President’s Message - 2003

I am happy to report to the membership that 2003 marked another successful year in our history. It started on a happy note as we celebrated 110 years from our first public lecture in January 1893. This we did in style, thanks to the organizing committee led by our vice-president Blaine Marchand. The National Library of Canada provided us with a lovely space in their building for a specially commissioned talk by Edwinna von Baeyer and slide show by an Ottawa photographer, Mary Bramley - "110 years in the Service of Beautification" - about the horticultural movement as a force for beautification generally and specifically here in Ottawa. One of our members, Margaret Scratch, put together for us a display of archival material attesting to our long history and we had a great time that evening celebrating.

The Society continued to deliver on its mandate for education over the year. The Programme Committee brought in their usual high quality of speakers. The newsletter came out with articles on bulbs, poinsettias, biological control of the iris borer, lawn alternatives and enabling tools, to mention just a few highlights from this years editions. Undeservedly, it won second prize in the OHA publications competition - what they deserved was to be first! As well, our website continued to be a great source of knowledge, with great links, useful information and interesting photos. Finally, our yearbook also took second prize in the Ontario publications competition, which is the first time in its history that it placed for a prize.

The telephone tree committee got a new convenor in Lynn Armstrong. She and Jeff Blackadar continued to get timely information on upcoming events out to members on a regular basis for email listers.

The Shows Committee put on five shows, three attached to our regular meetings and two as all day Saturday events. Thirty members exhibited, approximately one in eight of our members, and many more people convened the shows, helped with set-up and all the other work involved in a Show. We can always, of course, do with more helpers to make the task lighter for all.

A small group put together garden visits, both to our own members gardens and to the gardens of two speakers from previous years, Glen Clarke and Marc Ladouceur. These made for very pleasant summer outings, especially the members visits which for some of us was after work until dusk. This is a wonderful way to end a day, meeting people, talking about plants and getting garden ideas.

The torch for organizing the Trillium Award and Garden Competition was handed on this year after many years of dedication from Joe Sanders and Steve Murphy to two new organizers, Sylvia Spasoff and Nathalie Chaly. They brought in an array of winners this past October proving that front yard gardening is alive and well in Ottawa, including peoples spontaneous commitment to beautifying untended areas on their street.

While not all our volunteer positions were filled, most are, and we continue to do important work, such as Jan Pollards organization of our support of a court garden at the Rideau Veterans and Perley Hospital. Thanks to information conveyed to us by Jeff Blackadar we were also able to contribute financially to the City of Ottawas 10,000 Tree Project in Alta Vista, a community greenspace initiative. In addition, again this year we had a Board member and a regular member acting as monitors, making formal reports, on the Heritage Rose Garden at Rideau Hall.

Cecylia Kawka took over the Archives this year from Margaret Scratch. And we have two members taking on publicity - Jennifer Jordan and Adele Lajeunesse. Angela Snowdon has taken on the Photo Competition, and not only got us back on track but suggested a new twist in the form of a members choice award for the competition.

We held four successful fund-raising activities this year; the plant sale at the Indoor Garden Show, our booth at the Friends of the Farm Sale, our always wildly exciting auction, and our September Sale. These were financially successful but they were also successful in the sense of being fulfilling work. One of the enjoyable things I found this year, in helping to organize these, is the number of people who arrived in my laneway laden with plants and who then stopped to talk or to help - and one of the most exciting parts of the sales was the chance for our members to help customers at the sales find appropriate plants for gardens that they often were just starting.

We took some key decisions this year which will roll out over the next year under the next Board and executive. I am happy to report that we appear to be making changes in a spirit of civility and acceptance of differing viewpoints. And so, we have moved to a new night and place as of January. We are also pushing forward on the exercise to keep the Society young and vital; we held a focus group with four board reps and four members and developed a mission statement, objectives and some goals to guide us into the next decade of the Societys life.

For today, I wish to thank the Board, the committees and all the volunteers, but particularly Blaine Marchand, our Secretary Jennifer Mix and our Treasurer Geoff Kennedy for their help and support throughout this year.

This ends my report to the membership.

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