 | |
| Type | Garden supplies |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1913 |
| Founder | Howard and Lorrie Dunington-Grubb |
| Headquarters | , Canada |
Area served | Ontario |
| Website | www |
Sheridan Nurseries is a Canadian garden supplies company based in the Toronto area. The company has over 375 hectares (930 acres) of land for growing plants and eight garden centers. Employment varies seasonally, but during peak periods it has over 1,000 staff.
The British landscape architects Howard and Lorrie Dunington-Grubb founded Sheridan Nurseries in 1913 in the hamlet of Sheridan outside Oakville, Ontario. They bought 100 acres (40 ha) of land, of which only about 20 acres (8.1 ha) turned out to be suitable for ornamental plants. [1] The Dunington-Grubbs hired Sven Herman Stensson to run the nursery after he responded to an advertisement in an English paper. [2] By 1926 the nursery had grown to 250 acres (100 ha), with a wide range of trees, shrubs and perennials. [3] The first seasonal garden centers were opened in the early 1920s near the Yonge and Bloor intersection in what is now downtown Toronto and on Southdown Road in Mississauga. [3]
Sheridan Nurseries has been involved in finding or developing hybrids suitable for the harsh Canadian climate. They acquired seeds of the hardy Korean boxwood in 1922, and first listed it in their catalog in 1939. It became a great success. [4] The company's 1939 catalog described the Alpine currant as "the most satisfactory shrub for a deciduous hedge" and called the Japanese yew "the best shrub available for an evergreen hedge of moderate height." [5]
In the 1940s, Sheridan Nurseries was one of many Ontario employers who used Japanese labourers interned in camps after being forcibly relocated from British Columbia during the Second World War: [6]
Sheridan Nurseries hired 22 Japanese internees in 1943 and their business records show the men were not slave labour, but paid employees. While the Caucasian workers were paid 48 cents an hour, the Japanese internees received 44 cents. [6]
Starting in the late 1960s the Sheridan Nurseries began developing hardy alternatives to the English box for hedging.
They are crosses of buxus sempervirens and the very hardy buxus microphylla . [7] Sheridan Nurseries also developed Mountbatten Juniper and Ivory Silk Japanese Tree Lilac. [8]
As of 2010 three of Herman Stensson's grandchildren were senior managers in the company. The company had more than 375 hectares (930 acres) of land, including 60 hectares (150 acres) of container growing. [9] The company had about 280 full-time employees, rising to around 1,000 in early April. It was suffering from difficulty finding workers for the farms, where conditions in the Ontario summer can be extremely hot and humid. [10] About 100 workers from Mexico and Jamaica were being employed on the farms each year. [11]
By 2012 the company was the largest garden center retailer and grower in Canada. That year Sheridan Nurseries won the International Grower of the Year award from the International Association of Horticultural Producers. [12] The company celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2013. [13] In May 2013 the company said it would donate 1,000 plants to communities in the Greater Toronto Area that had a severe need for green space or plants, and was asking the public to suggest areas to be considered. [14] As of 2014 the company had nine garden centers in Mississauga, Georgetown. Toronto, Unionville, North York, Whitby, Scarborough and Kitchener-Waterloo. [15]
Brampton is a city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Brampton is a suburban city in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and is a lower-tier municipality within Peel Region. The city has a population of 593,638 as of the Canada 2016 Census, making it the ninth most populous municipality in Canada and the third most populous city in the Greater Golden Horseshoe urban area, behind Toronto and Mississauga.
Mississauga is a city in the Canadian province of Ontario. It is situated on the shores of Lake Ontario in the Regional Municipality of Peel, bordering Toronto to the east. With a population of 721,599 as of the 2016 census, Mississauga is the sixth-most populous municipality in Canada, third-most in Ontario, and second-most in the Greater Toronto Area.
Oakville is a town in southern Ontario, located in Halton Region on Lake Ontario halfway between Toronto and Hamilton. At its 2016 census population of 193,832, it is Ontario's largest town. Oakville is part of the Greater Toronto Area, one of the most densely populated areas of Canada.
The Regional Municipality of Peel is a regional municipality in the Greater Toronto Area, Southern Ontario, Canada. It consists of three municipalities to the west and northwest of the city of Toronto: the cities of Mississauga and Brampton, and the town of Caledon, each of which spans its full east-west width. The regional seat is in Brampton. The entire Greater Toronto Area is the inner ring of the Golden Horseshoe.
Buxus is a genus of about 70 species in the family Buxaceae. Common names include box or boxwood.
An arboretum in a general sense is a botanical collection composed exclusively of trees. More commonly, a modern arboretum is a botanical garden containing living collections of woody plants and is intended at least in part for scientific study. The term arboretum was first used in an English publication by John Claudius Loudon in 1833 in The Gardener's Magazine but the concept was already long-established by then.
Lawrence Park is a neighbourhood in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is bordered by Yonge Street to the west and Bayview Avenue to the east, and from Blythwood Ravine on the south to Lawrence Avenue on the north. Lawrence Park was one of Toronto's first planned garden suburbs. Begun in the early part of the 20th century, it did not fully develop until after the Second World War. It was ranked the wealthiest neighbourhood in all of Canada in 2011.
Glen Williams is a hamlet in Halton Hills, Halton Regional Municipality, Ontario, Canada. It has a population of about 2700 people and its closest neighbours are Georgetown and Terra Cotta.
The Brookside Gardens are of public gardens located within Wheaton Regional Park, at 1800 Glenallan Avenue, Silver Spring, Maryland. The gardens themselves are open daily without charge. However, certain annual events there are held that may charge a fee. The gardens hosts a "Garden of Lights" exhibit that features a light display during the holiday season.
The Parkwood Estate, located in Oshawa, Ontario, was the residence of Samuel McLaughlin and was home to the McLaughlin family from 1917 until 1972. The residence was designed by Darling and Pearson, a noted Toronto architectural firm, with construction starting in 1916. In 1989, Parkwood was officially designated a National Historic Site, and tours are now given year-round.
Buxus sempervirens, the common box, European box, or boxwood, is a species of flowering plant in the genus Buxus, native to western and southern Europe, northwest Africa, and southwest Asia, from southern England south to northern Morocco, and east through the northern Mediterranean region to Turkey. Buxus colchica of western Caucasus and B. hyrcana of northern Iran and eastern Caucasus are commonly treated as synonyms of B. sempervirens.
The Siberian Elm cultivar Ulmus pumila 'Park Royal' is a cold-hardy selection raised by the Sheridan Nursery, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
The putative Wych Elm cultivar Ulmus glabra 'Dovaei', or Doué elm, was raised by the André Leroy nursery at Angers, France, as Ulmus dovaei, before 1868. The Baudriller nursery of Angers marketed it as Ulmus Dowei, "orme de Doué", suggesting a link with the royal nurseries at nearby Doué-la-Fontaine, which stocked elm. Green considered it a form of wych.
Buxus microphylla, the Japanese box or littleleaf box, is a species of flowering plant in the box family found in Japan and Taiwan. It is a dwarf evergreen shrub or small tree growing to 1 m (3.3 ft) tall and wide.
Hazel McCallion, is a Canadian politician and businesswoman who was the fifth mayor of Mississauga, Ontario, from 1978 until 2014. She is the first and current chancellor of Sheridan College.
Harold Gordon Shipp was a Canadian businessman, philanthropist and the chairman of Shipp Corporation Limited.
The Women's Art Association of Canada (WAAC) is an organization founded in 1887 to promote and support women artists and craftswomen in Canada, including artists in the visual media, performance artists and writers. At one time it had almost 1,000 members. Although smaller today, it still plays an active role in fundraising and providing scholarships for young artists.
Lorrie Alfreda Dunington-Grubb was an English landscape architect. She moved to Canada in 1911 with her husband and business partner Howard Dunington-Grubb where they founded Sheridan Nurseries. She was active in garden design, a writer and a patron of the arts.
Trillium Park is a park in Toronto owned and operated by the Government of Ontario. Various Ontario landscapes inspired the park design. The William G. Davis Trail passes through the park connecting it to the Martin Goodman Trail.
George Leslie Sr. (1804–1893) was a gardener in Scotland and Upper Canada, a plant merchant, a magistrate and the namesake of Leslieville.
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