Richmond Hill Garden & Horticultural Society President, Doreen Coyne, participated in today's virtual meeting of the Connecting the Community Richmond Hill (CTCRH) organization as a guest speaker. Her presentation provided event attendees with an illustrated overview of the society's many activities, including those planned for 2021.

A recording of the presentation is available on YouTube (click here). 

For more information about CTCRH, click here.

Beginning in September, members of our society began authoring Gardening Tips for inclusion in the OnRichmondHill.com weekly newsletter.   

Topics thus far include Weed control, making Tools from repurposed items, planting Garlic, Christmas Cactus tips, and more! 

These articles are now also available to the public as Resources on our website. The most recent tip is accessible on our Home page, and all the tips are available by clicking here. In addition to reading the tips, our members have the ability to, and are encouraged to post Comments.

Congratulations to the owners of the properties earning the top scores in the 2020 Richmond Hill Blooms program! 

Photos of these lovely front gardens have been posted to the City's site. Click here for direct access. 

The Richmond Hill Public Library recently teamed up with members of our society to create a lovely slideshow featuring the public gardens our society volunteers maintain.

The slideshow is available on the library's Facebook page. Click here for direct access.

Precautions to prevent the spread of Covid-19 prompted the Richmond Hill Garden and Horticultural Society to transition a variety of 2020 group gatherings to virtual platforms. 

This transition started with our society's participation in the Richmond Hill Public Library's Gardening Ask Me Anything event on April 9th, held virtually in lieu of a physical Seedy Saturday event at the library. The video is available on youtube (click here). 

Our society's Board members then trialed use of Zoom for our May Board meeting. When this was agreed to be a success, we purchased a Zoom license to employ improved security and functional product features.

Starting on May 5th, guest speakers scheduled to present topics of a horticultural nature at our monthly general meetings have instead delivered these presentations to us in an interactive forum leveraging Zoom. As a bonus, recordings of the presentations are posted for our members to revisit later, as often as desired. Presentation links, and links to other resources recommended by the speakers, are located on the members-only versions of the General Meeting Events posted to our website (login is required). Here are the May and June General Meeting Events:

May 5 - "Landscaping Your Yard with Native Plants" by Liana D'Andrea

June 2 - "Essentials of House Plant Care" by Darry Cheng

A big thank you to Joanne and Jonathan Witt of SNAPD for posting ten great photos of our society's 2019 Holiday Celebration to the SNAPD Richmond Hill site (click here).

As announced at a gala celebration on September 19, the top three gardens per ward are:

Congratulations!

Our society delegates to the 2019 Ontario Horticultural Association (OHA) Convention that took place in Windsor from July 19 to 21 brought home awards for five of our publications. Details will be available in upcoming issues of the OHA’s Trillium and our society’s Garden Post, but are highlighted below:

• Newsletter – First Place (newsletter with primarily computer-generated cover graphics)
• Half Page Plant Sale Poster – First Place (special event poster – half sheet)
• Full Page Plant Sale Poster – Third Place (special event poster – full sheet)
• Flower Show Schedule – Third Place (show schedule)
• Membership Brochure – Honorable Mention (brochure/pamphlet/flyer)

As the OHA is made up of more than 270 societies, many of whom participate in these competitions, it is an achievement for us to bring home awards again this year!

Joanne Witt, of SNAPD, posted nineteen great photos of The Richmond Hill Garden & Horticultural Society's May 11, 2019 Plant Sale at the McConaghy Centre to the June 2019 Edition of SNAPD Richmond Hill.

Most of the plants at this year’s sale were grown by our own members, either in the greenhouse at the Alexander Mackenzie High School, or in the gardens of our members. As well, this year's event featured sales of the Garden Sunshine Rose.  

Click here to view all the SNAPD photos of our successful event.

Joanne and Jonathan Witt of SNAPD Richmond Hill posted some great photos of our society's January 8, 2019 Annual General Meeting. To see all twelve images, click here. 

In addition to election of the 2019 society officers and directors, the evening included presentation of the 2018 flower show awards and a photographic recap of our many 2018 events and activities.