Since its early days, Stratford has been a garden-mad city.
A horticultural society formed in 1878; reports from the turn of the 20th century showed more than 500 members then. The city’s riverside park system, with many formal gardens, is a big visitor draw. For Stratford locals, it’s about creating beauty amid sometimes less-than-ideal conditions.
Garden wizard Harry Jongerden, who when I met him was the head gardener at the Stratford Festival, once told me that Stratford’s relatively high precipitation levels (both summer rain and winter snow) happen because Stratford is at a high point between lower sea levels along Lake Huron to the west and Lakes Erie and Ontario to the east. As precipitation picks up across the lake and moves west to east over the southwestern Ontario peninsula, it tends to let go in this area.
So, water good. Soil? Not so good. This area is dominated by clay soil, which can be coaxed along with plenty of attention and “amendments”: think compost or manure to break up the compact nature of clay.
The City of Stratford’s official civic flower is the iris, which is tolerant of clay soils. I’m not sure if that played a deciding factor back in 1925, when the iris got the nod at city hall for being Stratford’s emblem over the other nominee, the rose.
The iris is the official symbol of Garden Stratford, the name now commonly used by that same horticultural society founded in 1878. Being a member of this group is among the best deals in the city for locals: For $20 annually, you get discounts at local garden centres, on some items at a couple floral shops and, if you pay attention, an immense amount of free stuff can come your way.
In my few years living now in Stratford for a second time, through Garden Stratford I have picked up free seeds, free iris rhizomes, free calla lily rhizomes, a giant free bleeding heart bush (a fellow member needed to move it for a patio construction project and gave it to me) … the list goes on.
We’ve expanded the gardens at our little old house and are still in the acquisition phase of gardening: At some point, for avid gardeners, that flips to the giveaway years as your plants spread, get crowded, and need dividing.
Many of those divided plants end up at some great plant sales in Stratford: Garden Stratford just had theirs at the end of May and, earlier in May, Holy Trinity (formerly St. James) Anglican church held their annual sale. The local high school holds a sale of greenhouse-grown items in the spring, and the Tri-County Master Gardeners from Perth, Huron and Oxford hold a sale of native pollinator plants and shrubs in mid-June.
Garden Stratford does much more than provide plants for free, or for sale as a fundraiser for the group’s activities. There are garden talks held monthly from September to May on the first Monday evening of the month featuring guest experts expounding on everything from hydrangea care (it’s complicated) to winter sowing (not my thing, but it takes all kinds to make a world, as my mother used to say). Admission is free for members and non-members alike. These are held at the Army, Navy & Air Force Veterans building at the south edge of Stratford.
Member volunteers maintain several public gardens around the city, including the The Father Corcoran Memorial Garden of Irises located on McLagan Drive, which follows the Avon River curving through the west end of the city. Recently, members were invited to tour the garden on one of the club’s “Garden Strolls” – informal weekday gatherings for members to see each other’s projects.
Corcoran, who lived from 1889 to 1970, was a Catholic priest who served at Immaculate Conception Church in Stratford. He was a flower enthusiast, particularly irises. He included instructions in his will to bequeath his iris bulbs and rhizomes to the local historical society, which worked with garden folk to keep his legacy blooming.
There’s something in the soil in Stratford that even the garden club has a theatrical twist. Garden Stratford’s motto is: “To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow”. That’s a quote attributed to the renowned film actor, Audrey Hepburn. And yes, there is an iris out there called “Believe in Tomorrow.” Garden Stratford celebrated its 140th anniversary in 2018 by adopting “Believe in Tomorrow” as its celebratory iris, commissioned by Garden Stratford and hybridized by Bob Granatier of Trail’s End Iris.
The biggest shindig on the Garden Stratford calendar is the annual garden tour, held the first Sunday in July. Eight households in and around Stratford work feverishly to get their gardens in peak shape for that date and then open their space to visitors, who tour by car or bike to take in the gardens. In 2026, the tour runs on Sunday, July 5. Each year, the tour showcases a wide range of properties, from newer gardens just starting out to magnificent huge spreads that have been decades in the making.
Tickets are $15 apiece, cash only. You can get them at Cosyn’s Garden Gallery and Klomp’s Home and Garden (the garden centres nearest to Stratford), starting a month before the tour. There’s capacity for 500 or so folks to do the tour without overwhelming the private gardens. Funds raised from this event allows Garden Stratford to cover the costs of the no-charge garden talks, expenses related to public garden maintenance, and other expenses even an all-volunteer organization incurs: from website hosting to promotions.
Stratford as a community has been heavily involved in the international Communities in Bloom movement that started in 1995: in 2025, Stratford hosted Canada’s national Communities in Bloom symposium. The city has won numerous accolades at national and international levels for its gardens maintained by the city, the Stratford Festival, Garden Stratford volunteers and scores of local residents whose idea of a good time is waking up, pouring a tea or coffee, and strolling around the yard to see what plants need a little love and attention today.
Photos unless otherwise credited: Kelley Teahen
