Plant society halts its payments

Flower Show host to assess finances

Piyatida Hoisangwan (left) and Nonglak Meethong took pictures at this year's New England Flower Show in March. (Justine hunt/globe staff)

The Massachusetts Horticultural Society has informed business partners and vendors that it has "frozen" its accounts and will not pay creditors until an independent adviser completes a review of the organization's finances.

In a letter dated July 25, Betsy Ridge Madsen, president of the board of trustees, asked creditors to consider forgiving the group's debts and writing them off as charitable contributions. The letter emphasizes that the society has not filed for bankruptcy but rather is following the "well-respected protocol established by the US bankruptcy courts" for handling outstanding debts.

"We are trying to manage in a spare, straightforward way," Madsen said in a phone interview yesterday, noting that they were acting on the advice of a financial adviser. "We're trying to fulfill our commitments, but we don't have a lot of cash at the moment."

The move, occurring after a round of layoffs in June, raises questions about the 179-year-old society's ability to stage its premier event, the New England Spring Flower Show, which annually attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors and costs about $2 million to put on, according to the organization's income tax records.

Madsen said yesterday that the group is "looking into a lot of alternatives" but that they are committed to having the 138th annual show.

"We feel that this is the closest thing to our mission in terms of educating the public about horticulture," she said. "We are planning to have it in some form or another. . . . The location may be different, the size may be different, the timing may be different."

But many florists, presenters, and gardeners from across the country have not been reimbursed for expenses from last year's show. The group traditionally invites speakers and exhibitors to the show to draw crowds and reimburses for their travel and supplies.

Jared Sell is one of the creditors who received the letter from Madsen last month. The 18-year-old Framingham High graduate spent much of last year working with the group to design a 750-square-foot garden for the show that highlighted alternative energy, dipping into his college savings to pay for the $3,500 exhibit. He said he expected to be reimbursed in April, but six months later, tuition for his first semester at the University of Rhode Island is due and Sell is still waiting for his check.

"It's tough," he said. "I've picked up more hours this summer, trying to make the money back. . . . It's hard to think that they'd just turn on you like this."

He said that his contacts at the society have been laid off or moved on to other jobs and that his e-mails to the board of trustees have gone unanswered.

"I can't make it a gift to them, I don't even have that much in taxes," he said. "I'm a college student."

Madsen said the group is reorganizing its finances and expects to start sending out checks to vendors by the end of next month. The group also recently started a Save our Society fund-raising campaign, hoping for some much needed revenue.

She attributed the group's financial problems to mis- information provided to the board of trustees.

"There has been a lot of mismanagement on a lot of levels," she said. "The fact is what we [the board of trustees] saw on paper was not the actual state of affairs."

The society has long been plagued by financial and management problems. In 2002, budget difficulties forced it to sell thousands of rare books from its collection for $5.45 million. Madsen said the group is again considering whether to sell off some of its $8 million in assets, which includes books, stocks, and bonds.

"That might be a solution for us," Madsen said. "It's not easily done, but it's certainly one of the considerations."

During Big Dig planning, the society was designated to develop three prime blocks of the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway. The group tried to raise money for an elaborate Garden Under Glass near South Station.

The plans never got off the ground, however, and the society was reduced to taking a supporting role with the design of those three blocks.

A spokesman for the state attorney general's office said that the society has not filed income tax returns for the 2007 fiscal year and that the office is working with the group to get it into compliance.

Income tax returns from the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, 2006, show that the group closed the year with a $182,994 deficit.

In addition to spending $1.9 million on the flower show, the society spent more than $1 million on lectures, garden tours, and other activities at their 36-acre Wellesley property, Elm Bank. Another $227,123 was spent on designing and developing the Greenway project. Madsen said the group has spent more than $1 million on the Greenway over the years.

"It really looks fantastic," she said. "But we need to find a way to keep it that way; it came at a price."

Tania deLuzuriaga can be reached at deluzuriaga@globe.com.