Jacksonville’s Garden Club has been making the city more colorful for 79 years. According to the club’s constitution, one purpose of the organization is to encourage civic beauty and to stimulate roadside development. You can tell each member of the garden club has a passion for beautiful plant life and want to share that beauty with the city.

That is just what Mary Andrews wants to do. For a long time Andrews had tossed different ideas on how to improve Jacksonville’s Public Square. She came up with a beautification plan, and made it her mission. A certified Master Gardener of Calhoun County and vice president of the Jacksonville Garden Club, Andrews is the one responsible for the new potted plants that have been placed around the square.

“I have had a dream of doing this for many years and knowing what our City Square could look like,” said Andrews. “My motto is ‘If you have a will, you will have a way.’”

With a plan in mind and her heart set on seeing it through, Andrews went to the mayor to get permission to start making improvements to the square.

“When I first asked the mayor last fall, he said ‘Do as you please with the middle island,’” said Andrews. “My husband commented, ‘Does the mayor know you and it could be dangerous?’”

Andrews was not alone. Her fellow members of the garden club helped her out.

“The Jacksonville Garden Club supported my project by buying flower pots,” said Andrews. “I also got plants donated by the club that we propagate every Wednesday for our yearly plant sale.”

Susan Wheeler, president of Jacksonville’s Garden Club, described Andrews as a fireball in her dedication to get the project done. From the beginning Andrews spearheaded the project and inspired the Garden Club members to make Jacksonville Square more beautiful, said Wheeler.

Andrews is not done with the square yet. She described the potted plants as ‘phase one of three.’ Future improvements by Andrews and her flower loving friends will include placing flowerpots with knockout roses at the entrances of the square and placing hanging baskets with flowers around the storefronts.

Before that, however, Andrews is set to have a little vacation time with her granddaughter. They are set to go to Europe where Andrews will show her granddaughter, Justic Bird, where she grew up in England.