Date

Speaker and Topic

January 24th, 2008

Viola Mueller

February 28th, 2008

Sherry Hayes
"Planning your Garden - Landscape Ideas and Advice"

Sherry is an Honours Graduate of the Landscape Design Program from Mohawk College of Applied Arts in Hamilton. She is also the founding owner and lead designer of Landscaping With Style.

March 27th, 2008

Jim St. Marie
"Perennials, What to Buy, Planting and the Care Of"

A slide survey of many popular and not so well known perennial flowering plants. Purchasing, planting, dividing and caring for perennials is touched on.

From 1989 till moving to Burlington, Jim St. Marie was the weekly Gardening columnist for the Kitchener Record. He's also been the author and photographer for occasional feature articles in Canadian and U.S. gardening magazines.

Jim has Co-hosted, with his wife Lorraine, many overseas gardener's tours. He's a former Producer/Director of CBC-TV weekly network gardening programme: a former college night school teacher of home gardening; since 1972 he's been a member of the Royal Horticultural Society of England and Garden Writers Association of America. In 1997, he gave a day-long Basic Gardening lecture, in 165 cities from Victoria B.C. to St. John's Newfoundland for Home Hardware dealers and their gardening section staff.

April 24rd, 2008

David Hobson
"In MY Garden", inspiration for Spring (and not without humor)!

David Hobson is a humorist, storyteller, and garden columnist for The Kitchener-Waterloo Record, and The Guelph Mercury — and the creator of the Garden Humour Website. He is the author of two books of garden fiction — /Soiled Reputations/ — hilarious stories of garden rivals Cynthia and Riley, and /Diary of a Mad Gardener/ — a year in the life of Dibble, a passionate, obsessive, and absolutely “mad” gardener.

A lifelong gardener, David happily shares his passion speaking to many horticultural societies and gardening groups, over the fence to neighbours, innocent bystanders, in fact anyone who will listen. He has spoken at venues such as Canada Blooms, The Canadian National Exhibition, The International Home and Garden Show, Ontario Horticultural Association Convention, and The South Eastern Flower Show in Atlanta, Georgia, and after tonight, the World Famous Haldimand Horticultural Society

May 22nd, 2008

Paul Knowles
"The Odd and Eccentric Truth About Gardeners"

Paul Knowles is an author and publisher. His latest book is Escaping Eden. He has written 14 books, including Down the Garden Path and Back To the Garden. Fall, 2007, saw the publication of an anthology of literature called Mixed Messages which he edited as a project to raise money for hospice and cancer causes.

He writes gardening, humour, travel and feature articles for The Toronto Sun, The Stratford Beacon-Herald, Forever Young, The Ottawa Citizen, Zoom Airlines, Southbound, Selections, Exchange, Visitor and many other periodicals. His work has been published in Canadian Gardening, The Reader¹s Digest, Maclean¹s and heard on CBC Radio.

Paul has a busy schedule as a guest speaker to gardening and community organizations. He has served as speaker coordinator at The Stratford Garden Festival and the Niagara Garden and Flower Show; in addition to speaking at both of those shows, he has spoken at Canada Blooms and other garden shows.

Through Paul Knowles and Associates, Paul carries out charitable fundraising programs for community groups.

Paul¹s hobbies include travel, gardening, cooking, reading, wine tasting, and avoiding power tools.

June 26th, 2008

Joseph Di Ciommo
The varieties of Orchids and the Growing and Caring

Joe is a hairdresser by trade. Orchids were meant to be his retirement project so that he could have something to do throughout the winter months. During the summer, he's involved in soccer as a referee or referee's evaluator.

Joe has been growing orchids for 25 years. At one time he was the president of the orchid society at the RBG as well as a chair of the society's show for many years. He has developed his own hybrids, many of which have won International awards from the American Orchid Society.

The greenhouse in his garden is 1,000 square feet with over 3 thousand orchids of many genera in cultivation. He holds 8 shows per year where he sells plants in bloom.

July

Bus Trip

August

Leslie Groves
Pic A Pot

Leslie holds two diplomas, one in Horticulture and one in Retail Floristry. She has gone on to teach programs at Landscape Ontario, Humber College and numerous floral courses across Canada. With 15+ years in the industry she is a regular presenter and educator at national trade shows and has recently opened a new chapter in her life known as "Pic A Pot Gardens" located in Brantford which specializes in perennials.

September

Brian Bergman
Presentation: Lilies, the Orchids of Perennials

When you meet me, you will learn that my passion is hybridizing lilies for gardens. Lilycrest Gardens is located near St. Catharines where I am growing 2,000 varieties of lilies with a total of 20,000 plants. I have been growing lilies since 1988, and started exhibiting at the Ontario Regional Lily Society (ORLS) shows shortly after that. With the support of the active hybridizing communities in the local and national societies, I began to hybridize to create lilies for gardens and over time have developed more than a thousand varieties. I've selected the top 10 for commercial production.

October

November

Carolyn Dupps
Christmas Arrangements

Carolyn will be donating the arrangements she will make back to the society. She is a member of the Ancaster Society and is a designer at Shavers Flowers in Ancaster.