The Office of the Vice-President, University Operations, recently entered and won a Canada-wide competition, sponsored by the Canadian Garden Council, Vesey’s Bulbs, Canada Post, Niagara Parks, Via Rail and a host of other Canadian associations and companies to win one of 150 ‘150^th Celebration Gardens’ being distributed across Canada in celebration of Canada’s Sesquicentennial in 2017! U of T is one of only 3 winners, the other two being the Toronto Zoo and the Toronto Parks & Trees Foundation. We are also one of only two universities to be a part of this initiative, the other being the Memorial University of Newfoundland Botanical Garden.

Our Celebration Garden, located on iconic King’s College Circle, is a highly visible, publicly accessible and popular stop on Canada’s Garden Route, and our beautiful floral tribute to our sesquicentennial is a clear celebration of the University’s longstanding bond with Canada. To supplement the 1000 bulbs won in competition, our Grounds team ordered an additional 4000 red and white bulbs and designed a garden to celebrate our 150th anniversary of Confederation.

On May 9th, members of the broader U of T community joined Scott Mabury, Vice-President, University Operations and Donald Ainslie, Chair of the Sesquicentennial Committee for photos in our garden.

Once the tulips have bloomed, we will offer the bulbs to the community so that the Celebration Garden will live on in home gardens, school gardens and community gardens. The Kings College Circle garden will be replanted with multicolored annuals, following the same template as the tulip garden, as a lasting reminder of our nation’s Sesquicentennial.