Flower power
Rainbow Garden Club members visit The Forbidden City replica village in San Antonio in May 1998. Rainbow Garden Club celebrates 30 years of flora and fellowship RICH LOPEZ | Staff writerrich@dallasvoice.com Plant daddies may be a whole thing on TikTok and Instagram where millennial and Gen-Y dudes are discovering their love of plants.
But they’ve got nothing on Dallas’ original plant daddies. The members of the Rainbow Garden Club have been cultivating not only seedlings but friendships for 30 years — and they are celebrating that longevity in 2022.
Over the past three decades, Rainbow Garden Club members have shared individual knowledge while also enjoying the chance for social interaction with those of similar interests who were also gay and lesbian.
It all started on the internet. “It started back in 1992, and there was this thing called AOL,” RGC President Stan Aten said in a phone call this week. “Jesse Rocha and Lou Begley were in a gardening chat room, and the idea started.” Aten has been with the group since its inception.
