Fountain donated by International Women's Institute.


Dr. Moore had some might behind him. Te concept had been unanimously adopted when he proposed it at a meet- ing of the National Association of Gardeners in New York. A year later, in Toronto, they endorsed a plan to make it happen, and a committee of 50 – 25 each from Canada and the United States – was struck. On that first commit- tee were two powerful women: Lady Eaton from Toronto and Mrs. Henry Ford. Some of the men were pretty pow- erful too, including the U.S. secretary of agriculture and the Canadian minister of agriculture. With people of such stature behind the initiative, anything could happen, and it did. Gradually, the Garden took shape over the next 50 years, with the highlighted erection of the Peace Towers to mark the Garden’s Golden Anniversary in 1982. Designed by a Winnipeg architectural firm, the tower was supposed to last 100 years, but the local shale used in its construction was invaded by water and started to gel, weakening the structure. It was dismantled last summer. In the meantime, the board of the Garden, led by former


architectural landscape professor, Charles Tomsen, has chosen by blind selection a new design for the structure. Called “Interwoven”, this proposed tower is one-third taller than the old ones and it incorporates a lookout, which is planned to be accessible by stairs and an elevator. Te winning design was submitted by GPP Architecture of Winnipeg. Now it is up to the board to raise the money to build the


replacement and at the same time complete the original design of the Garden, which was always ambitious. As Charles Tomsen wrote in his history of the Garden, “It was proposed that the Garden would physically be one of the largest and most beautiful in the world, and include plants that were native to each country, greenhouses and


14 • Summer 2018


conservatory, individual gardens of different styles and purposes, a radio station to broadcast globally messages of peace and brotherhood, and a school for the education and training in “gardening”. In many ways the intent of the early visionaries of this garden was to create a sec- ond “Garden of Eden”. (Moore, September 1929) Mr. Donald Crighton, president of the National Association of Gardeners and the first president of the International Peace Garden, commented that, “man’s first habitation on earth was (we are told) a beautiful garden – the Garden of Eden – and the farther he drifted from that Eden the more subjected to his misfortunes he became, the victim of trials and tribulations, of war and bloodshed.” A great deal of progress on this vision has been made in the 85 years since the garden was first proposed. Te design has been altered and added to several times but, as in all gardens, it continues to be a work in progress. In 2009, Don Vitko of Minot, N.D., and formerly a member of the IPG board, donated his collection of cac- tus and succulents to the Garden. Tis has been a major addition to the Garden, making it a year-round destina- tion. Visitors can escape the harsh realities of a northern winter to wander among the 4,000 species of cactus, a col- lection which is thought to be the largest private collec- tion in the world. In fact, Don Vitko says there are, to his knowledge, only two species missing from his collection of genus Pilosocereus, both from remote areas of Brazil. All he longs for is a bit of the fruit so that Johannes Olwage, the curator of the Garden’s collection (Olwage was also inherited from Don Vitko), can grow them from seed and complete the collection. Te 2,500 succulents, also coming from around the


world, complete the stunning assemblage. Te collection and its greenhouses are appended to what


The Hub


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