Fall Garden & Mum Show: a century-long tradition
- Elise Arsenault
- 26 Nov 2019
What if I told you there’s a local event older than Hamilton’s Supercrawl (est. 2009), Fringe Festival (est. 2002), and Tiger-Cats team (est. 1950) combined?
Meet the Fall Garden & Mum Show. Established in 1920, the floral exhibition has outdone itself many times since, fashioning thousands of chrysanthemum blooms into artful displays for the public each year. October marked the show’s 99th run, and the centenary celebration is being dreamed up as we speak.
“We begin meeting as soon as the show’s done,” says Sheila Munday, horticultural supervisor for the City and long-time go-to person for the Mum Show. “We’ll discuss the good, the bad, and the ugly of this show and start planning the next one.
“When you’re working on it,” she admits, “you think about it 24/7. There’s no stopping!” This was her 33rd round. Having worked on various details of the event since she was a student, Sheila has watched the show grow into itself.
“My first one was in 1985,” she recalls. “It was Chrysanthemum and Crystal.”
The hall leading to the show’s entry is clad with commemorative, sun-tinted plaques of themes past. “Chrysanthemum and Crystal” hangs among them, featuring delicate trellises and an ornate fountain.
Themes weren’t always so elaborate. In fact, they weren’t even incorporated until 1976. Pinned to a board behind Sheila’s desk is a black-and-white photograph of the first show ever, boasting four rows of mums propped on the benches of a tunnel greenhouse. Visitors sport headscarves, bowler hats, and bowties, moseying down aisles in single-file.
“People walked in and looked, just like that,” Sheila explains.
As years passed, potential for grandeur grew. “Superintendent Jim Pook first had the vision of arranging them,” says Sheila. “They started with simple themes, then evolved into some pretty crazy ones.”
The last four decades have seen seascapes, outer-space, sports, symphony, holidays, wildlife galore and more. Circuses, industrial wonders, fairy tales, and Mardi Gras. One year was devoted entirely to Elvis Presley.
The gardeners use oasis foam to sculpt show-stopping displays; the sponge-like bricks are glued and trimmed into shape, then wet and set to hold thousands of flowers in place. Floral feats over the years include 1986’s baby grand piano, 1990’s massive football (that wouldn’t fit in your bathtub), colossal rings around Saturn in 1998, and a TNT container erupting with starry sparks in 2011’s fire-themed spectacle.
This year uncovered “The Secret Life of Bugs” with a detailed and endearing take on insects and their garden shenanigans.
More has changed about the show than its themes. Tools, marketing, and demographics have shifted too.
“When I first started,” Sheila says, “we grew all the plants in clay pots, now we grow them in plastic. Clay pots are very heavy, and back then we weren’t allowed to use carts because they’d wiggle the flowers’ heads and sometimes break them.
“We could carry two pots at a time,” she says reaching forward, “one in one hand, and one in the other. Your thumbs were so sore carrying those pots! After lunch, you’d probably start carrying one at a time.
“Now,” she adds, “we’ve got a good fertilizer program so the heads are really strong. We can put them on carts and move them around.”
Sheila’s seen the variety of mums grow from 28 to over 200; the size of the show swell to 200,000 square-feet; and the events’ duration shrink from 20 days to ten.
“After 20 days, boy, the show was pretty tired. Ten days is perfect,” Shiela admits.
The exhibit has also widened its appeal to all age groups, hosting varied workshops, seminars, dinners, and entertainment. What was once mainly catered to folks 55-and-up is now incredibly family friendly.
“Demographics have shifted probably within the last ten years,” Sheila says. “We had a team join us – we call them Alex & Flo. They came from City Hall and started organizing our events with better marketing.” Past announcements sat on street-signs and the occasional ad in The Spec. “Now they reach out to so many groups.”
Next year being the 100th show, the team is feeling nostalgic.
“We’re hoping to take a piece of a lot of the popular shows and do a walk down memory lane,” she explains. “An ode to the past.”
It’ll be especially memorable for Sheila, since it’s the first one she’ll attend after retiring this year. “My kids have been to every show since they were born,” she says. “It’s been a great career. The people here in Horticulture are so fantastic and creative.”
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