Memories - 1992

Memories

My first knowledge of the work of the Ottawa Horticultural Society was in the mid Nineteen Thirties when I was working for Friths Flowers. Rowley Frith had a store on Sparks Street and a small greenhouse establishment on Beechwood Avenue. He was at that time a Director of the Horticultural Society and had agreed to display a collection of Ideal Tulip Bulbs from the firm of Grullemans in Holland.

The Show was held in the old Ottawa Electric Building on Sparks Street, now the W.H. Smith Bookstore. The Tulips were in 6" clay pots and were really outstanding. A competition of bulb exhibits by Society Members and a display of Bermuda Lilies by the Experimental Farm at the same show made a great sight for sore eyes in the month of March, usually about St. Patricks day.

Ten years later this show was to be staged in the Murphy-Gamble Store on Sparks Street in the building now accommodating The Bank of Nova Scotia.

I was now employed at Government House; the Head Gardener there was Albert E. Challis, from Hereford in England and one of the best all round gardeners I have met and learned from. Government House had agreed to put an exhibit of greenhouse plants in the lower end of the Murphy-Gamble store which ran right to Queen Street.

We loaded a good selection of Greenhouse plants, palms, verona ferns, bulbs of various kinds and Lorraine Begonias into a furniture van and went off to set it up in the Store for a two-day show. There were also Member exhibits from Dr. McGregor Easson, R.J. Paynter and M.F. Kuske which were displayed in the Main Aisle and these were a great attraction to the Public, passing by on Sparks Street. As Secretary of the Society I sat in the evening totting up the prizes won and preparing the prize cheques. Suddenly in the quiet of that big store I was amazed to see several large rats, chewing on the Verona ferns in the Government House display down on the lower level. I was a bit scared but they ran off and the care-taker told me he caught a number of rats in large traps every night down in the basement. I understand that they had to get a commercial exterminator to clean out a number of the stores on that block. But I wasn't happy about staying around with such hungry characters for company!

W.M. Sandy Cavaye

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