Retrospect - Again

Retrospect - Again

Throughout the last one hundred years of the Society's existence, several hundred flower shows have been staged. Exhibits were shown of flowers, in their season, as specimen blooms, or arranged according to a theme, in bowls and vases of all kinds.

The first meetings of the Society were mainly instructional, showing members how to garden. Many exhibits came from well-known gardeners like Mr. R.B. Whyte who at the turn of the century had a remarkable half-acre garden in Sandy Hill and from Mr. Sam Short, whose garden was in Rockcliffe; Dr. W. T. Macoun brought new plants and displayed them for information to gardeners as the Dominion Horticulturalist. With a more knowledgeable membership came a desire to compete and so classes were established and increased, creating a need for a public place to show them.

This meant we now had to have equipment-trestles, tables and uniform containers in which to show specimens, and we also needed a place to store them. The Society has never had a "home of it's own", so we have staged shows where we could store our equipment.

The first small shows were held in St. Johns Church Hall, south of the Connaught Building on MacKenzie Ave., seen in the pictures in the section of souvenir photographs.

Later we moved our "stuff" to Lansdowne Park and staged shows in the Horticultural Hall and we also staged exhibits during the Central Canada Exhibition in August.

We moved to the Normal School on Lisgar St. where we held our shows in the Auditorium and stored our tables etc. up in the attic. We again moved back to Lansdowne Park but had to move again when World War II came along. By permission of Mr. Ray Tubman, we staged many of our shows in the lovely setting of the Capitol Theatre, where our equipment was stored at the back of the stage and had to be moved out in the alley when the stage was required for an Opera or a Symphony Orchestra Concert (before The N.A.C.). Our Shows at the Capitol Theatre received a lot of attention and we show attendants got to see the "Pictures" for free!

After the War we returned again to the Normal School (now called the Ottawa Teachers College), where we held Board meetings and Shows in the Auditorium and again our tables were stored in the attic. I was such a constant visitor there that they finally gave me a key to the back door.

With some changes we had to leave again and found a home at the McNabb Community Centre, where we now hold our monthly meetings.

Some of our shows were held in Church Halls in various parts of the City and the Churches had a tea to help with revenue.

Now we are fortunate to have such venues as the Royal Bank Building on Sparks Street and we are supplied with trestle tables for showing, making transportation and set-up easier to handle.

It is a pity that we have no place to call our own in which to establish our Library and have our equipment easily available. On the other hand by traveling to various parts of the City, we did reach a wider audience.

W.M. Sandy Cavaye

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