By Gerry Ginsberg
Canada Blooms general manager

Founded over a decade ago by the Garden Club of Toronto and Landscape Ontario, Canada Blooms, the Toronto flower and garden festival, has grown to become Canada’s largest annual horticultural show.

Since 1979, more than one million visitors have joined this annual celebration of the best of our flower and gardening industry.

This year’s Canada Blooms’ theme honours the energy, innovation and vibrancy of Canada’s landscape and floral industry from the1960s to today. Explore more than 20 new display gardens created by premier landscape designers and architects. You will admire the creativity of Canada’s leading professional and amateur floral designers.

In 2009, visitors may take in the newest gardening products from more than 200 vendors in the Canada Blooms’ Marketplace. This year it includes the new Garden Travel Section, Living Green Section and Plant Market.

Tickets for Canada Blooms have been held at the same price for the fourth consecutive year. All proceeds from this not-for-profit organization will support the development of children’s programs at the Toronto Botanical Garden, located at Leslie and Lawrence Avenue in North Toronto.
 

Good reasons to visit Canada Blooms

• Opening Night Party: “Green on Green” is one of Toronto’s must-attend events. Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with our hosts from Tourism Ireland and Sobeys.
• Five days of Canada’s top gardening experts on three stages. New for 2008 are themed educational days: Urban Gardening, Garden Travel, Plant Day, Design Day and Ecology Day.
• Home Depot’s Inspired Outdoor Living Centre will show how to create an outdoor oasis at your own home.
• Judge the People’s Choice Favourite Garden and vote to win a trip to Ireland, courtesy of Tourism Ireland.
• Help judge the finest porches and windows at the Miracle-Gro Celebrity “Porches and Windows” exhibit for a chance win a special prize.
• The Garden Club of Toronto hosts Canada’s largest annual flower show.
• Wander through a maze of healing herbs and edible plants, representing the four chambers of the heart at the Heart and Stroke Foundation Garden.
• Pick Ontario Fields, sponsored by Flowers Canada, is on the 600 Level, where you may enjoy the freshness, quality and variety of cut Ontario-grown flowers and plants.
• Visit the Master Gardeners’ stage for full details on your spring planting programs.
• Visit Via Rail and the Via Rail Garden Route that features exhibits from ten award-winning municipal gardens across Canada.
• Taste award-winning wines at the Niagara Wine Garden, featuring the wineries of Jackson-Triggs, Inniskillin, Naked Grape and Sawmill Creek.
• Don’t miss the Floral Superstars or Celebrity Flower Arranging Competition on the Canada Blooms Stage, daily from Wednesday to Saturday.
• Bring the family to the all new children’s play area, where children can plant a seed, paint a pot or dig in the sand pit.
• The City of Toronto will celebrate its 175th anniversary with a spectacular garden and display of the greenest city in Canada.
• Learn what you can do in small spaces at the SkyScapes by Laguna with special balcony and terrace garden presentations, specially designed for the GTA’s greatly expanding condominium market.

Visit Canada Blooms, March 18 to 22, 2009 – A great Christmas gift for your best customers!

Canada Blooms will be presented at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, South Building. Tickets are available online at www.canadablooms.com or at Sobeys Ontario Stores. Prices are adults, $18 – advance rate $16 prior to March 15; senior/student, $16; Children 12 and under, free. New this year is a special RBC after 5 p.m. rate purchased daily, at the Canada Blooms box office, for $12.

For information, visit canadablooms.com, or call 416-447-8655.