The Brantford Garden Club hosted its 170th annual summer flower show at the Lions Park auditorium on Saturday, July 26, 2025.
The club, which was founded back in 1852, currently has 289 members and is one of the oldest horticultural societies in Ontario.
Carol Sterkenburg, president of the Brantford Garden Club, said she was excited to be celebrating the event’s 170th birthday and with so many entries.
“Two years ago we had 396 entries and I was thrilled, last year we had 512 and I was ecstatic, and this year we have 575, which I think is just totally amazing,” she said. “Everything you see here today, comes just from the members of our club and so to get this many entries from them and to see all the varieties, the colour, and the beauty from these Brantford gardens is just really wonderful.”
During this year’s show, club members entered a variety of annual and perennial plant specimens into a total of 98 different categories.
From flowers to herbs, fruits and vegetables, flowering shrubs and vines, outdoor plants and houseplants, special exhibits, design categories, and more, there were plenty of submissions to be admired.
Sterkenburg said that in order to help award the top submissions, the club had to bring in some help.
“We had three judges come and judge all the entries in this competition because it’s a huge job,” she said. “Can you imagine trying to pick the nicest hosta leaf or the nicest cone flower out of all these entries?”
Towards the end of the event, separate awards were given out for highest points in design, highest points in horticulture specimens, highest points for first time exhibitors and for the highest points in the youth category. There were also awards given out for judge’s choice, president’s choice, and best of show.
Robin Brennan, who won this year’s president’s choice award for her oriental lily submission, said that she always appreciates getting to be a part of the summer flower show.
“It’s just nice to see such diversity in the flowers and you always walk away with some great ideas about what you want to try to plant in your garden,” she said. “I always marvel at the design entries, because I don’t really consider myself artistic but I like looking at what people are able to do creatively with the flowers and the designs… It’s amazing.”
Brennan added that she’s been in the garden club for five years now, and that, for her, the best part of being a member is the community aspect.
“There’s a lot of great people who are involved that are just really nice to be around,” she said. “We also have a lot of great speakers who come out to our meetings, and there’s just so much knowledge that exists within the club. I think that for people who are first starting out, it’s a really great resource and you always get plenty of encouragement from the other members.”
Kimberly De Jong’s reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative.The funding allows her to report rural and agricultural stories from Blandford-Blenheim and Brant County. Reach her at kimberly.dejong@brantbeacon.ca.
