PROJECTS

The 75+ year legacy of the Garden Club of Toronto (GCT) can be summed up in three words. Educate.  Create.  Transform. 

EDUCATE

The Toronto Botanical Garden was a Garden Club of Toronto initiative. By late 1950's, the City of Toronto still had no official Garden Centre. The GCT lobbied Metro Parks which created the city’s first Civic Garden Centre at Leslie and Lawrence. Fast forward to 1965. With a new name and a new home designed by Canadian architect Raymond Moriyama, the Toronto Botanical Garden was officially opened on the Civic Garden’s site.

Our postsecondary scholarships encourage the love of the environment with an emphasis on horticulture and gardening education, and make it possible for disadvantaged children to attend day camps at the Toronto Botanical Garden. 

CREATE

The annual Canada Blooms event was the brainchild of the Garden Club of Toronto. It launched the city’s first Flower Show in 1954 in the Leaside Memorial Gardens. It featured educational displays, competitive flower arrangements and horticulture classes. Subsequent venues included Casa Loma, the O’Keefe Centre (today’s Sony Centre for the Performing Arts), and the CNE’s Automotive Building. In 1997, the GCT joined forces with Landscape Ontario to sponsor the first Canada Blooms Flower Show.  

TRANSFORM

From the start, the Garden Club of Toronto has transformed the city’s landscape one project at a time.

Our initiatives include:

ENVIRONMENTAL INITIATIVES

• Pollinator Garden, Jane-Finch
• Gardens, Highway of Heroes Living Tribute, North York
• Wildflower Woods, Humber Arboretum

TEACHING/EDIBLE GARDENS

• Teaching Garden at Allan Gardens
• Teaching Garden at Toronto Botanical Garden

LANDSCAPED GARDENS

• June Callwood Park, City of Toronto
• Entrance Garden, Toronto Botanical Garden
• North Court, Roy Thomson Hall
• The Gardens, Casa Loma
• The Gardens, Spadina House

COMMUNITY/EDIBLE GARDENS

• Mosaic Garden, St James Town 
• Floral/Edible Gardens, Canadian Helen Keller Centre 
• Rooftop Garden, Rotary
• Cheshire Homes