Canada Blooms is a not-for-profit organization. Proceeds from the annual Canada Blooms event are donated to community horticultural projects by our producing partners, The Garden Club of Toronto and Landscape Ontario.

Canada Blooms proceeds have supported many projects, including the new Woodland Walk Entrance Garden which greets visitors enjoying the Toronto Botanical Gardens at the intersection of Leslie and Lawrence Streets in Toronto.

In 2012 Canada Blooms & The Garden Club of Toronto
Support the June Callwood Park

A new park in Toronto to honour the memory of June Callwood is scheduled for completion in 2013. An International design competition resulted in four shortlisted design teams who were then required to prepare an overall vision of the site – a .4 hectare slice of land located at the foot of Fort York. The mandate was to create a central focus for local neighbourhood activities and community interaction. The park will represent a significant addition to the public spaces of Toronto’s Central Waterfront. 

Born in 1924 in Chatham ON. June Rose Callwood died at the age of 82 in 2007 leaving an extraordinary legacy of caring and accomplishment. She was an internationally acclaimed female journalist, author, television host, community activist, recipient of nearly 20 honorary degrees, and Companion of the Order of Canada. Heralded by many as “Canada’s Conscience” or “St June” she was not content to merely expose injustices but was compelled to be proactive in their solutions. Among the more than fifty charities she helped to found are names like Nellie’s, Casey House and Jessie’s. Children and women headed her list and in 2005 when the City of Toronto told her they wished to establish a memorial park she requested that it be made with children in mind. In fact she attended a dedication ceremony for the park in that same year.

The inspiration for the award winning design by Toronto landscape design firm gh3 architects was formatted on a voice print from her last interview with George Stroumboulopoulis of CTV’s The Hour.  In the interview she maintains that while she is spiritual she has no formal religion; that “she believes in kindness. “ gh3 mapped the voice print onto the site creating an undulating and abstract geometric pattern of openings and clearings, creating a pathway that runs north south through five clearings in the forest connecting Lakeshore to Fort York.

The park is loosely zoned into six clearings: the Puddle Plaza, the Puzzle Garden, the Maze, the Pink Field Plaza, Time Strip Gardens, and Ephemeral Pools all of which engage aspects of unprogrammed play and interaction.

The Garden Club of Toronto has committed up to $250,000 and will be installing the time strip gardens including a Railway Garden, Victory Garden, Parterre garden, a grand estate garden of the 1920’s and 30’s, a Settlers garden, Rose Garden (June ROSE Callwood), a contemporary garden, a garden of native and indigenous plant material and a transition garden with grasses and foliage. There will be a forest of crabapple trees with the pink blossoms she so loved. To honour her desire for the park to speak to children there will be a pink playing field in a protected clearing. The springy rubberized surface is made of brightly coloured elastocrete for games, sports and improvisational play.

With $100,000 already in hand, other irons in the fire and a broad based strategy in the formative stages we are totally confident of reaching our funding goal. We are thrilled to have been chosen as a $50,000 recipient project by Canada Blooms and are also excited by the wonderful exposure we will receive as a result of Canada Blooms PR. A further $50,000 has been generously committed to the project by the W. Garfield Weston Foundation. And finally we are very pleased to announce that Landscape Ontario will be supporting the project on a major level with a donation of plant material .

The June Callwood Park joins an extensive list of projects – over $3million worth - initiated by the Garden Club of Toronto. We are confident it will enrich and enhance Toronto’s cityscape and leave another lasting legacy for generations of Torontonians to enjoy. 

To find out more about the park visit the City of Toronto Website

If you wish to donate to the park please click here or contact Judy Lewis, Garden Club of Toronto

Other Projects

Since 1997, Canada Blooms has generated over $650,000 that has been donated to the following projects:

• The Weston Quarry Garden at the Don Valley Brick Works, Toronto
  
• The Royal Botanical Gardens Perennial Border Project, Hamilton
  
• Scugog Shores Historical Museum, Port Perry
  
• The Teaching Garden at Edwards Gardens, Toronto
  
• Communities in Bloom Civic Beautification - across Canada
  
• Fletcher Wildlife Garden, Ottawa
  
• University of Guelph Conservatory Restoration Project, Guelph
  
• Elevated Wetlands, Toronto
  
• The Gardens at Landon Bay, Brockville
  
• The Millennium Garden, Milton
  
• Dominion Seed House Gardens, Georgetown
  
• The Master Gardeners Program, Ontario
  
• A Garden of the Senses, Halton Hills
  
• The Community Memorial Hospital project, Port Perry
  
• Black Creek Pioneer Village, Toronto
  
• Humber Arboretum, Toronto
  
• The Sustaining Project at the Humber Arboretum, Toronto
  

After this year's event The City of Toronto, Canada Blooms and Procter’s Cartage Ltd. partnered to distribute 500 spring blooms and shrubs to seniors living at Fudger House, one of the City of Toronto’s long-term care homes. Flowers have also been made available to seniors’ facilities and programs including Belmont House, Fellowship Towers, Rekai Centre, Seniors Pride Network, Dixon Hall, Toronto Tamil Seniors Association, True Davidson Acres Meals on Wheels, Winchester Square and Home Makers and Nurses Services clients. In addition to repurposing the flowers, the City and Canada Blooms have partnered to save 40 trees from the show, which were be planted in City parks.

2010 Fudger House Donation:

Allenby School:

The pictures show the planting that was done with the donations Canada Blooms has given us over the past 3 years. First Natons native plant garden to the right of the cedars was constructed, and will be used as a part of the grade 6 curriculum on First Nations Peoples.