The Mt. Klitsa Garden Club held a special celebration for their 70th anniversary.
The celebration, which took place on March 6, 2025 at the Echo Centre, featured special guest speaker Gary Lewis from Phoenix Perennials Vancouver, who supplied door prizes and spoke about ground covers. Larry Brechin, a member for 35 years, gave a brief history of the club.
The Mt. Klitsa Garden Club was formed on March 24,1955 at the home of Ann Thomson of McCoy Lake. There were 15 members present. Meetings were held at Kleecoot Schoolhouse (at the water bomber base) and at members’ homes.
The club’s emblem is the trillium. It was the hard work of the Mt. Klitsa Garden Club that resulted in a law being passed in 1958, protecting the Trillium ovatum from being picked or moved. The trillium was endangered, and this law was crucial to protecting it. A painting of the trillium, painted by founding member Ann Thomson, was hung in the corridor of the provincial parliament building on Nov. 17, 1958 to commemorate this.
The Garden Club has put displays in the Fall Fair every year since 1955. In 2001, the club gave a large donation to West Coast General Hospital for the purchase of tropical plants in the atrium (health square).
Mount Klitsa Garden Club meets the first Thursday of the month, except in June when they have a Summer Social at a member’s home. There are no meetings in July or August, because this is when members are spending time in their gardens, and no meeting in September in preparation for the Alberni District Fall Fair. In December, the club has a Christmas dinner at a local restaurant.
During these meetings there is a guest speaker, as well as a Parlour Show where members bring floral arrangements based on a monthly theme. The draw by donation is also a very popular part of the monthly program. Plants and other items donated by members are often available for sale at the meetings. Meetings take place in the Cedar Room at Echo Centre starting at 7 p.m. New members are always welcome. The annual fee is $20.
The next meeting is planned for Thursday, May 1, 7 p.m. at Echo Centre (Cedar Room). The Parlour Show subject is "The Lusty Month of May," and the speaker will be Werner Gysi on homesteading. Newcomers are welcome.
The Mt., Klitsa Garden Club will hold its popular annual plant sale on Saturday, May 10 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Alberni Athletic Hall (3727 Roger St.) in the entryway. Cash only, and people are encouraged to bring their own boxes and flats for annuals, perennials, shrubs, trees, seeds, houseplants, vegetables and more. There will also be draw prizes.
The plant sale takes place concurrently with the Community Arts Council of the Alberni Valley's giant book sale, also at the Alberni Athletic Hall in the gym.
— With files from Susie Quinn, editor
