Biblical Plantings

I am concerned over an error that appeared in “Restful Ojai Offers a Rural Retreat” (Dec. 11) by Michele and Tom Grimm. Referring to Ojai’s Biblical Garden, the authors stated: “Women at the Ojai Presbyterian Church spent a quarter-century collecting plants mentioned in the Bible. Fifty specimens are in a Biblical Garden that’s open every afternoon.”

I have been an active member of the church for more than 25 years and I know that no woman of the church ever had anything to do with collecting any of the plants in the Biblical Garden. The founder and curator of the garden is one person, Mary Lapham Hunt, who is not even a member of the church. However, she does have several members of the church among her docents and garden committee.

In 1954 Hunt entered a very large exhibit of specimens of plants mentioned in the Bible in the Ojai Valley Garden Club’s flower show. After viewing it the then pastor and his wife (the William Gearharts) invited her to create a biblical garden on their church grounds.

GINGER WILSON

Ojai