November 19 2021 - YEAR OF THE GARDEN 2022 Newsletter to the Garden-Family

Hope you had a good garden summer! The Canadian Garden Council’s Year of the Garden 2022 development team has been very busy in the past few months, and is pleased to share these important updates with the Canada’s Garden-family:

Thanks to Minister Bibeau, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, 2022 was recognized as Canada’s Year of the Garden via a declaration in the House of Commons on June 21st . Minister Bibeau, an avid supporter of the Year of the Garden 2022, is back as Minister of Agriculture and Agrifood following the election. We are expecting an important announcement soon regarding the Year of the Garden 2022.

Sincere appreciation to our Founding Partners, Scotts, Premier Tech, and Proven Winners for confirming their generous commitments to become Year of the Garden 2022 Founding Sponsors. Thank you to Vesey’s Seeds who has signed on as a Silver Sponsor. These companies are preparing to unveil exciting Year of the Garden 2022 programs soon. Watch for details in upcoming newsletters.

There is still time to add your corporate support to Canada’s Year of the Garden 2022 national marketing campaign, with unique sponsorship opportunities to reach receptive audiences. Please contact us.

We welcome Parks Canada, Canada Post, and the National Capital Commission, as Promotional Partners which have committed their support for the Year of the Garden 2022.

Not-for-profit Garden-Family organizations can raise awareness for their cause by becoming Garden-Family Partners. We welcome the Perennial Plant Association as our latest Garden-Family Partner, featuring their Perennial Plant for 2022: Schizachyrium ‘Carousel’ (credit Richard Hawke)

We invite Garden-family businesses to show support for and engage with the Year of the Garden 2022 by becoming a Patron. Please follow the link for details and important benefits you’ll receive.

The Canadian Garden Council has made presentations to national and provincial industry associations, including the Canadian Nursery Landscape Association, Québec Vert, Landscape Ontario, and Garden Centres Canada, among others, to actively engage their members - growers, retailers, and landscape service providers - with the Year of The Garden 2022. Details for special member opportunities are being finalized and will be communicated to members soon!

If you would like a Year of the Garden 2022 presentation, tailored to your association’s members, please contact us.

We are getting ready to celebrate the centennial of Canada’s ornamental horticulture sector, marked by CNLA’s 100th Anniversary. It will be a celebration of the tremendous contribution of gardens and gardening to the development of Canada, and its potential for our future. As we leave the pandemic, the Year of the Garden 2022 is a perfect opportunity, to “build back better and greener” and is an on-point vehicle to provide nature-based solutions to the climate crisis. After all, ornamental horticulture is the original green economy.

Year of the Garden 2022 “call to actions” invites Canadians to “Live the Garden Life”. One of them is transforming Communities in Bloom’s Plant Yellow campaign into Plant Red in 2022 to let Canadians show their Garden Pride. Planting red annuals and perennials, red-leafed trees and shrubs, or red vegetables and fruits, the promotional possibilities are endless to engage the public.

Another call-to-action, in collaboration with Communities in Bloom and Fleurons du Québec, invites municipalities - where the majority of Canadians live - to proclaim 2022 the Year of the Garden, commit to celebrate National Garden Day, June 18, 2022, and to become a Garden Friendly City. We are delighted that 14 municipalities have already signed on, and the campaign has not yet launched! The first city to commit was Toronto, followed by Brantford, Vaudreuil-Dorion and Winnipeg following this article: https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/our-communities/metro/Horticulture-group-marks-Year-of-the-Garden-2022-574849891.html

Invite your municipality to join, it’s easy to Proclaim 2022 the Year of the Garden.

How would you like to be involved and celebrate Canada’s Year of the Garden 2022? Check https://yearofthegarden.ca or contact us at [email protected].

The public facing website will go live in the coming weeks, and social media networks are being activated now.

The Year of the Garden 2022 will start on January 1st with New Year Garden Resolutions to “Live the Garden Life”.

“Canada’s Local Gardener” has been named as the official Year of the Garden 2022 English magazine and Québec Vert’s “Du Jardin dans ma vie” magazine as the official French one. Together, they reach a large public audience hungry for gardens and gardening information and will be important partners in the delivery of program information to consumers.

Our first public marketing event will be the official launch of the Year of the Garden 2022, with Canada’s Garden-Family at the Landscape Ontario Congress, January 11 to 13, 2022. A public Launch is also being planned for the spring.

If you believe that Year of the Garden 2022 is a good thing for Canadians, if you have not yet done so, or if your Member of Parliament changed, please express your support to your Member of Parliament.

Contact your Federal MP today!!!