BEAUTIFICATION
LILY PARK
Lily Park is a public park located at the corner of 8th Avenue and South Riverside Drive in Indialantic, Florida. We are proud to partner with the Town of Indialantic to renovate and maintain the park. It was named after Lily Givens who was an early member of Garden Club by the Sea (story below). One of the goals of Garden Club by the Sea is to educate the community about lagoon friendly gardening practices, emphasizing organic gardening with native plants in healthy soil through our revitalization of Lily Park. Click on the photos below to see how it all started with the help of many hands in our community and how we are incorporating healthy gardening practices and native plants into our beloved park.
Lily Park was wonderfully restored as a Garden Club by the Sea project that was spearheaded by Susan Vallette and Pam Dunn co-chairs of Lily Park with all members adding their talents and time. Their inspiration was greatly received by the surrounding garden clubs in Melbourne. They were invited by the South Brevard Garden Club Association to do a presentation at the April 2021 meeting. Enjoy that video below!
The club was proud to be given the award for best Park City Planting (2022) and Blue Star Marker (2022) by the National Garden Club Awards (District VI), and Third Place for Adopt a Park (2022) by the Deep South Region.
LILY PARK BRICK WALKWAY PROJECT. BE PART OF LILY PARK WITH YOUR CUSTOM BRICK.
Memorialize yourself, your family, business, or veteran by purchasing a 4x8” brick to be included in the brick walkway around Lily Park. Each brick offers a total of three lines, each with 13 characters and completely customizable by you. They will be permanently placed at Lily Park. Each brick is $100 and they are offered in limited quantities.
Use your smart phone to scan and activate the QR Code to learn more about plants in Lily Park. Thanks to Keep Brevard Beautiful for funding the plant identification of the QR quick response code!
The Story of Lily Givens
Lily Givens was a very charming and artistic Southern lady who was active in Indialantic in the early 1970s. Lily and her husband, retired Army Colonel Willis Givens, moved from Vero Beach, where she had been very active in city beautification and garden club.
She was a dainty lady, always dressed in long flowing skirts of beautiful colors and flowers. Her southern drawl reminded you of magnolias and mint juleps. I always felt she had stepped straight out of the page of Gone with the Wind. Lily had many ideas to present to the town to develop the parks and to beautify the avenues. The town was just beginning to grow and didn't have the budget to pursue all the suggestions, but she did charm them into beginning the development of the parks and beginning landscaping.
At the time, Ms. Lily became very involved in Garden Club by the Sea and chaired most positions. She loved horticulture and often chaired that position for Flower Shows. Somehow GCBS funds often found themselves involved in our town parks. When the park at 8th Avenue and South Riverside Drive finally received some landscaping, there was no water to keep it green, and the town took little interest in keeping it weeded. Many times, Ms. Lily, in her lovely long-sleeved floral gown with her large brimmed hat, with sleeves rolled up and her garden gloves on could be seen bending over the gardens troweling away. She looked gorgeous as you drove by, but we all know she had to be uncomfortable! Somehow Lily talked a neighbor into allowing the use of her hose to water the park until the well was finally drilled. —Respectfully submitted by Dory Fredrickson, Historian 11/99