EHS Centennial Garden 2008.
sity of Alberta. In 1918 the Vacant Lots Garden Club amalgamated with the Edmonton Horticultural Society to become the Edmonton Horticultural and Vacant Lots Garden Association, with Harcourt continuing to handle the rentals. Renting vacant properties for gardening purposes
remained an essential part of the horticultural society’s operations until 1989. Thousands of properties, most owned by the City of Edmonton, were rented out each year between 1916 and 1945, years which encompassed two world wars and one great depression. City beautification schemes, including the vacant lots
program which was promoted on both practical and aesthetic grounds, have taken many forms over the years. Annual flower and vegetable shows persisted until well into
Planting the EHS Centennial Garden in June 2007.
the 1990s, demonstrating the city’s horticultural poten- tial to Edmontonians, who came to view the displays and cheer on the exhibitors. These shows grew in size and in public appeal, culminating in the 1920s and 1930s when venues such as the Riverview Pavilion curling rink and the Prince of Wales Armouries were staged with elaborate floral displays for the public, who came not only to view the exhibits but to dance to band music, watch children parading with their decorated bicycles and wagons, or partake of some of the delicious ice cream supplied by the ladies of Rundle Church. Since 1995, when the annual Communities in Bloom
competition launched in Canada, the EHS has directed many of its city beautification efforts into putting Edmon- ton into the running as a “Community in Bloom,” and
Timeline 1909: Formation of the Edmon-
ton Horticultural Society with Walter Ramsay as President.
1912: The cities of Edmonton and
Strathcona amalgamate and so do their horticultural societies.
1918: The Edmonton Horticultural
Society and the Vacant Lots Garden Club join to become the Edmonton Horticultural and Vacant Lots Garden Association.
1924: Gladys Reeves is elected as the
horticultural society’s first female presi- dent. As a gardening advocate she has no equal. That year the society’s annual flower show attracts over four thousand paying visitors.
1926: William J. (Bill) Cardy is
elected president of the horticultural society. It is Cardy who shepherds the society through the years of the Great Depression and the Second World War.
44 • Fall 2016
Under his leadership the Edmonton horticultural society is an active partici- pant in the public life of the City and the Province of Alberta.
1935: The society’s annual flower
show, which was to have been held Aug. 20 to 22, is cancelled due to a “very early frost.” This is the only time between 1909 and 1997 (the year of the society’s last annual show) that a show is cancelled on account of weather.
1943: The Edmonton Horticultural
Society holds meetings throughout the city to promote the growing of Victory Gardens. That year approximately 380 acres are rented out as vacant lots. The secretary of the society writes to the chairman of
the agricultural supplies
board in Ottawa estimating the quan- tities of vegetables being produced on these lots. This includes 75,000 bushels of potatoes and 56,000 pounds of both turnips and cabbage.
1973: The horticultural society
officially changes its name back from the 1918 “Horticultural and Vacant Lots Garden Society” to the simpler “Edmonton Horticultural Society.”
1995: Edmonton Horticultural Soci-
ety president, Patrick Brown, works out a plan with the city of Edmonton and the Muttart Conservatory to develop 3,000 square feet of new flower beds on the grounds of the conservatory. This arrangement persists to the pres- ent day.
2009: The Edmonton Horticul-
tural Society celebrates its centennial year with a publication, a commemo- rative bench show, and the creation of a centennial garden in Henrietta Muir Edwards Park. The garden has since been moved to the grounds of the Muttart Conservatory.
localgardener.net
Photo by Marian Serink.
Photo by Kathryn Merrett.
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