agreed to work in the garden and donate plants from their collections. The photos show members fastening orchids to seagrape trees, planting bromeliads, and arranging tillandsia in the trees.  A work group of Garden Club members pose in their “Calusa Garden Club at Work” t-shirts before getting their hands dirty in the soil.

Foley and Oldershaw plan to populate the garden with plants donated by Calusa Garden Club members.  They also contacted the children of deceased garden club member, Eva Schliesser, a founder of Calusa Garden Club, and asked permission to transfer some of Schliesser’s tree-mounted orchids from her home to the new garden. The result of their efforts include two large vigorous orchids that have been transferred to Leigh Plummer Park and are mounted in the seagrape trees in the garden area.

Community members Charlette Roman and Linda Shockley have been Marco Island orchid growers for over 20 years and are friends of Calusa Garden Club. They learned of the project, and recently donated some of their collection of orchids to the garden. Other community members who frequent the park have watched the garden development with interest and are excited about the new look for the park. Some Marco Islanders have made donations to Calusa Garden Club of Marco Island to underwrite the cost of mulch and other supplies needed to complete the garden.

Calusa Garden Club is a member of the Florida Federation of Garden Clubs and membership is open to those interested in horticulture, floral design and environmental matters residing five months or more in Collier County.  

Calusa Garden Club meets October through April. Contact the Garden Club at calusagardenclub@yahoo.com, or visit the Garden Club’s website calusa.org, or its Facebook page Calusa Garden Club.