Dear Friends,
VanDusen Botanical Garden and Master Gardeners of BC have had a long and mutually beneficial relationship. If you think of us as forming a marriage, we have produced some rather amazing offspring – perhaps most significantly, Seedy Saturday. Little Seedy has done us proud, and the slew of Seedy grandkids across the country can look to our productive partnership here in Vancouver as both source and inspiration.
Master Gardeners and VanDusen seem to be on a roll these days. It’s very gratifying to see our Floral Hall filled with yet another sold-out Basic Training session. I’m in frequent contact with members of the Vancouver Chapter, and now the Provincial Executive, to seek new ways of combining expertise and resources. If I said the relationship was warming up and we could expect some new offspring again soon, I hope you pollination-minded gardeners won’t mind the analogy.
I have been invited to write about VanDusen Botanical Garden in GROWING. Our horticulturists and curators will also be putting down their tools from time to time to help spread the word about this tremendous botanical resource that’s here to serve you. The Director gets to go first, but expect to hear more from VanDusen’s knowledgeable staff in these pages in future.
The Garden is bustling these days. We’re building a new $22 million Visitor Centre scheduled to open later this summer. Our plan is to expand facilities in order to offer more programs, to bring in new revenues, to bring Garden staff together under one roof, and to attract a new audience to learn about the wonderful world of plants. The design of the exciting Visitor Centre is inspired by nature. It is meant to function like a plant, creating its own energy and recycling its water. We’re guided by a building design philosophy known as the 'Living Building Challenge', and we hope to become the first building in Canada to achieve it. Visit us at: www.vandusengarden.org
Within the new facility is an interpretative room known as the Discovery Centre. Our staff are working with consultants to create exhibits there that explain the vital importance of plants to us and to all life on earth. Our tired old facilities had no room for these exciting educational components. VanDusen is looking to the future with a renewed mandate to excite and educate our community and our visitors. We have always enticed them with our beauty, and that remains unchanged, but now we’ll be able to reach the wider and younger audience who are hungry for the restorative beauty of VanDusen and for our message.
Botanical Gardens and Master Gardeners have always been about education. Each of us has a renewed opportunity to expand our programs and extend our reach with the new Visitor Centre. Vancouver Park Board is considering the new VanDusen as its showcase for best practices and its showcase for sustainability in the landscape. Those of us who love plants and nature have a home in this garden. In addition to Master Gardeners, some 20 horticultural clubs and societies meet here. We’re pleased to assist the community of plant lovers by continuing to offer rents that range from free to dirt-cheap!
Our home is yours, and the renewed ferment around the conservation of nature and natural beauty makes us natural bedfellows. Oops, I’m back to my pollination theme. As before, great things are sure to come from our shared commitment. It’s an exciting time to be here for us all!
Harry Jongerden
Garden Director, VanDusen Botanical Garden
