The Garden Clubs of Ontario

Annual General Meeting
Monday June 2nd 2025
hosted by the Garden Club of London. The location and guest speaker TBA

The Garden Clubs of Ontario

The Garden Clubs of Ontario is an association of garden clubs in the Province of Ontario, Canada, founded and incorporated in l954.
The GCO comprises 8 independent garden clubs;

and The Garden Clubs of Ontario Judges' Council

Each member club is self supporting and raises funds for their community projects through sales, flower shows and private donations.

The Garden Clubs of Ontario member clubs promote horticulture and the floral arts in their communities
•    with teaching programs for both members and the general public.
•    by holding public flower shows, church flower festivals, plant and craft sales.
•    by the construction and support of; gardens for the handicapped, hospitals, historic buildings, libraries, children’s parks and public spaces.
•    by the giving of scholarships for excellence in horticulture and landscape design, in both secondary and post secondary educational institutions.
•    with support of time, expertise and monies to botanical gardens, conservation programs and public spaces.
The Garden Clubs of Ontario aims to encourage knowledge and love of gardening among amateurs, to aid in the protection of native plants, trees, birds and soil, to encourage civic planting and promote responsible ecological care of the environment and to promote flower shows.

About The Garden Clubs of Ontario

The purpose of the Garden Clubs of Ontario is to stimulate knowledge of horticulture and the art of floral design.

Remember the Ten Neat Things about a Garden Club:-

CAMARADERIE – meeting people with similar interests
LEARNING SKILLS – watch for our new Education Committee.
WORKSHOPS - Each club has workshops on subjects pertaining to Horticulture,the Art of Floral Design and associated craft skills.
SPEAKERS - The opportunity to hear lectures on subjects of related interest.
DEMONSTRATIONS - The ‘How To’ part of a club.
OUTINGS - The opportunity to go to places of interest often not available to the general public both here and abroad.
NEW HORIZONS - Having exposure to new ideas both horticulturally and design wise, by being part of Judges Council, through flower shows, decorating of public buildings and church festivals.
HELP THE LOCAL ENVIRONMENT - Doing our part through outreach to improve local amenities within our speciality.
UNDERSTANDING THE LOCAL HABITATION - Both flora and fauna – will it grow here?
BEING PART OF A WORLD ORGANISATION - learning and understanding other cultures, their art, their traditions their flora and fauna.

GCO President's Message

GCO President’s Message
The Holiday Season is upon us, and most of us are hard at work creating wreathes, swags and holiday urns, not to mention floral arrangements. And tree decorating. Did I mention holiday parties being held by our member clubs, workshops underway, Holiday Markets, and special Holiday projects to brighten up our local area? Hamilton will have turned Dundurn Castle into a magical place for the holidays, and the Garden Club of Niagara has decorated a few special homes for the Rotary Holiday home tour in Niagara.
As 2024 draws to a close we can reflect on the activities of the past year. This was the year to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Garden Clubs of Ontario.
Some of the highlights are as follows:
- After years of careful planning, Kathleen Lang has started the process of creating a new club in Eastern Ontario.
- Our finances continue to be in good shape. Our biggest major expense is this website, ironically.
-Judges Council was given the mandate to put together a School for Floral Design Judges. They jumped on the task and the preliminaries to starting the school are well underway.
-The first meeting of the year was held on April 2nd at Dundurn Castle in Hamilton where we were treated to a very complete guided tour of the castle.
-The Annual General Meeting took place on June 3. Hosted by the Garden Club of Toronto at the Toronto Botanical Garden we paid tribute to the 70th anniversary of our founding. A slide show featuring photos of members and events over the years was played on a continuous loop over lunch. The afternoon speaker was Margaret Taylor who did a sogetsu presentation.
-After the summer break, we met again on November 4. Hosted by Judges Council at the Landscape Ontario offices in Milton, the speaker was Sandra Pella who talked about sustainable gardening.
Looking forward to 2025, there will be the usual three general meetings in April, June and November. The WAFA Australia seminar is taking place in August and at least 3 of our members will participate. And lastly planning for our Triennial show, which will take place in 2026 is starting in January the leadership of Jana Heemskerk.

Wishing you all the best of the Festive Season , and good health in 2025.
Margaret Betts
President of the Garden Club of Ontario
Email - margbetts@rogers.com

Past Presidents of the GCO at The Garden Clubs of Ontario - General Meeting April 7th 2025

Margaret Betts, Barbara Bedell, Jana Heemskert, Wendy Downing, Beverly Hargraft, Helen Skinner, Lillie Haworth, and Elizabeth Coons

Eight Past- Presidents of the GCO at the 70th Anniversary and Annual meeting of the GCO - hosted by the Garden Club of Toronto

Back - Bev Hargraft, Claudette Smith, Wendy Downing, Jana Heemskert, Barbara Bedell, Margaret Betts. Front - Lillie Haworth, and Maureen Naylor

PAST PRESIDENTS OF GCO IN ATTENDANCE AT THE 60TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION

Listed from left to right sequentially: Mary Kernohan, Janice Maciver, Jane Heming, Kay Thorfinnson, Helen Skinner, Beth Frost, Marisa Bergagnini - President, Pat Harris, Peg Spence, Ann Diebel, Elizabeth Coons, Lil Haworth, Maureen Naylor Beverly Hargraft and Elaine Mayo were present at the events but missing in the photo

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Jacqui Miller millerjacqui@icloud.com