Home & Garden 2025: Wingham Horticultural Society continues to make its mark
BY SHAWN LOUGHLIN
In the warm weather months here in Huron County, on Thursday mornings, you may see a group of bustling volunteers working at Wingham’s Cruickshank Park, weeding, raking, planting, trimming - all the hits associated with a top-notch gardening crew. This is the Wingham Horticultural Society and, if you live in or visit Wingham on a regular basis, you most certainly owe them your profound thanks.
The group, which is about 50 members strong right now, works tirelessly to maintain the gardens of Wingham. Its crowning jewel is, of course, Cruickshank Park in the north end of the town, with its beautiful sprawling layout and expansive diversity. The park plays host to many seasonal activities and displays around Easter and Christmas, but stands, on most days, as a tidy, well-maintained, beautiful park for people to walk through or simply spend some time in for a picnic or just some quiet time in nature.
However, the society’s work doesn’t end there. Its members maintain the north and south entrance points for the town, as well as several parks along the Wingham Community Trail, which runs west from just north of Cruickshank Park.
And while the group does plenty of on-the-ground work, there are many social aspects to the society as well. In fact, it hosts gardening workshops and lessons for local elementary school students and monthly meetings for members and guests that always include a guest speaker in a fun and engaging atmosphere. Recently, for example, it was Robert Foreman of 100-Mile Produce in Belgrave who darkened the society’s door and spoke about his well-established and respected business.
The Citizen met with a handful of the society’s most dedicated volunteers on a rainy Monday earlier this week and their passion for not just gardening, but for their community, was clearly evident very quickly into our sprawling conversation.
President Joanne Douglas is one of the newest members in attendance, only having been a volunteer for about two years, but she’s thoroughly enjoying the time with the society, not just with the work, but with the people who have become some of her newest friends.
That’s another aspect of the society that speaks to the larger impact of service clubs and their role in the community. They serve as gateways into a town or a village for someone new who has just moved there. Two of the members who were there that day said that they had always enjoyed gardening and joined the society when they moved to Wingham to meet some new friends and to learn more about their new community.
And while there are some members who are on the newer end of the spectrum, like Douglas, only being members for two or three years, there are others who are on the opposite end of that spectrum. Annabelle Hoy, for example, has been a member for 54 years and, while her back no longer allows her to do some of the more laborious work associated with gardening, she continues to pitch in wherever and whenever she can.
When asked why they keep coming back after all of these years, the longer-tenured members all say that they love the work being done by the society and that they enjoy being around their fellow members and that it is really the people that keep them coming back to the society year after year.
Relatively new member Pat Mathers says that she feels a tremendous sense of pride when she makes her way through town and sees the gardens in full bloom, looking great and being enjoyed by residents and visitors alike. The rest of the members all nod in agreement.
And yet, the members think that many in town don’t quite know the extent of the work that the members do. Potentially with the exception of Cruickshank Park, Mathers wonders aloud if residents simply think that the Township of North Huron maintains some of the town’s most beautiful gardens, when in fact it’s the blood, sweat and tears of the society that have been shed to make Wingham beautiful.
On the flip side of that coin, she says that when residents know who is doing the work and truly appreciate what’s being done, members can expect to be thanked on the street, which is another gesture that truly makes the members feel appreciated.
The Wingham Horticultural Society, despite all of the great work it does in town, is not immune to the threats that loom above most service clubs, which is a dwindling membership base that is aging out. Younger members and new blood are always needed to keep service clubs afloat, relevant and vibrant for the years to come and the society is always on the hunt for those newer members, though long-time member Wayne Elston says that the society’s membership is quite healthy, considering the size of the Wingham community.
The group dedicates well over 1,100 volunteer hours per year to the gardens of Wingham, Elston said, and that’s done out of a love for the community. And right now is a busy time for the society, with a lot of preparation happening and planting right around the corner.
As for what’s next for the society, its next meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Wednesday, May 14 at the Hot Stove Lounge in the North Huron Wescast Community Complex, and the guest speaker will be addressing natural tea-making. Furthermore, the society’s next big event is its annual plant sale, which is scheduled for Friday, May 23 from 12-6 p.m. and Saturday, May 24 from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. at 204 Shuter Street. Many of the plants sold at the annual sale come from the gardens the society maintains - often perennials that need to be split each season - so it’s an opportunity for people of the town to dip a toe in the work of the society and bring it home to their own gardens.
Next year, the society will mark its 60th anniversary and the members hope it will be a banner year for them and for the community as well.