Home and Garden 2026: Horticultural Society works to beautify Clinton
BY SCOTT STEPHENSON
Ever since she became the president of the Clinton Horticultural Society (CHS) in 2018, Nancy Scriver has done two things every year - send out a letter to all members updating them as to the status of the society, and try to find somebody to replace her as president!
The Citizen caught up with Scriver on a positively chilly spring morning in Clinton’s Sloman Memorial Park, where she and a dedicated group of CHS volunteers were braving the cold to prepare the park’s flower beds for what’s sure to be an extra busy summer. This year marks the park’s 100th anniversary - just one more reason to make sure everything is in bloom for the impending influx of visitors. Preparing the green space for its milestone summer involves a lot of weed pulling and shrub pruning.
It’s not that Scriver doesn’t love being the CHS president - she’s just looking to hand over the reins so she can slow down a bit. “I enjoy being president - I really do!” she declared to The Citizen. “I can’t get rid of the job - they keep saying that it’s because I do too good of a job. They keep saying that, but I think they just don’t want to take it on!”
Scriver wants any future potential presidents to know that you don’t have to be a botanist to do the job. After all, her own path into the CHS was anything but traditional. “I don’t know anything about flowers,” she confessed. ““Half the flowers in here, I couldn’t pronounce the name of them, and I don’t know what they are…. My favourite flower is gladioli, and there’s none of them here! One of my friends here in Clinton just suggested that I join, and so I did! And I’ve enjoyed every minute of it.”
One thing that is essential to be a successful horticultural society president is having a love of learning and discovery. “It’s a society where you’re learning something all the time,” Scriver pointed out. “And at my age, I figure if you can learn one new thing a day, you’re still learning.”
While the gardens may be the most visible part of the CHS’s work, there’s a lot of effort put in behind the scenes. “It’s a lot of administration. And scheduling. And PR,” Scriver explained. “We have an auction every year - I go around to all the businesses, and collect items for auction… Nobody ever did that before I became president, but I was in sales for many years, so I’m not afraid to go and ask.”
Scriver feels that community initiatives like the auction have helped the CHS to flourish when it was once struggling to maintain its numbers. “In the years before I took over, they were fighting every year to keep it going,” she recollected. “We need to have 50 members to keep the society going, and they were struggling - signing up husbands and wives and everything else, just to get to 50 members.”
Today, the CHS has grown to around 90 members, supported by a mix of longtime gardeners and newer recruits. One of the workers in the park that morning has been brightening up Clinton with the society for over 40 years.
If she could change one thing about the CHS, it would be the name! Scriver suspects branding may be one barrier to even greater participation. “I get tired of saying ‘horticultural,’” she admitted to The Citizen. “If they just called it ‘The Garden Club’, I think you’d get more people coming into it!”
You also don’t need to be a native of Clinton to lead its horticultural society. Scriver herself is still considered a relative newcomer, having lived in Clinton for about two decades. “I’m pretty new, but I’ve also belonged to the Legion, and I’m also with the hospital auxiliary, so I know most of the community.”
Community connection is at the heart of the society’s work. Over the years, the CHS has taken on a variety of local projects - raising funds for public benches, restoring neglected flower beds and maintaining plantings at the hospital.
Their most visible efforts are the vibrant flower beds outside of Town Hall. “We don’t hear a lot from the community, but we sure hear a lot from people driving trucks, and tourists going through town,” Scriver explained. “Mike Falconer is our mentor, and he gets us into all this. He’s the one that sets that all up - he measures the flowers out and everything when they go in. The town keeps telling us about all the calls they get about how nice it looks.”
Not every planting goes exactly to plan. In one corner of the park, a patch of tulips has taken on a life of its own. “We’d like to get rid of those!” Scriver exclaimed. “We transplanted them all from up at the Town Hall. When they were doing all the construction uptown, we dug them all out of that flowerbed and then put them back after, but we’ve still got this many coming up.”
The CHS is also looking beyond aesthetics, partnering with the Ausable Bayfield Conservation Authority to tackle invasive species along the riverbanks. “We’re joining with them to help them clean up the banks,” she told The Citizen.
Like many community groups, the society faced challenges during the pandemic - but found creative ways to carry on. “Our worst year was COVID - we ended up having a plant auction on my front lawn…. As soon as COVID was basically over, we went up and did a garden tour,” she recalled. “We were so happy just to get back outside!”
Keeping the group engaged is an important part of the president’s job. “We’ve got to keep it fun,” Scriver informed. “I don’t like meetings, so one thing I don’t do is have an executive meeting every January. When I’m done in November, I don’t want to hear about the society until next spring. So, as far as I’m concerned, every meeting we have is an executive meeting - we include everybody. So we get everybody’s input - everybody gets to say what they want, not just four or five people.”
That inclusive approach extends to the work itself - brightening up the park for its anniversary is a big job, and so a schedule has been put together to maximize participation. “We had 10 people down here last night - we set it up now so we’re gonna have two teams, a night team and a day team,” Scriver explained. “The ‘golden oldies’ in the daytime, and people that work can come at night.”
Support from the Municipality of Central Huron has also been key to keeping Clinton’s flowers happy. “The township is with us all the way,” she noted. Currently, the CHS is awaiting a delivery of municipal mulch that will be used to finish off the flowerbeds.
With the anniversary celebrations approaching, the focus is clear. “Our main goal is to just get this looking good for this summer - I think there will be a lot of people coming into town with the 100th anniversary here,” Scriver opined.
For Scriver, the role of CHS president has been a rewarding one. And it's a role she’s ready to pass on. Until then, she’ll keep on looking, and she’ll keep on sending out her annual letter. “I really do enjoy being president,” she said. “I just want somebody younger to take over, so this can all continue.”