Tina Tuttle of Molino has spent decades trying to help Florida's distinct environments
Molino resident and Florida Federation of Garden Club’s president Tina Tuttle inherited her mother’s green thumb and sense of community at a young age, leading to a lifelong dedication to the preservation of the environment.
Tuttle received an associate of arts degree from then-Pensacola Junior College, a bachelor's degree from Florida State University in vocational home economics education and taught high school home economics for four years before joining the Navy on a dare from her husband. During her time in the Navy, Tuttle also earned a master’s degree from UWF in education.
Tuttle retired from the Navy in 1996 and she returned to UWF in 2015 to earn an education specialist degree in curriculum and instruction.
Despite constantly earning achievements and recognition throughout life in roles outside of nature, horticulture remained one of Tuttle’s biggest passions as the years passed.
Tuttle served as a National Garden Club horticulture instructor from 2003 to 2017 and continued as a flower show procedure and symposium instructor. She was the director of FFGC’s District One from 2013 to 2015 before being named president of the state organization.
Tuttle even holds plantings in her local community of Molino, including her past work at her local church garden and at the Historical Society building.
“We try to make a mark locally,” said Tuttle. “If every garden club across the state is making a mark locally, with 10,000 members across the state we can really make a difference.”
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As president of the FFGC, Tuttle presides over 150 associate garden clubs around the state who plan to hold a coordinated event in January to celebrate the organization's 100-year anniversary.
Tuttle’s sister, Gina Jogan, is the oldest of the four siblings and now lives next to Tuttle in Molino thanks to the efforts of their father, who bought a compound for his family to live on together.
Jogan couldn’t say enough about her sister’s dedication to the organization’s preservation and role in their communities.
“She’s a go-getter, people will tell you that she puts her head down and gets it done,” Jogan said.
The sisters' mother, Leona Venettozzi, was involved in their local garden clubs for years prior to Tuttle becoming involved herself.
“I got into this because my mother was in garden club,” Tuttle said. “She started in the 1950s and as a child I’d go to her meetings with her. She’d invite us to plant things and would always trump through the woods looking for endangered plants.”
Their mother's love for horticulture spread to both women.
Jogan herself was a member of the country's first high school gardening club at Pensacola High School from 1962 to 1964. She is a former treasurer of the FFGC and has been a National Garden Clubs instructor in designs and procedures since 2000, teaching aspiring flower show judges and plant design.
Jogan has dedicated a lot of time and effort into the preservation of garden clubs everywhere, but she says that her sister's dedication is even stronger.
“It’s just awesome, (Tuttle) has more ideas than anybody I know and they’re always unique,” she said. “She specifically wanted to be president of the (FFGC) in this 100th year because this would’ve been our mother’s 100th birthday.”
“It was important to her to carry on that legacy that mother left and to have things that will take us forward another 100 years as an organization,” Jogan said.
Throughout her life, Jogan’s love for the art of plants would encourage her to continue working with garden clubs in different states such as California, Rhode Island and Virginia, even planting the roots of her lifelong passion across the sea in Europe.
“No matter where we’ve lived, I either joined or started a garden club,” Jogan said. “It was important to me that my community be beautiful.”
FFGC is celebrating its 100-year anniversary with a coordinated state-wide planting of trees that are native to their respective areas. Participating garden clubs around Florida will be planting the trees on Jan. 19. They are also requesting that Florida county governments change Arbor Day to Jan. 19.
“The (FFGC) has long been an environmental organization, but for our 100-year anniversary I wanted to really put emphasis on Arbor Day,” Tuttle said. “I asked all of the clubs and circles throughout the state to plant a tree at the same time, which will be at 10 a.m. CST.”
The FFGC secured a $20,000 Duke Energy Grant to purchase the native trees and the mulch to plant them.
“I give talks all the time about the impact planting a native tree has over planting an imported tree,” Tuttle said. “Although they may be beautiful, our bugs and birds don’t like them. In order to continue having a balanced environment, you have to continue to plant the plants that the insects and the birds need.”
District One of the FFGC, which stretches across Northwest Florida from Escambia to Walton County, will plant their trees the following day on Jan. 20 in conjunction with the Girl Scouts of Northwest Florida.
Pensacola Federation of Garden Clubs president Suzi Matteson was born and raised in the area and has known Tuttle and Jogan for years, with Tuttle’s father even playing the organ at Matteson’s wedding.
“Mrs. Venettozzi was quite the flower enthusiast,” Matteson said. “(Tuttle and Jogan) are probably two of the most active people with garden clubs throughout the entire state, they do a lot of traveling too.”
The Garden Club’s event will be held at 2 p.m. Jan. 20 at the Garden Center, which was originally built by members of the Pensacola Federation of Garden Clubs last century. The Garden Center is located at 1850 N Ninth Ave in Pensacola.
In addition to tree planting, members of the Garden Club will be holding a program called “Growing Life Skills,” that will have participants learn about plants, seed collection and more.
“Just everyday things that unfortunately a lot of kids are not exposed to nowadays,” Matteson said.
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Florida Federation of Garden Clubs celebrates 100 years
