President’s Message 2010

Welcome to a new year of gardening accomplishments! Saskatoon Horticulture Society numbers continue to grow and we have changed our membership year from the calendar year to April 1st to March 31st of the following year. We have planned an inspiring calendar of events that we know people will want to come to participate and learn. This past year we had great fun at Gardenscape 2009 where we had our display on plants that will attract butterflies, which followed the theme of Gardenscape. We had a great turn out of members to help with our information booth and membership drive along with our display of the Chrones Winner for 2008. Our Plant sale in May was a fabulous success where we were able to share our expertise and give fellow gardeners a chance to buy plants that they wanted to plant. We had numerous workshops on various ideas like pruning and making of ceramic birdbaths through out the year. We participated in Hort Week planned by the University of Saskatchewan Master Gardener Program where various members of our Society did or assisted in various workshops. A new event that we assisted in, was the selling of plants to the participants of Hort Week, it was a success. The proceeds from this sale we donated to the Master Gardener Program. Our Passport Tours and Bus Tour were fantastic successes we surpassed our numbers from the past two years, congratulations to Connie, Julia, Angie, Marji and Chris. We are looking forward to these tours this year, which we know will be just as great as last year. This year was the first year we granted the University of Saskatchewan Scholarship in Horticulture, the recipient of this year’s award was Kaila Hamilton. Congratulations to Kaila! This year we are introducing a new scholarship to correspond with the Prairie Horticulture Program. This scholarship will be open to any Saskatoon participant in the program after completing two classes. The scholarship will be posted on our website for anyone who wishes to apply. Remember everyone we also still offer a scholarship for individuals to apply for taking classes to achieve their Master Gardener status within the Master Gardener Programs. In closing I wish everyone a successful growing year and if there are any questions please feel free to give anyone on the Executive a call, we will be more than glad to help you in answering your questions or directing you to the correct people. Norman Waters - President