Get ready! 

It's time to think about the glorious days of spring and getting out into the garden! What better way to enjoy nature, fresh air, exercise, and plant life, and to contribute to the beauty of the Farm than to join one of the Friends' Garden Teams (such as the perennial garden team in the photo)?  Go to our Volunteer activities page for more information on garden team days, times, and tasks. 

Your help makes a difference!

If you're interested in volunteering in our gardens and for our events, join us for our  Volunteer Orientation  on Saturday April 4, at 9:30 a.m. in Bldg 72 at the Arboretum. If you can't attend the orientation, our 2020 Volunteer enrollment and waiver form is now available to download  here .

 

Our 2020  Annual General Meeting will be held on Wednesday May 6, from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. The AGM will begin with a short business meeting followed by a presentation from our guest speaker Tina Liu. Meeting and presentation will take place in the K.W. Neatby Building at 960 Carling Avenue at Maple Drive on the Central Experimental Farm. Free parking is available in the lot east of the building.
 

Tina Liu  is a landscape architect at the NCC and the design manager for the Capital Floral Program and Christmas Lights Across Canada project. Liu leads the design of year-round floral displays in Canada's Capital, including the Canadian Tulip Festival in the spring, and annual and perennial displays from summer to autumn. 

Liu's presentation, entitled  The Tulip Legacy and 75 years of Tulip Design in Canada's Capital , will explore  how design strategies constantly evolve and adapt to various cultural,  social, economic, and climatic changes throughout the year. And how  the NCC lives up to being the world's largest spring flower show destination in public  parkland, and home of the largest Tulip Festival in North America!

Register for this free event by  filling in this form.

For more information, email us  [email protected] or call 613-230-3276.

	perennial bed

Every year the Friends partner with the Master Gardeners of Ottawa-Carleton to offer timely and informative presentations. This year's Tuesday night lectures include:

April 21  Our Gardens and Climate Change 

with Diane McClymont Peace.

May 5

  Colour Through the Seasons

with Candace Dressler and Rob Stuart.

May 19

  Into the Night Garden 

with Judith Cox.

September 15  Another Gardening Year behind Us 

with Mary Shearman Reid.

September 29 A Garden for the Birds
  with Julianne Labreche.

All presentations are from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. in Building 72 just east of the Prince of Wales roundabout. Parking is free. Lectures can be purchased individually ($12 for FCEF members and $15 for non-members) or as a series ($50 for FCEF members or $60 for non-members). 

Register here for one or more of our Master Gardener lectures. 

For more information email  [email protected] or  call 613-230-3276

Robert Hugh Burvill

My father, Robert Hugh Burvill served in the Canadian Armoured Corp in the Italian campaign throughout 1943. In late 1944, his group was sent by boat and over-country to Belgium to help in the mop-up operations there and in the Netherlands after D-Day. In Belgium, Robert encountered many hungry people who were overjoyed to welcome Allied troops. 

Some nine years later, Robert was posted to Germany as part of the British contingent of NATO troops, and from there took our family on a vacation to the Netherlands. We were given a warm reception when Hollanders realized our father had been in their country during its liberation, and we realized the importance of his work during the war. In one town, all five of us were ushered into a house and up a flight of stairs to meet the grandmother of the house so that she could give each of us a hug -- and a kiss to our father to thank him for what the Canadians had done for them. 

--- Sheila Burvill

Over 10,000 hours donated each year