Wood is a miracle material!  It is flexible, strong, light in weight, beautiful in colour and figure, easy to cut or nail or glue, bendable, renewable, biodegradable.  It is useful for building large and long-lasting structures, or for making paper or shopping bags, or car parts or household products.  It can even be burned for energy and is readily available.  But most of all, and beyond all these other qualities, wood comes from trees!  Join us to learn about wood as we take a guided tour in the Arboretum. The tour leaders are Eric Jones and Owen Clarkin .

Sunday October 15 at 5pm - new time!

Photography on the Farm

In this workshop we will be exploring how light tells a story in photography of a landscape environment such as the Farm. The leader will help us discover the magic of colour at the peak of Autumn in the Arboretum. Bring along your cameras! The tour leader is Ramin Izadpanah, an award-winning photographer in Ottawa, specializing in landscape and nature pictures. Among other prizes, he has won the Canadian geographic's 2015 Landscape Category prize and the 2016 Flora-and-Fauna Category prize (photo above). He also teaches photography at the Ottawa School of Art. View some of his photography here and on his Facebook page.

All tours start at Building 72 in the Arboretum .  Although the tours are free and open to the public, please register in advance at 613-230-3276 or  [email protected] .  Donations to the Friends of the Farm are gratefully accepted during the tour.

The Ottawa Horticultural Society (OHS) has joined with the Friends of the Farm on a special project to celebrate the 150th Anniversary of Confederation and the 125th Anniversary of the OHS.   The project recognizes the importance of hybridization in the development of plants for the Canadian climate and how the Central Experimental Farm played an important part in promoting horticulture in the last hundred years

The first phase of the project recognizes significant achievements in hybridization, and specifically the work of three hybridizers: Isabella Preston (lilacs), Felicitas Svejda (Explorer roses), and A.P. Saunders (peonies).  Plaques recognizing the work of each of them, as well as the importance of hybridization in Canada, have been installed at the pergola in the Ornamental Garden at the Central Experimental Farm. Scan the QR codes with your smartphone for all the details.

A second phase of the project will see a new planting of historical perennials in parts of the Macoun Memorial Garden. Located at the north end of the Ornamental Gardens, this garden was opened in 1936 to commemorate William T. Macoun, Dominion Horticulturist from 1910 until 1933, on the site of his former house. He was also President of the OHS in 1899. This project will be updated later this summer.