Jackson's Taylor Twins Memorial Garden receives honor

Taylor Twins Memorial Garden, honoring two Jackson sisters who were born 100 years ago this year, has been inducted into Grow Native! Native Gardens of Excellence program, according to an Aug. 10 news release from Missouri Prairie Foundation.

The garden is at 201 W. Main St. in Jackson's uptown district, next to the Frizel-Welling House.

With the induction, the Jackson garden joins 20 others so honored by the private, not-for-profit organization since 2021 in a four-state region: Missouri, Arkansas, Kansas and Illinois.

According to the Missouri Prairie Foundation release, Taylor Twins Memorial Garden "provides an example of the excellent use of native plants in a garden landscape. Two pathways -- one of bark mulch, the other flagstone -- represent Lucille and Louise Taylor, the sisters the garden is named for who grew up in Jackson and were very different, but always connected. The pathways wind down the length of the garden along which benches are placed for visitors to sit and enjoy the space, where they will see a variety of native wildflowers, grasses, shrubs, trees, vines, and sedges, as well as the wildlife attracted by them."

Taylor Twins Memorial Garden was dedicated April 29, 2017, on what was previously an empty lot at West Main and North Missouri streets.

According to previous Southeast Missourian reporting, as a reflection of the Taylor twins' lives, the design of the garden features two divergent but intertwining paths.

Cassi Bock Landscape and Flower Gardens designed the garden and, in accordance with family member Steve Ford's specifications, it contains only plants native to the United States.

Steve Ford's mother was Dorothy Lucille Taylor. His aunt was Catherine Louise Taylor.

The twin sisters were the youngest of four children of Vera Gale "V.G." and Zelma Catherine Talley Taylor.

V.G. Taylor was a plumber who owned and operated his plumbing shop in the building formerly on the Taylor Twins garden site, which also once housed Wagner Bakery.