Auxiliary awarded a friendship garden
- Details
- Published on Thursday, October 1, 2015
By Donna Morken
Submitted Article
Royal Canadian Legion Branch No. 75 Ladies Auxiliary of Rivers is the lucky recipient of one of 140, 70th anniversary Dutch-Canadian friendship tulip gardens being distributed across Canada. The gardens are in celebration of the first gift of 100,000 Dutch tulip bulbs sent to Canadians in 1945 as a symbol of appreciation for the role Canadian soldiers played in the liberation of the Netherlands, and the hospitality Canada provided to the Dutch royal family in Ottawa during the Second World War. A public planting ceremony is to take place in the near future.
“We feel very fortunate,” says auxiliary president Marlene Hayhurst, “to have received one of these gardens. We understand that Canadian Garden Council, the organization behind the friendship tulip garden program, received more than 400 applications. The garden, consisting of 700 red and white tulip bulbs, generously donated by Vesey’s Bulbs of Prince Edward Island, will be planted on Oct. 7 at 1:30 p.m. in the cenotaph [park].”
Veterans, school children and the public are invited to attend the planting ceremony, where the story of the Dutch princess born in Ottawa during the war and the history of the enduring friendship bond between Canada and the Netherlands will be retold so that it may live on for future generations.
This new garden in Rivers, and the other 139 gardens planted across the country, will be symbolically linked to a 70th anniversary Dutch-Canadian friendship tulip garden to be planted this fall in our nation’s capital by National Capital Commission and showcased during the 2016 Canadian Tulip Festival. The Rivers garden will also be featured on the 2016 edition of Canada’s Garden Route, www.canadasgardenroute.ca
In addition to Canadian Garden Council, Vesey’s Bulbs, National Capital Commission and Canadian Tulip Festival, other sponsors of the garden are Canada Post, Canadian Nursery Landscape Association, Garden Making magazine, Chimpanzee, Baxter Travel Media, Enterprise Canada, Gardens BC, Québec Gardens’ Association and Ontario Garden Tourism Coalition.
