President's Message - 2001

Ottawa Horticultural Society Presidents Report Pat Russell President - 1999 & 2000 presented at the Annual Meeting , December 11th 2000

The purpose of the Society is to promote and encourage interest and improvement in horticultural activities among its members and within the community as a whole. As you know, much of the Society's work is done by committees with specific areas of responsibilty.

In lieu of having annual reports of the committees to distribute, I would like to highlight their achievements.

The Programme Committee arranged another excellent series of speakers. The topics were varied, the speakers knowledgeable and enjoyable. Average attendance at the meetings was close to eighty. In place of the annual one day Garden Tour event, the committee organized a number of more informal garden tours throughout the season. Members volunteered to show their gardens, and in total eleven gardens were on tour on five Sunday afternoons from the end of May to October. These tours proved very successful for a number of reasons: being less formal, the gardeners were not under pressure to have their gardens in perfect condition; members got to see more gardens, as well as meet the gardeners, and their fellow-members, in an informal setting; and the gardeners had time to talk with each visitor at length, and to enjoy the many compliments received. The annual Plant Auction brought in over a thousand dollars for the Society, thanks to the talents of our auctioneer, Marilyn Light, and the generous donations of a great variety of plants from members. A visit to the Heritage Rose Garden at Rideau Hall at the end of June, was combined with the Rose Show, and, like last year, fresh strawberries and ice cream were served. Throughout the year the Programme Committee provided us with lots of opportunity to share our gardens, our plants and our collective expertise, as well as expand our interests and knowledge in many areas. Thank you to Kathy McNeil who chaired this committee since 1997, and her committee, and best wishes to Sylvia Spasoff who has taken over as chair.

The Shows Committee held five shows, with the Indoor Garden Show and the Peony and Iris Show being held on Saturdays, and attracting the general public, as in previous years. We hope to see our new members get involved in the shows - it is fun and most educational, and the more competition the better.

As promised, the Newsletter Committee published three newsletters this year. We extend a special thank you to the now past editor, Sandy Parsons, and her editorial team, for producing the newsletter since 1996. The new editorial team, led by Lyn Taylor, will produce its first edition in January.

Our webmaster, Ken Gullins, has kept our web site up-to-date, and attractive to readers. It is good to get positive responses and queries from different parts of the world. It makes the gardeners' world even smaller. There is still lots of potential and Ken is open and eager for input and suggestions. An increasing number of members have email, making individual contact and dissemination of information easy.

Our library is in the competent hands of Margaret Scratch, who is enjoying deciding what new books to buy. She hopes to negotiate a more accessible space with the community centre, where many more books from our library, if not them all, were available at every meeting.

Thanks to our Publicity person, Gloria Sola, our events get regular billing in the Citizen, and one of our monthly talks was promoted in Canadian Gardening under the activities in the regions section.

You will remember that the Year Book was not distributed until February this year. This was in order to avoid the madness of trying to put it together during the very busy weeks before Christmas for distribution in the new year. It worked well for the editorial team, and will be repeated again for the coming year. Thank you again to D.J. Smith and her hard working team for producing a very good manual for the members.

An important aspect of our mandate as a horticultural society is to encourage public plantings. I am pleased to report two significant such activities that we were involved in this year, both in recognition of the Millennium. As you know, with input from the membership, the Board selected as our Millennium Project, the planting of a ginkgo grove in a city park. In the summer we partnered with the Heron Park North Community Association, who had recently adopted the Bruce Timmerman Park, a new city park, located just west of Bank and north of Heron, and our grove of five ginkgos was planted in October. The park is small and located right in the middle of their community where it is well-supervised by the residents. So our ginkgos should thrive for generations to come. Our other Millennium endeavour, initiated by the Association, was the planting of a blue spruce outside the Sir John A. Carling building on the Experimental Farm. I would like to acknowledge and thank both Mary Bryant and Owen Munn for their leaderships in these projects.

This evening you can see the results of the work of the Trophies and Awards Committee - thank you to Alan Ritchie for once again making the trophies gleam, and thank you to Hans Foerstel for putting on an enjoyable photographic show.

The other committees work more behind the scenes to ensure the smooth running of the Society. Our Membership secretary, Alice Foerstel, keeps careful and up-to-date records of the members. Membership for the year 2000 was 232, with 35 new members. This increase in new memberships is continuing, with 18 new members already signed up for next year. Sandy Ives, our Treasurer since 1997, has again ensured that our financial house is in good order. Thank you, Sandy, for your diligent book-keeping and hard work over the past four years. Lorraine Millman will be appointed treasurer by the new Board in January. Jennifer Mix took over secretarial duties in November from Anita Price who had held this position since 1990.

I would like to take a few minutes to highlight some of the special achievements and happenings of 2000. In June I had the pleasure of attending the prize-giving at McArthur High School to present our Indoor Garden Trust Fund Bursary to Walter Kelly-Morey, a graduating student. This is the first time the bursary has been awarded. In the summer members were given the unique opportunity to share their gardens by contributing flowers to a member's wedding. The bride-to-be came to a number of gardens just before her wedding and pulled a selection of flowers which produced a wonderful floral display much admired by her guests. And the contributors were rewarded with a delicious apple pie in the Fall. In June I attended the OHA Annual Convention in Guelph to see our Marilyn Light being honoured with the Silver Medal Award, the highest award given by the provincial association. Among the other recipients were Ed Lawrence, who won an Award of Merit, and Donna Christie, Helen's predecessor, who won the Trillium Award. It was a delight to be in the company of three 'local' award winners. Another achievement has been the establishment of a Telephone Tree. This will be a real asset to many older members in particular, who may feel somewhat cut off from the activities of the Society. Thank you to Marge Larson for coordinating this. Planning for hosting the District 2 Annual Meeting has been underway for some months now. This will take place on April 7th at Algonquin College, when I hope many of our members will attend to be hosts to our colleagues in the District. Thank you to Owen Munn for coordinating this important event for the Society. As many of you will remember, a motion to change our logo to a tulip was passed earlier in the year. It is hoped that the new logo will be ready for the District 2 Annual Meeting in April.

We have continued to support the establishment of a Botanic Garden in Ottawa, and have been kept informed of the progress of the Botanic Garden Society. A new initiative is underway to promote the new city of Ottawa as a Garden City, by bringing together the estimated 40 garden clubs and societies, with a total of as many as 5,000 volunteer members, active in the horticultural community, to coordinate and promote the beautification of the new city. We are involved in this process.

Finally I would like to acknowledge the Board of Directors who have overseen and taken responsibility for the work of the Society with both enthusiasm and dedication. Without them I could not have been an effective President.

On a more personal note, I am feeling very optimistic about the role of the Society and its future. I see many of the new members keen to get involved, many members volunteering, and willing to take on tasks when asked, and lots of exciting activities happening in the horticultural world that people want to tap into through the Society. My two years as your President have been enjoyable, stimulating and rewarding, thanks to the many different people with whom I have worked, on the Board, on committees, and in many different capacities both within the society and in the community. It has been a privilege, and I thank you all.
 

Pat Russell
President
Ottawa Horticultural Society

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