Milne House Flower Show

Last night I opened the Milne House Garden Club’s 40th anniversary flower show. ?This was a revelation to me. There are dozens and dozens of displays some the size of a pair of earrings: ?cut flowers in the most amazing configurations you’ve ever seen; ?and live plants in containers which will give a little zip to what we think of indoor plants.I saw old friends there, and made a few new ones because it’s at the Toronto Botanical Garden (Leslie and Lawrence) and I was there the night before as well. I feel married to the joint and so does my husband. He’s looking forward to an actual home cooked meal tonight. Me too.I like the TBG Board because they aren’t like what you’d think: ?snobby and superior. ?They are uniformly smart and they donate what feels like hundreds of hours of their time in keeping major institutions like this one going. About the only thing I can see that they get out of this is a couple of great parties a year. This Board loves to party.The meeting the other night went on and on but we covered a lot of ground. I’m about the worst person they could have on the Board because if it isn’t about plants, I have the attention span of a newt. ?I’m not sure I ever contribute anything productive but I like to watch the mechanics of how it all works. ???I’m on a garden committee (once you get on the Board they make sure you get on committees) and that’s the stuff I really love. It’s a wonderful group of gardeners and we have the fun of making suggestions about new plants, new gardens and how things are going (always have to have a walk and talk through the gardens no matter what the weather). ?At some point with the permission of Cathie Cox who’s TBG’s incredible horticulturist, I’d like to publish the Woodland Walk plant list.I was bowled over when I saw it because it’s so perfect both for the location (really difficult) and that it’s quite large. And the circumstances are what most people in cities have to contend with. ?It will be a greatly instructive piece of work. ?Now all we need is a pile of money, lots of volunteers and it will get done in the spring.I still haven’t gone through the ORGS seed catalogue but I intend to this weekend. ?The wonderful Anna who manages the site has gotten rid of the spam. Am I speaking too soon? No spam today which is fantastic. ??