Many hands make light workđ
A special thank you to everyone involved in the fall cleanup at the Senior Centre garden on Oct 19, 2024.
Awesome work Caroline, Ella, Lexi, Jamie, Jill, Kathy, Betty, Diane and Dena.
đˇCaroline
“Our Volunteer Work Matters”
Thank you to the THS volunteers that plant and nurture the community gardens of Tillsonburg. The gardens include Annandale House NHS, Tillsonburg Senior Centre, Bert Newman Park, Royal Canadian Legion Branch 153 and Tillsonburg Station Arts.
Many hours are spent throughout the year planning, planting, watering, fertilizing, weeding and cleanup.
Our largest garden, Annandale House NHS is an elegant garden with some unique plantings. The fall gardens are putting on a colourful show.
This year the Town of Tillsonburg installed outdoor landscape lighting. Some plantings were disturbed and moved to accommodate the installation.
New plantings to the Annandale House were white star magnolia, coneflower, summer crush hydrangea and yellow peony bush.
The volunteers are preparing the gardens for winter and have planted daffodils.
Thank you to Chairperson Liz and gardener volunteers Lois, Jamie, Mary, Lucy and Tony for their dedication to this treasured garden.
The Senior Centre gardens welcome seniors and friends to the centre. The fall gardens are abound with colour.
This year, volunteers placed name identification tags by the plants in the gardens. The gardens have a mix of annual, perennial and native plants.
Volunteers are preparing the gardens for winter and planting spring bulbs.
We appreciate the dedication to the Senior Centre gardens by THS director Dena, co-chair Diana and volunteer gardeners.
The THS volunteers that have rejuvenated the serene gardens at Bert Newman Park.
A floating cloud japanese maple was planted in memory of a family member from a resident of the community this spring. To the butterfly garden, a new hydrangea and additional plants were added to attract butterflies and other pollinators.
The gardens were full of colour and a variety of interesting perennials this year. Fall mums were planted in the center garden. The large tree canopy provides shade and challenges for some of the plantings.
Volunteers have been preparing the gardens for winter. They recently planted 260+ spring bulbs.
We appreciate director Cathy, volunteer gardeners Anne, Melanie, Jan, Christine, Barb Q, Barb V and “Ruby”đžâ¤ď¸
The Royal Canadian Legion Branch 153 gardens are special to many as we remember all who have served Canada. The highlight is the flower cross.
This year, volunteers planted blue arrow junipers to replace ailing white cedars. The junipers need less room to grow and fit in well in the limited space between the building and the sidewalk.
The flower cross gracefully welcomes our veterans and friends to the Legion. The ladies changed the design of the cross plantings with a border around the cross using dusty miller to contrast with the red begonias.
The Legion placed a new garden at the back of the building by the parking lot.
Fall cleanup is underway and spring bulbs have been planted.
We appreciate THS director Jean and volunteers gardeners Hanna, Jane and Jenny for their dedication to the Legion gardens.
The Tillsonburg Station Arts is a small but artistic garden. The THS care for the seasonal urns and flowers from Tillsonburg Garden Gate.
Thank you to THS Director Sue, Tillsonburg Garden Gate and Green Theory.
Photo credit: Pat Z, Cathy K and Jean M
See more photos on the Facebook: TillsonburgHorticultural
Last night, was a perfect evening for the Tillsonburg Horticultural Society “Members Only” Garden Tour. It was a wonderful opportunity to enjoy beautiful gardens and socialize with fellow members while enjoying what we love.
Thank you to four THS members for graciously opening their gardens for the evening tour. Sue, Liz, Jean and Frank welcomed the members on the self guided tour between 6:00-8:00pm. The gardens were different, beautiful and unique. We saw a variety of perennial, annual, native plants and vegetable gardens. Enjoy the photos of each garden.
After the tour garden, Matt, Linda, Thea and Johnny Fenn welcomed us to their family business, Tillsonburg Garden Gate for a social. They thoughtfully served refreshments, treats and set up tables to relax and socialize. We toured their beautiful garden center and members selected lovely perennials and annuals. The Fenn’s generously gave members a 25% discount on purchases and door prizes. Thank you for your continued support to the Tillsonburg Horticultural Society and our community.
Our Volunteer Work Mattersđ¸
Last week, the Ontario government held a ceremony at the London Hellenic Centre to recognize the efforts of many volunteers through the Ontario Volunteer Service Awards.
Volunteers are nominated by an organization to receive a personalized certificate and lapel pin celebrating their years of service.
The THS is extremely proud and appreciates all of our volunteers. This year, five THS volunteers were nominated and received the Ontario Volunteer Service Award.
Congratulations to –
Annie Lesage – 5 years
Margaret McCrimmon – 5 years
Angela Lassam – 10 years
Jean Mann – 15 years
Judi Misener – 15 years
Ernie Hardeman, Oxford MPP and
Terence Kernaghan, London North Centre MPP presented the awards to our volunteers.
đˇ Judi, Angela & Marian
It was a beautiful day for a road trip with 56 fellow THS gardeners to the Kitchener, Waterloo area. President Christine again, planned a well organized fun filled day! We toured an interesting private garden and 3 garden centres. Thank you Christine!
We started our day at “Pendragon Hosta Gardens”, a medieval theme private garden. We were welcomed under the Japanese Maple by a statue of a little girl reading “King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table” book. The medieval stories unfolds in the backyard with Merlin, fairies, dragons, Sword’s of Stone and Lancelot. Over 200+ varieties of hostas intertwined this amazing garden. Thank you to our gracious host Lorraine for sharing her garden with us.
The coach rolled down the road to West Montrose to the first garden centre, Shady Lane Greenhouse & Perennials. This was a small country, family owned garden centre. They had a great variety of healthy annual and perennial.
We enjoyed a delicious lunch at Kennedy’s Restaurant, St. Agatha.
After lunch, we travelled to Petersburg to Meadow Acres Garden Centre. A family owned full service garden centre. They had a large variety of outdoor plants, perennials, annuals, tropicals, garden decor and a beautiful gift shop. The bus storage is getting full!!
Just down the road we travelled to our final stop, Colour Paradise Greenhouses. We were welcomed by an explosion of colourful annuals, tropicals and perennials.
As our THS members made their final purchases, our “new” bus driver Stan, kindly and methodically arranged our plants for the ride home to Tillsonburg after a full day. The bus storage and overhead compartments are full!
The quote of the day was “I’m coming on the bus tour but I’m not buying anything.” Let’s just say the bus was full of plants.
đˇPat
It’s Still Just Dirt, The Tillsonburg News – November 2019
by Angela Lassam
Angela’s Christmas Urn
It is that time of year to use your creative skills to make fresh green arrangements for both indoors and outdoors. There are many to see in the big box stores but they are all similar. You can make them yourself with less expense and they will be unique. After Christmas leave the urn outside for a pleasant view from indoors during the black and white season.
Matt Fenn did a presentation for Christmas at the last monthly meeting demonstrating how to make a Christmas urn. He reinforced my preference for traditional greenery. He did tell us British Columbia can grow better pine, cedars and spruce due to their climate but Ontario does a good job especially with our summer this year. California can grow the larger pine cones found in the nurseries this time of year. I tend to browse the hedgerow for unusual additions to my arrangements during my daily walk. It is acceptable to add artificial pieces to add colour.
To make any winter arrangement for outdoors it is best to fill a pot with sandy soil for weight and stability. Larger tall pots can take big stones and a block of oasis instead of soil but soak oasis in water before use. The same rule gardeners use for filling summer pots applies – thriller, filler and spiller.
Start with a centre tall piece – white birch boughs have been popular for a few years and can be stored for years to come. There are even good artificial pieces available. Dogwood branches are red and add the first colour, any branches painted white will stand out. I spray paint any interesting wild dried material â thistles, bulrushes and feathery stems with metallic paint.
Next start adding spruce and pine branches, the more the better. Around the bottom edge add cedar as the âspillerâ draping around the edge of the container. Ivy reinforced with floral wire makes a different spiller. Euonymus is variegated and can add a break in the solid green. Now you have a basis to do the actual decorations of colour.
This is where individual preferences come in. You can decide at this point the colour theme. Traditional is red but silver, rose gold, copper or even white can be very effective. Most of these items will be artificial and can be found in big box stores, nurseries with giftware and even dollar stores. If you decide on rose gold dried hydrangeas can make an impact. I prefer glitter and use glass balls as my filler either gold or red depending on the appearance. I also like to add holly and pine cones to mine with finally a bow to make it complete.Â
After Christmas the festive parts and bow can be taken away and it will still look interesting covered in snow. If you have a silver theme it will glisten nicely later when the winter sun shines. Matt suggested watering occasionally when it is warm enough but it will survive through the cold temperatures.Â
I hope you will try to do an arrangement as it is gratifying and inexpensive. It will create a great welcome to your home and can even be a talking point between friends and fellow gardeners.
There will be no December meeting for the Tillsonburg Horticultural Society. For members only there will be the Christmas Potluck Supper on Tuesday, December 3rd in the Lions Auditorium, Tillsonburg Community Complex.
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The Tillsonburg Horticultural Society and Tillsonburg Station Arts Centre annual joint garden tour project held on Saturday, June 12 here in Tillsonburg provided a one-of-a-kind opportunity to see amazing local gardens while simultaneously enjoying local art and music. There were a total of nine stops on the tour including seven gardens at private homes, the gardens at Annandale National Historic Site, and Tillsonburg Garden Gate Nursery. (Photographs courtesy of Judi Misener)
