Share What You Know, Show What You Grow

Next Meeting

Join us on Tuesday, May 5, 2026 from 6:30pm – 9:00pm.

Doors open at 6:30pm

6:30pm Workshop: Eileen Bancroft
Topic: How to Divide Dahlias

8:00pm Speaker: Barrie Agar
Topic: Japanese Gardens

This pictorial essay will be an overview of some of the defining features of Japanese Gardens in a from a trip to Kyoto in 2008. A Japanese Garden is instantly recognisable, but what makes a Japanese Garden? I will cover some basic principles, plants and pruning that form the combination of this endlessly fascinating garden culture.

Bio:

Horticultural Career Prequel
My first horticultural forays were at the age of three with my great-grandmother. We would set off , salt cellars in hand to seek out and destroy the slugs threatening her beloved roses. Although with the gruesomeness ever present in toddlers and small children I enjoyed the melting, dissolving end of the slimy invaders, I now know it is much kinder to drown them in beer. Of the roses I remember very little.

Barrie started her horticultural career in earnest in Ireland, working on a large estate. Returning to Canada she was employed in various specialty nurseries, ending up as the Head Gardener at Hatley Park, which contains an early Japanese Garden. This started an interest in the design and culture around these beautiful gardens. She attended a Seminar in Japan on the history of Japanese Gardens and visited several gardens in the Kyoto area. She is also on the board of the North American Japanese Garden Association, and involved with Cowichan Rhododendron Society and the BC Fruit testers.

Our Meetings

We meet on the first Tuesday of the month (except January & August).

There is a $5 drop-in fee for non-members for this event, refundable if you decide to become a Member of the Society.

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