So, how does it work...to view the gardens? I have never been a member of a club where we sold tickets to see each other's gardens. We just opened them up for anyone in the club to see.

Brenda (who would love to go but I live about 10 hours drive from you)

I'm too far away too, but there's probably someone who'll take you up on your offer, Doris.

Brenda, our gardening club (Horticultural Society, the hoity toity way!) uses the garden tour as a fundraiser. We sell tickets for $5 each and then the people can come and see certain gardens which are on the tour that particular year. There are no prizes involved for the gardeners - just a way to show off your yard and a chance for others to come and see what you've done and maybe get ideas for themselves.

Marcia, do the hort members sell tickets to family members, their neighbors and friends or is it just for the hort members? How do you prevent someone else from going that did not pay for a ticket? How many people attend your event? Are you expected to keep track of people that come through? Provide snack and drinks? Etc, etc.

How is it done in Calgary?

Brenda (treasurer for Westman Gardeners in Brandon)

Brenda, when the city and club were MUCH smaller (16 years ago and more), the addresses of the winning gardens were published in the newspaper, and anyone could see them. Unfortunately, when things are free, some people don't respect them, so winning gardeners found beds trampled, plants vandalized (people ripping off cuttings), and lawns ruined. :-(

The Calgary Horticultural Society (CHS) decided to start charging admission, and that did two things: it raised money for the society, and it limited the number of people walking through the gardens. And, if you had to pay, you just might be more respectful. Rules were started too, saying that viewers needed to keep children under control and pets at home--what a concept!!

The first year, the tickets were $5. The price has slowly climbed (now that there are about 1 million citizens in Calgary, 6,000 of whom are CHS members) to $20 for non-members and $15 for members.

The "ticket" is actually a small booklet with the names and addresses of the winners, and the categories they won. The addresses are clustered by quadrant of the city and usually, except for this year for some reason, contain a simplified map to help you plot the route. With 24 gardens scattered all over this huge city, and only 12 hours, it takes a fair amount of planning (and a good map or navigation system)!

Viewing is limited to those who have passports because a) you don't know where the gardens are without one, and b) there's a volunteer at the entrance of each winning garden and he/she doesn't let anyone in who doesn't have a passport in hand. He/she is also keeps track of how many visitors each garden receives. Volunteers usually do a three hour shift and then they get to view the gardens with their complementary passports. I volunteered a few times, but found it hard to get to all the gardens I wanted to view with 3 fewer hours!!!

Lawns still get trampled with the number of people (I've heard that many winning gardeners have to fix their lawns after the tours), but there's much more control and hardly any chaos. It makes the experience much more pleasant for the winners and the viewers. I'm really sorry I don't get to go this year. :-(

Brenda, we post signs around town and put something in the town newsletter advertising the tour. The general idea is to meet at a certain place in town and purchase tickets there. Our tickets are also maps of where the chosen gardens are. We had 18 people register and buy tickets. I had 16 of them come to my garden, and the other two came a couple of days ago (the one woman asked me if it was okay and i said it was). I guess there would be nothing to stop non-paying people from coming if they knew your yard was on the tour.

Most of the gardeners don't do anything special except show their gardens. Last year my sister-in-law organized stepping stone making in her garden - she's way more ambitious than i am! :) My special thing was a give-away table with some of my extra WS plants and some rooted petunia cuttings.

Is your club a private one, Brenda? Ours is affiliated with the Ontario Horticultural Association, which gets to be a bit of a pain with all the paperwork and fees, but we do get half of our expenses back each year and that can work out to up to $1000, which is nice. In the spring of 2008, our society will be hosting the Northwestern Ontario Annual General Meeting and most of our fundraising is aimed towards that. We'll have to provide speakers and/or workshops, put up displays, and have at least one meal served to all who come. It'll be a big job!

Doris, are you getting any takers for your tickets? We seem to have hijacked your thread! :)

Marcia, the Westman Gardeners is a brand new club here in the Brandon area. Our first meeting was in February 2006. We have almost 50 members now and have joined the Manitoba Horticultural Association (MHA).

BTW, I have gone to the annual MHA conventions for the past 5 or 6 years and thoroughly enjoyed myself. I have met the most wonderful people who enjoy gardening and are from all across Manitoba. It starts on a Thursday and ends on the Sat afternoon with many speakers and a banquet, fundraising auction and musical entertainment on the Fri evening. In the past I was involved in a garden club that has hosted the MHA convention and found that it was a lot of work but as the saying goes ... 'many hands make light work'. This year's convention is in Dauphin at the end of January/beginning of Feb 2007. For a future convention, we, the Westman Gardeners, have already discussed the possibility of hosting the convention and would like to do so sometime.

Would still love to go to Calgary...how about a virtual tour??? Do you know anyone going that can take pictures and post them for us?

Brenda

Our District Meetings are always at the beginning of May, which i don't really like because i hate giving up my weekends that time of year!

One possible taker for the ticket, Marcia, but she stipulated that she'll only take it if no one else wants it. (She said she'd feel guilty about going on a garden tour when she has so much she needs to do at home.) It's a long weekend, so some regulars are not at their computers. Maybe tomorrow.

I know of a couple of people who are going, but they don't usually take photos. I always do, but...

If no one on this forum volunteers to take photos to share, I could (when I find my CD ) post some from last years' tour, if you like. I wonder if there are any problems with not having the gardeners' permission?

The passport has been spoken for. Thanks!! :-)