the Garden Club of Toronto - Completed Projects

Projects Completed by the Garden Club of Toronto

Throughout its’ history the Garden Club of Toronto has been involved in many diverse and exciting projects across Toronto and its environs. Some of the highlights of these projects are:

Spring Garden and Flower Show

The winter weary city looked forward each year to the Spring Flower and Garden Show produced from 1953 to 1996 by the Garden Club of Toronto. Now in its present inception since 1997, Canada Blooms, Co-Founded by the Garden Club of Toronto and Landscape Ontario, has attracted well over a million people over the past few years.

The Civic Garden Center

This center was started by the Garden Club in 1958 with an initial donation of $60,000 from the annual Flower Show surplus. This organization serves the public with gardening information, courses and demonstrations and an excellent Horticultural Library. The building was extended in 1976 to include a large Floral Hall, 3 lecture studios, a book and gift shop and a new library. Funds were provided through the Dunington Grubb Foundation, the Parks Department of Metropolitan Toronto and Wintario, with the Garden Club adding $55,000. The center has now been renamed the Toronto Botanical Garden and is still supported financially and with time and effort by the Club members.

Black Creek Pioneer Village

Between 1967 and 1972, a planting program of native trees and shrubs was undertaken by the Garden Club of Toronto with over $50,000 in club donations being matched by Wintario. The project was twofold: to plant trees and shrubs indigenous to the land before 1867 and to have appropriate gardens in the historic village. Extra donations were made by club members together with the planting of the Peacock Woods next to the village. In 1984, after a further donation, red maple trees were planted around the new Orientation Building. The end result of this project was the publication of the book “Plants of Pioneer and Early Days in Ontario" written by the Garden Club of Toronto.

The 19th Century Garden at St. James Cathedral

The Victorian Garden at St. James Park, known to some as the Nineteenth Century Garden at St. James Cathedral, is yet one more example of exceptional research and design. The garden is enclosed by an iron fence and privet hedges. A period fountain is surrounded by parterre beds and plantings of old fashioned roses and perennials. Victorian style urns and benches were presented by individual members. At the official opening in September 1981, members of the club decorated the chancel and created a carpet of flowers stretching 35m. down the center aisle. The carpet, a Canadian first, was inspired by the Cathedral’s crest and the beautiful stained glass window behind the altar.

Humber Arboretum – The Wildflower Garden

In the late 1970’s the Garden Club committed $60,000 to plan and plant a wildflower sanctuary for Metropolitan Toronto. It was to be a place of natural beauty for everyone to enjoy, an outdoor environmental classroom and a place to preserve wildflowers of Southern Ontario. An attractive wooded site at Humber Arboretum was chosen. Paths and raised boardwalks were constructed; indigenous shrubs and plants were added. An Orientation Building, given by the Dunington Grubb Foundation and Wintario, houses exhibits and displays. Three qualified nature interpreters bring the many aspects of the natural world to over 8,000 students of all ages, annually, in a year-round program of classes and courses.

Spadina House

Built in 1866, this house was home to James Austin and his descendants and became a preservation project under the direction of the Toronto Historical Board. The Garden Club researched, planned and financed the restoration to the gardens. The house represents all the periods through which it passed and the landscape too reflects this passage of time. The Garden Club was the recipient of the Heritage Canada Foundation National Award of Honour for this project.

Casa Loma

1987 was a banner year for the GCT with a $1.5 million commitment to the renovation of the gardens at historic Casa Loma. Six acres of varied terrain and growing conditions allowed the creation of diverse garden areas, each with a unique design and focus. From fountain splashed and perennial bordered terraces to quiet wild flower woods, this comprehensive project features an abundance of magnificent plantings, many rare and unusual to the area.

West End Creche

In 1991, the Garden Club of Toronto undertook the complete renovation of the play-garden at the West End Creche, a center for emotionally challenged children. $55,000 was raised from foundations, Club events and the Creche. A special needs playground was designed and constructed. Borders, beds and shade trees were planted and an inner city piece of tarmac was turned into a welcoming green oasis.

Rotary Cheshire Apartments/Helen Keller Center

At the Rotary Cheshire Apartments for deaf-blind adults, a small third floor outdoor area, planned for the pleasure of the residents, their guests and staff, was turned into a colourful garden with vine covered trellis’, planters spilling with evergreens and flowers, and a comfortable swing seat. The Garden Club designed and planted the garden and continues to plant and maintain the garden each summer. In the spring of 2004, a gardening course was announced by the Garden Club at the Helen Keller Center that was set up to teach the deaf and blind how to grow plants and vegetables, water, weed and maintain them.

Operation Wildflower

The Garden Club of Toronto was the first public group to get permission from the Ministry of Transportation to plant wildflowers along the highway. A 240 square metre site was chosen at the northeast corner of highways 404 and 7 and was planted with wildflowers that are indigenous to this part of Ontario.

Roy Thomson Hall – North Court Garden

The Garden Club of Toronto was asked to redesign and plant an all season garden at Roy Thomson Hall. A bold Northern Ontario design was decided upon to contrast with the contemporary structural surroundings. Evergreens, deciduous shrubs and perennials were planted close to constructed granite rocks on two “islands” of the shallow “lake”. Ivy pillars rise from concrete planters to reach wisteria cascading over the long passageway above the concourse. This peaceful oasis, between the downtown towers of Toronto, was begun in April 1993 and completed in 1994 at a cost of $63,000 raised from Garden Club Flower Shows. Roy Thomson Hall also contributed to the overall cost.

The Don Valley Brick Works

In October 1997, the Garden Club of Toronto helped celebrate the opening of the Don Valley Brick Works, a 16.5 hectare (40.7 acre) park in downtown Toronto, where club members designed and planted a wetland garden in and around a series of ponds and cascades. Many of the sites' original 19th century industrial buildings have been saved. The quarry and its source of water, Mud Creek, are being rehabilitated through appropriate landscaping and plantings. Paths and boardwalks through the area enable visitors to enjoy native trees, shrubs, wildflowers and wetland areas. This low maintenance park is testing the ability of native plants to regenerate an industrial site and bring back birds, butterflies and amphibians.

The Teaching Garden

The aim of the Garden Club was to create a working garden at Edwards Gardens that would interest and educate children in the love and values of gardening. In 1998, the garden was opened and Volunteers from the Civic Garden Center now lead visitors and school classes through theme gardens of prairie, alpine and herbal plants. Rainbow and Alphabet gardens display spirals of colour and plants from A-Z and composting boxes exhibit concern for the environment. Individual plots including raised beds for wheelchairs, allow all children to experience fully the joys of growing and harvesting their own flowers and vegetables.

The Entrance Garden at the Toronto Botanical Garden

The Entrance Garden at the Toronto Botanical Garden was the Garden Club of Toronto’s 60th anniversary project where the gardens surrounding the building were planted with trees, shrubs and unusual plants. This project included landscape designer Martin Wade Landscape Architects, one of the top ten landscape designers in Canada, working in collaboration with Piet Oudolf, an internationally renowned garden designer who chose this to be his first design project in Canada.

FLOWER FESTIVALS

St. James Cathedral

The first Canadian Cathedral Flower Festival was designed and produced by the Garden Club of Toronto in 1972 to celebrate the 175th anniversary of St. James Cathedral. To celebrate the official presentation of the Nineteenth Century Garden to the City of Toronto in September, 1981, a service was held in St. James Cathedral. Members decorated the chancel and created a carpet of flowers stretching 35 m. down the centre aisle. The floral carpet was inspired by the Cathedral's crest and the beautiful stained glass window behind the altar.

University of Toronto Chapels' Festival of Flowers

To recognize the tenth anniversary of The Toronto School of Theology, in September 1979, the Garden Club decorated the chapels of the University: Emmanuel, Hart House, Knox, St. Thomas Aquinas, Trinity and Wycliffe. A descriptive walking tour brought the public to these beautiful chapels, some for the first time.

Little Trinity Flower Festival

June, 1992 was the sesquicentennial of the founding of Little Trinity Church. The Garden Club of Toronto was invited to decorate the church with flowers. Of special note was a 15 m. garland of roses and peonies that festooned the choir loft until the following Christmas.

Holy Rosary Centennial

In 1992 the parish of Holy Rosary celebrated its founding and the Garden Club filled the church with flowers. Featured at the two-day festival was a glorious floral tapestry resembling luminous stained glass and a floral carpet using many religious symbols which depicted the beads of a Rosary.

St. Anne's Church

In celebration of the Sixtieth Anniversary of the Garden Club of Toronto’s community involvement, a Flower Festival was held at St. Anne’s Anglican Church. Designated as both a National Heritage Building and a National Historic Site, a 23 metre long floral carpet and a floral panel by the baptismal font highlighted the church’s rich interior design.

Doors Open Toronto

In 2009 Toronto celebrated its 175th Anniversary and the Garden Club created a floral carpet in the foyer of the City Hall. These photos shows the sequential steps involved with creating a carpet. Click here to view the photos.