Oleander Festival

The Bungalow has been booked nearly nonstop since the first week in March, so my stays on the island have been confined to a day and night or two between outgoing and incoming guests, mostly on weekdays. So, being here for a weekend of fun is a rare and wonderful opportunity for me to reconnect with my island friends and take part in some of Galveston’s special attractions.

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Betty Head Oleander Garden Park. 2020

Betty Head Oleander Garden Park. 2020

The International Oleander Festival was scheduled for today and, as a new member of the hosting organization, I definitely wanted to attend and support this annual event. The festival is the group’s primary fundraiser of the International Oleander Society (based right here in Galveston). Proceeds help maintain the Betty Head Oleander Garden Park, located at 2624 Sealy.

I arrived at the festival about 10 a.m., right after the gate of the park opened. I met my friend, Marlee, there and, together, we walked around, checked out the lovely potted oleanders for sale and the offerings of the food and merchandise vendors, and enjoyed listening to live musical performances.

Sadly, due to the Great Ice Storm in Texas in February, the park was not in its best condition. The once-beautiful oleander bushes had all been pruned down to near their roots to give them a chance at a second life. We could see the pruning was effective; new and lush green leaves were sprouting forth from all quite nicely.

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Our visit to the International Oleander Festival proved to be a delightful exercise. We looked beyond the status quo of the garden and looked forward to a re-visit next spring and, especially, the return of the beautiful blooms of Galveston’s beloved oleander bushes.

Powhatan House

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The 1847 Powhatan House became the property of the Galveston Garden Club, its current owners, in 1965. Over time, the garden club restored the house to its 1893 appearance, including Victorian furnishings and a garden planted in oleanders.

The house, located at 3427 Ave O, is one of the oldest homes on the island and was among the first of a series of successful restorations in Galveston. These restorations became the focus of an active tourist industry, replacing the city’s waning trading activity. The Galveston Garden Club uses the house and grounds for its monthly meetings, for periodic fundraising sales and events and educational programs. It opens the house for use by civic organizations and private events rentals.

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History of the House
The Powhatan House was built as the home of Col. John S. Sydnor, a prominent cotton merchant, early mayor of Galveston and financier. The Powhatan House is an unusually sophisticated example of Greek Revival architecture in Texas. The construction of the Powhatan House and its change in use over many years of occupancy mirrors the history of Galveston’s development and eventual decline as Texas’ leading mercantile and cultural center.

Sydnor named the 24-room house after the Indian tribes in his native Virginia. The original Powhatan House had a six-column portico, a characteristically Galvestonian raised basement or ground floor and five acres of gardens planted with oleanders which were to become a feature of the island's gardens.

The house itself was largely the result of Sydnor’s trading ventures. It was built of lumber, windows, sectional columns, hardware and well-crafted cyma recta mouldings shipped from Maine in the otherwise empty holds of cotton vessels returning from the northern ports. The fabrication of houses for Texans, in the seaports of Maine, was one of the dominant elements of trade balance between Galveston and the North. Two other houses still standing in Galveston, the Menard House and the Williams-Tucker House (see National Register submission “Samuel May Williams House” July 14, 1971) were also built of parts fabricated in Maine.

In 1866, Sydney sold the house to a Mr. Bolton, who attempted to operate schools and a military academy in the house’s spacious rooms. All of his efforts proved unsuccessful, however, and he converted the Powhatan to use as his private home.

In 1881 the house was purchased by the City of Galveston to use as the island’s first orphanage. In 1893, a new orphanage was built ,and the Powhatan House became the property of Carolyn Willis Ladd, who had the house moved from its original location between 21st and 22nd Streets and M and N Avenues, to its present location.

Under the supervision of the architect W.H. Tyndall, the house was divided into three sections and remodeled into three separate houses on contiguous lots. Each house was elevated on a 10-foot-high brick basement containing a kitchen and servants’ quarters.. The central portion continued to be known as the Powhatan House or the “Main House.” Tyndall extensively modified the interiors, replacing original mantels with Victorian pressed-brick facings, new staircases and a variety of diamond pane and two over two light windows.

In 1903 Charles Vedder, a prominent Galveston cotton merchant, purchased the main house, which had been only slightly damaged by the disastrous flood and hurricane of 1900. The Vedder family occupied the house at the time of the 1907 grade-raising. The Vedders lost their basement kitchen and breakfast room to the inundation of sand pumped from Galveston Bay. The Vedders added a wing to the east of the house to replace the buried rooms.

Vedder was appointed by Theodore Roosevelt as United States Cotton Commissioner and was a member of the Galveston Cotton Exchange, which, together with the Wharf Commission, virtually controlled all of Galveston’s trading activity. Vedder’s wife, Florence, was the granddaughter of General George Heath Flood, who had been U.S. Minister to the Republic of Texas in 1839.

In 1927, the British government leased the house for use as its consulate. In 1935 the Vedders sold the house to J.W. Oschman, who occupied it until 1960 when the Forrest Dyer family purchased it.

Five years later, the Powhatan House became the property of the Galveston Garden Club.


Oleander City

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Before I purchased The Bungalow, I had long been a frequent visitor to Galveston. And, each time I crossed the causeway onto the island, I was greeted by the sight of the lush and beautiful oleander bushes lining Broadway. I never failed to notice and truly appreciate them!

But, it was not until I became a homeowner here that I realized Galveston is known as The Oleander City and home of the International Oleander Society. It makes sense! Oleanders are everywhere!

The first oleanders came to Galveston in 1841 when Joseph Osterman, a prominent merchant, brought them by ship from Jamaica. He gave them to his wife and sister-in-law, Isadore Dyer, who found them easy to cultivate and gave them to friends and neighbors. The familiar double pink variety that Isadore grew has been named for her.

As early as 1846, the yards in Galveston were full of oleanders, and the beauty they added to the city was duly noted. Oleanders flourished in the city because they were able to easily withstand the subtropical weather, the alkaline soil and the salt spray. Thus, oleanders ultimately became the dominant bushes used in the replanting of the city following the destruction of the Great Storm of 1900.

In 1912, the Women’s Health Protective Association planted 2500 oleander bushes - many along Broadway, the entrance to the city, and on 25th Street, the pathway to the beach front. In a few short years, oleanders made a spectacular display of blooms for citizens and visitors.

Later, the name of the WHPA was changed to the Women’s Civic League, and the plantings continued for many years. The bushes were alongside city streets, in parks and yards, around public buildings and schools. Soon the whole city became a garden of oleanders.

According to an editorial in the Galveston Tribune, “As early as 1908… the oleander was emblematic of Galveston and that people came from all over to see them.”

In 1910, The Galveston Daily News also reported that Galveston was known throughout the world as “The Oleander City” and in 1916, an article named it one of the most beautiful cities in the South.

Through the pollination of the two original Galveston Oleanders, ‘Mrs. Isadore Dyer’ and ‘Ed Barr’, many hybrids have been created throughout the century. Many of these have been distributed all over the United States and, today, are growing everywhere the climate is amicable. Today, corals, yellows, reds, pinks and whites in singles and double forms are found in the warmer climates of America.

In May 1967, the National Oleander Society (later changed to the International Oleander Society) was born, thanks to the vision of Maureen Elizabeth “Kewpie” Gaido and Clarence Pleasants.

Inspired by Pleasants (known as “Mr. Oleander”) Kewpie promoted the oleander all over the world. In 1971, she corresponded with Ronald Reagan, (then Governor of California), after learning he had designated oleander plantings along many miles of California freeways. She also talked with Lady Bird Johnson concerning her own promotion of the oleander around Texas.

Oleanders in History
According to the International Oleander Society, “Oleanders were found in Ancient Greek, Roman and Chinese gardens. In China, the cultivation of oleanders was a hobby of literary men who adorned their studies with cut Oleander blooms.

Due to the preserving layers of volcanic ash from the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, we know that Oleanders were also grown in the gardens of Pompeii. They were the plant most often painted on Pompeian murals (circa 79 A.D.) and were usually found represented in informal settings as background plants or mass plantings in the unique, traditional garden wall paintings whereby the Pompeians created the illusion that their gardens extended far into the countryside.

The Hebrew holy text, The Talmud, mentions the oileander numerous times, especially in the Mishnah, the first part, compiled around 200 A.D.”