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Growing City: The Evolution of Vancouver Gardens

On Thursday April 26 , the Vancouver Historical Society will host a lecture by author Christine Allen on the history of Vancouver gardens entitled "Growing City: The Evolution of Vancouver Gardens". The talk is at 7:30pm at the Museum of Vancouver.

On Thursday April 26, the Vancouver Historical Society will host a lecture by author Christine Allen on the history of Vancouver gardens entitled "Growing City: The Evolution of Vancouver Gardens". The talk is at 7:30pm at the Museum of Vancouver. All are welcome and entrance is by donation.

 Christine Allen's Kerrisdale house in May, 1989, with wisteria climbing all over it. Painting by Michael Kluckner.Christine Allen’s Kerrisdale house in May, 1989, with wisteria climbing all over it. Painting by Michael Kluckner.

Christine Allen’s foray into gardening started when she and her husband bought a run-down Kerrisdale house in the 1980s. The house was previously owned by a Mrs. Plant.

“Part of what was really appealing about the house, was this great garden,” Christine says. “You realize very quickly with gardens that if they are not maintained they disappear, so one of us had to look after the garden and that fell to me.”

Originally from Sydney, Australia, Christine had previously had no interest in gardens. “I was a career woman and a feminist. Gardening was lumped in with stuff like cooking and sewing and knitting and things like that.”

Once she decided to maintain her new garden, Christine threw herself into the job. She enrolled in the Master Gardener’s program at VanDusen Botanical Garden, became a volunteer, read everything she could get her hands on, and was soon leading tours for VanDusen, giving lectures at garden clubs and writing articles for horticultural magazines. She fell in love with rambling roses, joined the Vancouver Rose Society, and ten years later she became its president.

Her books include A Year at Killara Farm, Roses for the Pacific Northwest, and Gardens of Vancouver with Collin Varner.

Christine’s illustrated talk on April 26 will show how gardens have developed and changed alongside the city of Vancouver, as well as a look at some early gardening pioneers.

“Gardens have been part of the development of Vancouver from the beginning and have evolved with the changing times and changing fashions just as houses have,” she says.

 Conrad W. Johnson and family in their Shaughnessy garden at 1203 Matthews Avenue in 1925. Courtesy CVA 99-3546Conrad W. Johnson and family in their Shaughnessy garden at 1203 Matthews Avenue in 1925. Courtesy CVA 99-3546

BT Rogers, Vancouver’s sugar king, was known for his garden and conservatory, she says.

“He was immensely proud of his ‘Gloire de Dijon’ rose that grew on a corner of his verandah and had his family photographed in front of it,” she says. “It was part of a sign of your wealth if you had an elaborate garden and they were elaborate in those days. The McRaes at Hycroft in Shaughnessy are a perfect example—they put an awful lot of time, effort and money into their garden.”

Vancouver, she says, does not have a unique style of garden.

“Like everything else about Vancouver, we are part of the new world. Our citizens come from everywhere and our gardens borrow from everywhere,” she says. “The wonderful thing about Vancouver is that its climate makes it one of the few places in the world that can grow plants ranging from tiny arctic tundra plants to palm trees.”

Christine and her husband moved to Australia in 2006 and returned to Vancouver five years later. They bought a 1912 house in Grandview that was in rough shape.

There were the remains of a vegetable garden, some peonies, and the front lawn was more buttercups than grass.

“I started to build a new garden and aimed to have something interesting to look at all year round.”

For her, a plant has to do more then one thing.

“It can’t just have some flowers. It’s got to have beautiful leaves, or it has to have interesting fruits or great foliage or it has to have a really elegant shape in the middle of winter. It has to have something more than just a single moment of glory.”

Take the lavender hedge that Christine planted in the front of the house. It’s practical year-round, but when it’s in bloom people in the neighbourhood will stop to smell it and small children will run their hands along it.

Gardens do more than just look pretty. They help to build a community, and they help to support the biosphere, she says.

And, that’s a problem in a city like Vancouver where heritage houses and their established gardens are coming down at an alarming rate.

“I’m concerned that people are building bigger and bigger houses so there is less and less room for a garden,” says Christine.

When: Thursday April 26, 7:30 pm

Where: Museum of Vancouver (1100 Chestnut Street)

Visit the Facebook Event for more info HERE