GREEN MARKE TING
APPRECIATING CANADA’S HORTICULTURAL HERITAGE “Live the Garden Life” is a cheery New Year’s Resolution, and it’s also the Canadian Garden Council’s call-to-action kickstarting its momentous Year of the Garden (YOTG)/
AUTHOR: RACHEL ANDERSON. PHOTOS: CANADIAN GARDEN COUNCIL
Année du Jardin 2022 – the first of its kind in the world
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year-long series of events and social media activities are in store for Canadians as its YOTG 2022 campaign celebrates the centennial of the country’s ornamental horticulture sector. It all started in a burst of post-war activity in 1922, the Canadian Nursery Landscape Association (CNLA) began, and so, too, did the Canadian Horticulture Council (representing fresh produce). That same year also saw the first Royal Winter Agricultural Fair in Toronto. Michael Gauthier is the Canadian Garden Council executive director – a not-for-profit corporation founded in collaboration with the CNLA to promote Canada’s prolific gardeners. He is also the organiser of this yearlong celebration. Gauthier’s experience in major event management has seen him organise Ottawa’s annual Winterlude festival (featuring the world’s longest ice rink); and the annual Canadian Tulip Festival. With YOTG, he explains: “We started thinking: ‘Do we want to organise a big event – or do we want to just position, profile, and support everything that’s happening in what we call the Canadian Garden-Family? So, we opted for the latter approach, and that’s when I
FLORACULTURE INTERNATIONAL JANUARY 2022
proposed: ‘Why not proclaim 2022 the Year of the Garden in Canada and make it a year-long celebration?’” Canada’s Garden-Family subsequently declared 2022 The Year of the Garden in March (2021). Three months later the Canadian government officially recognised 2022 as the Year of the Garden via a House of Commons declaration.
FOR CANADIANS OF ALL AGES Gauthier says: “YOTG 2022 will mark an important period for Canadians of all ages to learn more about growing, enjoy and experiencing gardens, and all the vital quality-of-life benefits they provide. It will also celebrate how gardens made it easier to deal with the pandemic.” He adds: “We want Canadians to embrace this campaign and make it easy for them to participate and contribute to building back better and greener post-pandemic. We also want all the gardens in Canada – private and public – to be a part of it. Every Canadian who has a garden can sign up to be a YOTG 2022 Celebration Garden.” Canadians are being encouraged to Live the Garden Life in whatever fashion they can feasibly do so – be that, for example, planting a vegetable patch, visiting a garden attraction, or installing a colourful window box on their balcony. Encouraging Canadians to ‘Live the Garden Life’ is one of the three main streams of the campaign, supported
by founding partners Scotts, Premier Tech, Proven Winners and other industry sponsors and partners. The second stream celebrates the country’s horticulture heritage while the third focuses on leaving a legacy which, said Gauthier, “will make the GardenFamily strong and better positioned in future.”
CANADA’S HORTICULTURE HERITAGE With the country’s horticulture heritage in mind, Canadians are being encouraged to ‘plant red’ (with red being its well-known national colour) to show their Canadian garden pride. This glowing public spirit will offer growers and garden retailers, for instance, many promotional opportunities as they inform customers of red plants and bulbs they
Michel Gauthier is executive director of the Canadian Garden Council and one of the driving forces behind Canada’s Year of the Garden (YOTG) campaign.
