Speakers-2016

Landscape Design for Difficult and Challenging Spaces

November 15, 2016: GEOFF WOODS

Educated at BCIT, where he later taught in the Continuing Education department, Geoff Woods was for many years a landscape design/build contractor, during which time he won many awards for his work. For the last 15 years he has operated solely as a designer, and has won further awards.

Geoff has been featured in home and garden periodicals, and has spoken extensively at garden clubs, educational institutions and trade associations both in Canada and the United States.

TULIP MANIA

October 18, 2016: BOTANUS

Botanus owners and plantswomen Elke, Wendy & Pam will be at our October meeting - just in time to do some bulb planting - to talk about tulips. Visit their website to find out more about this dynamic trio who have grown their small bulb ordering company into one Canada's best known resources for bulbs and bulb gardening knowledge: www.botanus.com. The team will be bringing bulbs to sell.

photo credit: www.botanus.com

Hives For Humanity

September 20, 2016: Julia Common, BSc and MSc Agriculture / CEO & Chief Beekeeper

Julia Common is a Master Beekeeper and has been keeping bees since her university days. What started as a summer job became a life long passion which only in the past two years has been fully realized. Hives for Humanity was founded in response to the incredible reception her bees received in the Downtown East Side of Vancouver. Now with over 100 hives and 40 sites throughout Vancouver communities, Julia, as Chief Beekeeper for Hives for Humanity, has a story to share.

She finds joy in teaching others the art and practice of beekeeping.

Julia will talk generally about the Hives for Humanity Foundation program that she and her daughter Sarah have developed in Vancouver's DTES. Then she will speak specifically to the Pollinator Corridors Initiative that the foundation is working on with other stakeholders. Julia is a very interesting speaker and her story will open your eyes to how much Bee Keeping has made such a difference to people.

Maple Trees and Other Ideal Garden Trees

June 21, 2016: Conway Lum

Conway Lum works for GardenWorks@Mandeville (originally Mandeville Garden Centre) located at corner of Nelson St. and Marine Drive, Burnaby. He started in 1988 in the nursery, and now Conway works in the garden supplies/information desk area and conducts most of the in-house seminars/workshops. Conway graduated from University of British Columbia with Bachelor of Science in plant science (ornamental horticulture) and botany and has earned the designation of Professional Agrologist.

Conway’s CV is impressive and extensive and especially notable is his long association with sharing his knowledge of horticulture in British Columbia:

  • Recipient of the Garden Communicator of the Year Award by BC Landscape and Nursery Association (BCLNA) for 2012.
  • Contributor to the Ask-the-Pro column in BC Living (Garden Wise) Magazine.
  • Evening instructor for New Westminster Continuing Education for gardening classes.
  • Past recipient of the Garden Communicator Award by BC Landscape and Nursery Association (BCLNA) 2006.
  • Past recipient of the Environmental Star Award by the City of Burnaby for European Chafer public education.
  • Previously served on the European Chafer advisory committee.
  • Currently serving on the provincial certification committee for BCLNA and Canadian Nursery and Landscape Association (CNLA).
  • One of the first three candidates to receive the Certified Horticultural Technician for retail in Canada (CNLA).
  • Recently obtained Landscape Industry Certified technician for ornamental and turf maintenance (CNLA).
  • Environment designate (2015) as advisory capacity for the retail commodity group for BCLNA.
  • Honorary member of South Burnaby Garden

Waterwise Gardening for a Changing Climate is Good

May 17, 2016: Nick Chesshire

Nick Chesshire is a plantsman who hails from England and now lives on Westham Island where he has a nursery on his family farm. Nick has run a landscape maintenance company, Cheshire Landscapes, for over 10 years. He has managed garden centres for Mandeville Gardens and Home Depot. He has worked with clients from North Vancouver, Dunbar, Kits, Vancouver, Richmond, and South Delta.

Nick will discuss Waterwise Gardening and how this has changed with the change in the weather. He will discuss:

  • Defining the "Dry garden" concept.
  • Long term expectations for West Coast - Rise in temps and more droughts
  • Features that work in a dry garden landscape: use of rock, more use of specimen plantings, drought tolerant plant choices, dry stream beds.
  • Over watering and in ground sprinkler over use


Growing Great Edibles

April 19, 2016: Andrea Bellamy

Collect a bounty from your balcony! Learn how to grow fruit, herbs & vegetables in containers year round. A great introduction to container growing and other small-space techniques such as succession sowing, vertical gardening and season extension.

Andrea Bellamy is the author of Small-Space Vegetable Gardens (Timber Press, 2015) small-space-vegetable-gardens-the-book, and creator of Heavy Petal (http://heavypetal.ca), a blog devoted to urban organic gardening. Andrea has a certificate in garden design from the University of British Columbia and studied permaculture methods for food production at an urban micro-farm. She has been gardening since childhood and has grown food on rooftops, balconies, boulevards, and patios, and in community garden beds, window boxes, traffic circles, and front and backyards. Andrea is the gardening columnist for Edible Vancouver and Wine Country magazine. To find out more about Andrea, check out her website http://heavypetal.ca/about/

The Good Bugs & Bad Bugs. And Then What?

March 15, 2016: Marilyn Holt

Marilyn Holt is a gardening enthusiast, international speaker and once owned and operated Pelargonium Nursery, exporting plants internationally. She was Editor of the B.C. Council of Garden Clubs "The Bulletin" for seven years. Marilyn is currently the Garden Center Manager for the Abbotsford Buckerfield's store and is also a Horticultural Judge.

She shares her extensive knowledge by putting on workshops and seminars for Buckerfield's throughout the year as well as speaking to many garden clubs and groups on a variety of subjects.

Fundamentals of Growing Bonsai

February 16, 2016: Peter Brolese

Peter Brolese began growing bonsai in 1995 and in the world of bonsai that is a very short time ago. He is an active member of severalbonsai clubs. Peter is a director of the BC Bonsai Society which meets in South Surrey. He is a participating member of the Taguchi Bonsai Club meeting monthly at the Van Dusen Botanical Gardens, the Nikkei Shonin Club, on Vancouver Island and the West Coast Bonsai Club meeting in North Vancouver.

Peter is a keen student of the study of Bonsai first working under the tutelage of Tak Yamaura of Japan Bonsai and more recently with Michael Hagedorn of Crataegus Bonsai, Portland Oregon. Michael’s website leads you into the world of bonsai and it is easy to see how one can be drawn in, becoming a bonsai devotee forsaking all other plant forms. Enjoy a tour of Michael’s website: crataegus.com

Peter will introduce us to bonsai techniques, care, and aesthetics using specimens from his own collection.

A Peak into the Life of the Florist

January 19, 2016: Christa Dannhasuser

Born in the late sixties in the "old" South Africa I grew up in a country then commonly referred to as "the land of milk and honey". Needless to say this was a very tainted perception but it did mean that people invested in beautiful homes and especially beautiful gardens. This was probably only possible due to the good climate and cheap labor and the fact that almost every household had a fulltime gardener but, alas, that is how I grew up and got to love flowers! And for that, I am grateful.

I obtained a degree in Business Communications. Today it would be called Marketing. While still living in South Africa I worked in various jobs ranging from Public Relations to Copy Writing to Advertising Account Manager - mostly in the Medical Insurance Industry. My husband and I immigrated to Canada in 1999 and started our new lives here in Vancouver.

Like many of us, I always dreamt of owning a flower shop but never actually thought of it as a viable possibility. Then, late in 2011 the opportunity came to buy Flowers Beautiful. Doing my due diligence, I went into the business of flowers purely from a business point of view. A couple of days after I had bought my flower shop my husband asked me if I realized that I have made a dream come true? That's when it hit me - I own a flower shop!

As I got to know the industry I also learned that a successful flower shop is probably based on 70% business sense and 30% flower sense! I am excited to share some of that inside knowledge with you and show you how different "just loving to work with flowers" is from running a flower shop.

I love my job. And I feel privileged to be able to say that. And I look forward to sharing that with you!.

Website: http://www.flowersbeautiful.com/