Cobourg Garden Club planting seeds for summer flower show, tea

The Cobourg Garden Club is hosting a summer flower show and tea on Saturday, Aug. 8 at the Cobourg Public Library. /Natalie Hamilton photo

By reporter Natalie Hamilton

Plans are blossoming for the Cobourg Garden Club in preparation for its popular summer event in Cobourg early next month.

The club is hosting its “summer flower show and tea” from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 8 at the Cobourg Public Library, which is located at 200 Ontario St.

The popular and typically well-attended show is the local destination for “all things garden-related,” said organizers.

“The show is an opportunity for the garden club to invite members of the public to share our love of flowers and gardening,” said Sarah Holland, who along with Susan Hamer, is convening the show.

There are two other flower shows each year, but they take place at the club’s monthly meetings, so they aren’t generally open to the public, she noted. 

“The summer show, however, is open to any guests who want to come to see the displays, and they are invited to have some tea as well,” said Holland.

Attendance is free.

The 2025 summer show boasted around 150 entries, with about 70 visitors enjoying the displays and the afternoon tea, cold drinks and baked goods provided by garden club members.

This prize-winning tromboncino squash was an entry in the 2025 edition of the Cobourg Garden Club’s summer show. /Cobourg Garden Club photo

Classes for members related to annuals, perennials, fruits and vegetables, houseplants, design, and photography are part of the show. The “design” section of the 2026 show features the theme of eco-gardening, with classes titled “imagination,” a design using a recycled container, “water saving” and “bee friendly.”

The photography classes are similarly themed as “water saving” and “pollinating insects.”

“Club members are always creative in interpreting these types of topics,” noted the convenors.

“This year’s long snowy winter and late spring, did delay some plants,” they noted.

At the club’s annual plant sale held on the Victoria Day weekend in May, it was evident that several perennials, such as hostas, were “barely breaking ground.”

For the summer show, the Cobourg Garden Club again anticipates about 150 entries and expects 60 to 80 guests, depending on the number of other local events also happening that day.

The Cobourg Garden Club, which was originally called the Cobourg Horticultural Society, was founded by a group of men in February 1859. It has been in operation since, with a few gaps, but has been continuously active since 1964. 

The convenors shared that early activities and events were regularly recorded in the local newspapers, with the flower show and exhibition being a highlight of the summer. Five hundred people attended the first flower show in July 1859 – “a huge number given the population of Cobourg at that time was about 5,000.”

There were three categories: Flowers, fruits and vegetables. Many classes provided an opportunity for new residents to learn the varieties that would produce the best yield, which was vital information for early settlers, noted organizers.

The Cobourg Garden Club holds flower shows in May, August and December. Other activities include a popular annual plant sale on the long-weekend each May, with speakers at monthly meetings held at the Salvation Army building on Ballantine Street. The club has for many years presented an annual scholarship to a Cobourg high school graduate pursuing post-secondary education in horticulture or related studies. 

Earlier this spring, the club co-sponsored tours of the Town of Cobourg’s greenhouses, through which millions of plants for the town’s flower beds and hanging baskets, are grown every year. 

The club has also undertaken a variety of community projects over the years, such as the Edwin Haynes Memorial Rose Garden in Victoria Park, Golden Plough Lodge, Northumberland Hills Hospital, and Five Corners Millennium Garden at the corner of King Street West and William Street, opposite the library.

Club members also continue to maintain the Five Corners Millenium Garden, along with offering a little library of free horticultural books for the enjoyment of residents and visitors alike.   

For more information about the flower show and tea, visit www.cobourggardenclub.ca.