The Community Pathi

UPCOMING DATES

July 15: Deadline for Participat-

ing Communities to Submit 10-

15 High Resolution Photos

July 15: Deadline for Participat-

ing Communities to Submit their

Media List

Late July or Early Aug.: Judging!

Aug. 15: Community Pride Pro-

ject Deadline

Aug. 29: Scotts® Miracle-Gro®

Garden Contest Deadline

Aug. 29: Home Hardware Dealer

Involvement Contest Deadline

Sept. 6-7: Provincial Conference

and Awards in Selkirk

Oct. 23-26: National Awards and

Symposium in Ottawa-Gatineau

In This Issue

Recycle Everywhere

is Helping Keep Our

Communities Green

Skinner had a Huge

Impact on Horticul-

ture in Manitoba

Meet Our New Pro-

vincial Coordinator

Selkirk Awards Info

And More! From left, Shonda Ashcroft (MB CiB Committee Member), Kyle Schappert (CBCRA Field Operations), and Stephanie Doerksen (MB CiB Provincial Coordinator) at the Association of Manitoba Municipalities Trade Show in April 2013.

A Message from Our Newest Sponsor

Recycle Everywhere is Helping Keep Our Communities Green Public Space Recycling is increasingly on the forefront of many people’s minds.

With studies showing that up to 35 per cent of beverage containers are consumed

and disposed of away from home, the need to provide an option other than waste

bins is evident. In response to Government of Manitoba legislation and a need for

an away-from-home option to recycle used beverage containers, the beverage

industry created a new not-for-profit organization in 2010, the Canadian Beverage

Container Recycling Association (CBCRA).

CBCRA created and administers the first province-wide permanent away-from-

home recycling program in Canada called Recycle Everywhere helping Manito-

bans become recycling leaders. The program distributes recycling bins to partners

around the province giving Manitobans the option to recycle their used beverage

containers rather than throwing them in the waste bins. CBCRA distributes Recy-

cle Everywhere bins at no charge to Manitoba municipalities, industry, commercial

businesses and institutions as well as festivals and events. Fast forward to today

and Manitobans have access to over 10,000 Recycle Everywhere bins in over 174

Manitoba communities with over 500 partners. This number is only growing with

CBCRA’s commitment to make the program a success.

CBCRA is proud to sponsor Communities in Bloom for the 2013 year and help

support and strengthen the organization’s mission to inspire a sustainable ap-

proach to improving the quality of life and civic pride in Manitoba’s communities.

CBCRA looks forward to continuing to work with all Manitobans to recycle bever-

age containers wherever they are—at home, at work or at play. If you see a place

where a Recycle Everywhere bin is needed in your community or your work place,

please call 1-877-810-7362 or send an email to info@recycleeverywhere.ca.

Manitoba Communities in Bloom Newsletter Second Quarter 2013

See You in Selkirk! The agenda for the 2013 Manitoba Communities in Bloom Conference and Awards in Selkirk is now avail-able! You can download your copy from our homepage at www.mbcommunitiesinbloom.ca.

Don’t Miss Out on these

Exciting Seminars!

Nia Massey (Selkirk and Dis-trict Horticultural Society)—Attracting Birds and Bees to the Garden

Judy Schwartz—Canning our Autumn Bounty

Kaaren Pearce—Journey to Churchill

Kaaren Pearce—How to Use Your Landscape to Create Community and Honour Your Heritage

Dr. Wilfred Ronald (Jeffries Nurseries)

Chris Griffin (Alternative Land-scaping) Will Provide Munici-pal Friendly Landscaping Ad-vice

Mary Jane Feekes (Benjamin’s Gourmet Foods)—Awesome Autumn Foods

Accommodation

Special-priced accommodations have been reserved at South Beach Casino and Resort, 1 Ocean Drive (Hwy. 59), (204) 766-2100 and at the Daerwood Inn and Conference Centre, 162 Main Street, (204) 482-7722. The rooms have been reserved under “MB Communities in Bloom.” Bed and breakfasts are also available.

Registration Fees

Full Conference: $70.00 Full Day: $40.00 Dinner/Awards Only: $30.00

For more information, contact Chris Carruthers at recmanag-er@cityofselkirk.com or at (204) 785-0471.

Skinner had a Huge Impact on Horticulture in Manitoba Written by Ed Stozek of Dauphin MB

A cross between a Minnesota Scarlet Trumpet and a local honeysuckle produced

four seeds. One of the four seeds became the famous Dropmore Scarlet Trumpet

Honeysuckle. A self-taught horticulturist and plant breeder, Frank Leith Skinner

experimented with adapting plants to Manitoba’s growing conditions and helped to

enrich the prairie landscape.

Frank Skinner immigrated with his parents in 1895 from Aberdeenshire, Scotland

and settled in the Dropmore area, north of Russell. His father started to raise cat-

tle. Frank and his brother William cut hay and worked for farmers and relatives. By

1900, Frank and his father took up homesteads and broke land. The family ranged

cattle from Dropmore to north of Boggy Creek.

Spending a great deal of time on horseback, Skinner became interested in the

plants and flowers native to the area and showed a great ability to raise plants that

resembled those of Scotland and were hardy enough to survive Canadian prairie

conditions. In the autumn of 1911, ill health made it necessary to get away from

the hard farm work and the cold climate of Manitoba. During the wet day son Van-

couver Island, he spent time in the library reading everything on the flora and cli-

mate of northern and eastern Asia.

“Like most farmers in the district who farmed on a fairly large scale, Willie and I

had a hard time financially after the First World War when not only did rust take a

heavy toll but prices fell so low that grain was being sold in Roblin for less than it

cost to thresh it. At one time cows shipped to Winnipeg did not sell for enough to

pay the freight” (Banner County, History of Russell and District).

To carry on his work with plants, Skinner commercialized and started selling

nursery and hardy flower seeds in 1924 at the Manitoba Hardy Plant Nursery on

his Dropmore homestead. Word of his horticultural work spread and interested

visitors from many of the western states as well as Canada dropped in. Continued

on page 3, see “Skinner was.”

If you would like to pur-

chase official Communi-

ties in Bloom merchan-

dise, please visit

www.communitiesinbloo

m.ca/merchandise/ for

product listings and an

order form.

Frank Skinner in 1932 upon receiving the Stevenson Memorial Medal.

Meet Our New Pro-vincial Coordinator

Stephanie has been in-volved in Brandon’s non-profit sector since 2007. During her undergraduate degree, she worked at Daly House Museum during her summers and volunteered there during her academic terms. She began serving on the Daly House Museum Board of Directors in Janu-ary 2011 and is currently the organization’s Second Vice-President.

Stephanie has also been employed as a Gallery As-sistant at the Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba, the Museum Coordinator of the Brandon General Museum and Archives Inc., and the General Coordinator of the Brandon University Stu-dents’ Union. Working for the General Museum was especially rewarding be-cause, as the Museum Co-ordinator during the organi-zation’s inaugural year, she was able to watch and help this new organization devel-op and take its first baby steps.

These positions have given Stephanie a true apprecia-tion of the value of commu-nity in improving the overall well-being and quality of life of the community’s inhabit-ants. Having a true sense of community provides individ-uals with a type of identity, sense of security, and feel-ing of belonging that they could not achieve any other way.

Stephanie holds a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) degree in English from Brandon Uni-versity and a Master of Arts degree in English from Car-leton University in Ottawa.

She joined Manitoba Communities in Bloom in March 2013 as the organ-ization’s Provincial Coor-dinator.

Left: Stephanie Doerksen. Right: Frank Skinner in approximately 1964; this photo was part of a National Film Board documentary about lilies.

Skinner was an Accomplished Horticulturist Continued from page 2. Frank Skinner started an extensive collection of trees,

shrubs, and perennial flowers and was the first person in western Canada to raise

hybrids suitable to the prairie soil and climate including: rose, lilac, mock orange,

spirea, lily, chrysanthemum, foxglove, and primrose. He developed poplar immune

to canker, basswoods immune to leaf mite, willow hybrids that grew into straight

trees at the rate of six feet per year, pear hybrids that were extremely hardy and

ornamental, and larch and spruce hybrids that grew rapidly and would prove of

great value to the Canadian economy when they became better known.

“About a dozen workers helped in the busy season. Plants and nursery stock are

shipped from Alaska to Texas, across Canada and to Europe, Holland, Sweden,

Finland, Russia, and Manchuria. To lay out plans of w hat you intend to get, and

what you do get, can be two different things.” At the time of the article, Dr. Skin-

ner, who received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Manitoba in 1947,

“had over 150 hardy and beautiful originations to his credit, 240 introductions of

ornamental plants from other parts of the world, plus 15 citations, and awards,

which in spite of his modesty, speak well for his efforts and successes” (Russell

Banner, Feb. 4, 1965).

The nursery, renamed Skinner’s Nursery Ltd. in 1949, was unique to Western

Canada as the plants and trees were a collection of material originating from cen-

tral Europe, China, mid United States, native prairie and boreal plains and the

species developed by Dr. Skinner for the cold prairie region. Along with nursery

orders, a catalogue was also distributed that included a list of available hardy fruit

trees, shrubs, plants and flowers., and inspirational bits of poetry. The nursery is

no longer in operation, but the Frank Skinner Arboretum Corporation, a not-for-

profit organization, maintains Dr. Skinner’s unique collection of hardy trees and

shrubs. The Arboretum is open to the public for self-guided tours from dawn to

dusk all summer long. In addition, guided tours can be arranged by contacting the

Arboretum at 1-866-552-5496.

Ed Stozek can be reached at (204) 638-4114 or ejstozek@gmail.com.

Contact Us

For more information

about Manitoba Commu-

nities in Bloom, contact

our Provincial Coordina-

tor, Stephanie Doerksen,

at:

Manitoba Communities

in Bloom

158 - 1300 18th Street

Unit 100

Brandon, MB R7A 6X7

(204) 572-4004

coordinator@mb

communitiesinbloom.ca

You can also visit us on

the web at

www.mbcommunitiesin

bloom.ca

And don’t forget to follow

us on Facebook for the

latest news!

Upcoming Provincial Contests

Community Pride Project The Community Pride Project is intended to showcase specific projects supporting one or more of the Communities in Bloom evaluation criteria (tidiness, heritage, environmental awareness, urban forestry, floral displays, and landscaped areas). Any city district, corporation, business, group, society, organization, community, or geographic segment within a community may enter (no limit). For more infor-mation and a registration form, please visit www.mbcommunitiesinbloom.ca and click on “Community Pride Projects” in the menu on the left. Deadline: August 15.

Upcoming National Contests

Scotts® Miracle-Gro® Garden Contest This contest is open to residents within communities registered in the national or provincial Communities in Bloom programs and member societies of provincial horticultural associations or garden clubs. Communities or societies will select the best gardens in one or more categories within their community. These winners will qualify for entry into the national contest. The categories are: Best Residential Flower Garden, Best Residential Edible Garden, and Best Youth-Run Edible Gar-den. For more information and a registration form, please visit www.communitiesinbloom.ca/2013gardencontest/. Deadline: August 29.

Home Hardware Dealer Involvement Contest Communities in Bloom wants to learn more about how your local committee in-volves the community and funds its activities. Let us know, briefly, how you involve your local Home Hardware Dealer in your community. If your local Dealer is not involved, we encourage you to establish contact. For more information and an application form, pleas visit www.communitiesinbloom.ca/hh-contest/. Deadline: August 29.

People, Plants, and Pride . . . Growing Together

Thank you to all of our national and provincial sponsors!

National

Provincial