Not far from Dominion Gardens Park’s Maple Avenue parking lot, visitors will find a large peony, iris and lily have sprouted in the soil.
But these aren’t your average flowers.
The metal work of public art was brought to Georgetown through a collaboration between the Friends of the Old Seed House Garden and Limehouse metal sculptor Doris Treleaven.
In a sense, the three flowers, and the butterfly that accompanies them, serve a dual purpose: to mark Halton Hills’ 50th anniversary and keep the memory of the Dominion Seed House alive.
“We’ve had sculptures in the garden. It’s nice to have something go with the flowers,” Friends of the Old Seed House Garden volunteer Frances Walker said.
The group applied for the 50th Anniversary Legacy Grant, which funded the creation of the public artwork that shows the flowers and fauna of Halton Hills, and gives a nod to the former Dominion Seed House that once occupied the land.
In its time, before demolition in 1999, the Dominion Seed House building and its zig-zag patterns and block letters dominated the landscape. It was also a prominent force in the world of plants, serving as the country’s largest mail-order seed and plant store, where people could purchase what they needed for their gardens from catalogues.
Walker and Crawford - who are decades-long local residents - remember people coming from far and wide for “dig your own plant” days. The land that's now Dominion Gardens Park used to be a field of flowers stretching to Mountainview Road.
“It would be over a weekend, first-come-first-serve, cash only,” Walker recalled.
“It (Dominion Seed House) was a tourist destination,” fellow Friends of the Old Seed House Garden volunteer Diane Crawford said. “It was this big Tudor house. People would come to see the house.”
When it comes to the new metal sculpture, Treleaven estimates it took three-quarters of a year to complete the project, from planning to installation. The construction phase took about a month.
The artist is prolific around Halton Hills and many of her works dot the landscape. The red canoe in Norval’s McNab Park is one such piece. A metal grate with sculpted leaves adorns a fireplace in the Georgetown branch of the Halton Hills Public Library. She also made the I Love Acton heart on the corner of Mill and Main streets in the downtown core. In Limehouse, she has two works just metres from each other - metal geese and a memorial to Queen Elizabeth II.
But the flower sculptures are the first of her creations to have a place in Dominion Gardens Park.
The most difficult part for Treleaven, she says, was designing the peony and its numerous petals.
“We also wanted to represent a pollinator, so we put a butterfly on it,” she noted.
The Friends of the Old Seed House Garden and members of Halton Hills Council will unveil a plaque at the sculpture on Oct. 22 a 2 p.m.
All are welcome to attend.
