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Generations of gardening
Woman follows mother at helm of longtime club
1Garden
Montine Howell, left, and daughter Tricia Wester share a love of gardening. Wester is following in her mother’s footsteps as president of the Cumming Garden Club. - photo by Autumn McBride
Holding up a Flowering Almond shrub, Montine Howell told members of the Cumming Garden Club that the plant has quite a history.“I’ve shared it with all my children since it came from my mother and daddy’s house,” Howell said.During the group’s plant sharing program at a recent morning club meeting, Howell extended the cut of the shrub to group members to plant in their own gardens.Her family history has become intertwined with garden club in another way too.Howell’s daughter, Tricia Wester, recently became president, a post her mother has twice held.Howell, the club’s lone remaining charter member, served as president in 1959-60 and 1968-69. The club formed in 1949 and became officially federated in 1950.More than 40 years after her mother’s last term, Wester will hold the lead post for two years.“I don’t think I would have taken it, but I knew she’d help me and she’d be proud of me,” Wester said. “The members made me feel like it was really special too.”The two are not the first mother-daughter to hold the presidency in the club’s 60-plus years.