GILFORD & DISTRICT HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY
'History'
Lila Bell, who back in 1979 took the initiative to start the Gilford & District Horticultural Society wrote the following piece.
Past Presidents
The beginning by Lila Bell:
"While working for the Bradford Witness, I met Vi Peacock who wrote the Thornton news each week and all the news about the Thornton Horticultural Society. I started asking questions about the Society and she invited me to attend a meeting and flower show. I was really impressed with the entries and the information about the various plants during the course of the meeting.
I thought this would be great for Gilford as we had a lot of new people coming into the area in subdivisions. Since I wrote the Gilford News, I could reach a lot of people and afford the Society news each week of events.
Armed with information from Thornton, District Director Madeline Hobson and Allistair McLean, the Ontario Director, told us how to get a Society started. I began knocking on doors throughout Gilford to try to obtain 100 signatures (she got 101 signatures). I included articles in the Gilford News with information on a Horticultural Society and asking prospective members to call Lida Alle and Ida Sturdy for further information.
A newspaper clipping from 1982:
DELEGATES. Members of this area's horticultural societies attended the provincial horticultural conference in Thunder Bay recently. These are the members of the Gilford club. From the left are Molly Laceby, Ruth Bolt, Ida Sturdy and Lila Bell.
Charlie Oliver had a greenhouse and we thought he'd be ideal for our first president.
We held our first meeting in the Fall of 1979 with Madeline Hobson as our first speaker on flower arranging.
Luise Alle and Johanna Chudzinski were great gardeners and supplied many specimens and arrangements for our future shows.
Bill Markwick moved from Bond Head to Gilford and joined our Society as well as keeping his membership in Bond Head. He was a great help to us - he even sold an old car and donated the proceeds to our Society.
Ruth Bolt was an early member and can propably tell you some history. When Molly Laceby joined she brought a wealth of knowledge regarding plants, and roses in particular.
We had a Junior Society to which Bill Markwick, Audrey Miller and I devoted time. We had permission from Sam Neilly to use part of his field for growing vegetables. Unfortunately, the children didn't keep up the gardens, so growing was not successful. The Junior Society was started again at Killarney Beach School. Molly looked after this group.
As you know, we started meeting at Gilford Community Hall, moved meetings to the Lefroy United Church Hall and thence to the Churchill Community Centre.
Hope this helps
Lila"
