Among the prizes that Guild Park volunteers received for creating the best community garden in Toronto this year was a collection of 200 mixed bulbs.
To put these bulbs to good use immediately, volunteers planted them on the site of Guild Park's former Friendship Tulip Garden, located in the southern part of the park at the top of the Scarborough Bluffs, beside the decorative Terracotta Gates of the former Produce Exchange Building
The selection of bulbs for next year's garden include crocuses, camassia, allium and chionodoxa. The planting got done on a chilly Saturday morning in November by avid volunteer gardeners from Guildwood Village.
The adults were assisted by two young gardeners-in-training, who happened to be were visiting Guild Park. The girls' mom shared her photo of the youngsters shown as they helped out veteran local planters, from left, Rose Mitchell Spohn, Audrea Porter, Allison Murray and Ron Spohn.
Guild Park's original Friendship Garden was planted by volunteers in fall 2015. It was part of a national program commemorating the 70th anniversary of the Netherlands liberation by Canadian troops during World War II.
Guild Park has a direct connection to this story about Dutch-Canadian friendship. Queen Juliana of the Netherlands stayed at the Guild Inn as part of her royal tour to Canada in 1967. Queen Juliana's cross-country visit was to thank Canadians for providing refuge for herself and her children while in exile during the Nazi's five-year occupation of the Netherlands.
The photos show the Friendship Tulip Garden sign and tulips blooming at the Guild Park site in 2016.
Over the years, local deer and wildlife discovered the Friendship Garden. Now only a handful of those red and white tulips have survived.
It's hoped that the new bulbs will mark the return of this volunteer-led garden feature at Guild Park. These efforts complement the site's other formal floral displays maintained by the City of Toronto's Horticulture team from Parks, Forestry & Recreation (PFR).
Establishing volunteer gardens are among the hundreds of recommendations identified in PFR's 2018 Guild Park & Gardens Horticulture Plan. Most other garden projects contained in that detailed 137-page plan remain delayed until City officials allocate funds to Guild Park.
Meanwhile, we'll only have to wait till Spring 2025 to see how this newly-planted bulb garden grows.
Volunteers from Friends of Guild Park launched the Friendship Garden initiative as one of its first projects to improve the grounds. The award-winning Native Pollinator Garden, another local initiative, was jointly created by volunteers from the Guildwood Butterflyway Project and Guild Park's Friends group, with funding from the City of Toronto.
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