Join us throughout the Gardening Season for one of our Festive Workshops! You’ll create your own work of floral art, just as you have admired in your favourite magazines! We offer a variety of tasteful projects – all photo worthy - using natural materials, whether fresh cut, dried or potted plants.Our workshops are informative and mostly - a lot of fun!
Scroll down to select one that tickles your fancy! Even if you have no experience at all – our design team will effortlessly guide you (and take comfort – we have never sent an ugly one home!)
Workshops are held in our studio in The Distillery
Historic District,
starting with coffee at 10:30 and usually
wrap up in time for you to
treat yourself to lunch at one
of the terrific restaurants here in
the District. Weekdays,
we also offer the workshop during the evening,
starting at 7 pm.
(For groups of 6 or more – we can arrange a private class that fits your schedule)
Luncheons are also hosted throughout the year and they are a lot of fun! (the code language here is – Workshop: you make something beautiful to take home, Luncheon: you sit, have a wonderful lunch, a glass of wine if you wish, watch us make many things beautiful and you can just buy it and take it home!)
Book now to assure yourself a spot - these workshops & luncheons are very popular!
Workshop for Two on the following dates:
Every Wednesday throughout the Summer
Phone 416-364-6232 for tickets/reservations $125 for Two!
"Hi Elaine:
I thought I would send a quick note to tell you how much we enjoyed the Saturday workshop on hydrangea wreaths. Both Katie & I now have our beautiful wreaths hanging in our homes & they are fabulous (in all modesty of course!)
In addition to learning how to make the wreath, we really enjoyed the time in your shop "Vintage Gardener" It certainly made quite a dull January day seem like spring wasn't too far away.
Here are some of the pics we took.
Thanks again.
Helen Lysakowski ( Welland ON ) & Katie Moroney ( Toronto , ON )"
Archeo Trattoria, The Distillery Historic District
The Festival Brunch, at Archeo Trattorio, is a Culinary Herb Celebration! Vintage Gardener’s own Elaine & Anna, join their special guest, Chef Audrey Demers. The threesome are both entertaining and informative as they share tips on the cultivation and growing of a culinary herb garden, container plantings, decorative uses of herbs and some of their favourite recipes.
You'll have a chance to taste some incredible edibles including a flower or two, and while you are at it, you can purchase and plant up your own mini herb garden to take home!
As well Elaine & Anna will share stories about the creation of their own 20 year-in-the-making French Peasant Garden (a 17th century style kitchen garden, Grandmother to a Formal Potager).
This and famous, Sunday Brunch at The Boiler House Restaurant.
$35 (Includes Brunch at The Boiler House)
$65 for two (Includes Brunch for Two at The Boiler House)
This is a terrific light-hearted “introductory workshop”. You will learn a lot about lavender – harvesting, drying, decorating…… and you will make a variety of small gifts from the lavender garden to take home with you – like this embroidered lavender pillow (you don’t sew – you just stuff), a small lavender gift bag wreath, a door-knocker swag, a sachet and a mini lavender pot! And we’ll give you Anna’s great-grandmother’s Lavender Cookie recipe!!!
Morning Workshop $55 includes materials and tastings !
First you will choose from a variety of stone, metal or terra cotta window box containers (that way it can fit your particular décor). Next you will play with lavender! Our Lavender hedge design experts Anna & Claire (both have been published in the country’s top magazines!) will be on hand to guide you step by step! The hedge is a little trickier than meets the eye! But no worries – we have never sent an ugly one home!
A design borrowed from 18th century Provence , this handsome Lavender Dome, set in an antique European Sap Pot is filled with Dried French Lavender. Handsome indeed! The pots are old and not uniform in size – so we say they are 10” tall-ish and 7” diameter-ish. Our Designers Claire and Anna will guide you through this wonderful piece.
Mark Sunday August 16th on your calendar and plan to attend our Lavender Festival Luncheon at The Boiler House Restaurant in The Distillery Historic District. You will see first hand how we create those wonderful French-inspired florals you see throughout our studio. Learn which lavender varieties are best for your garden and how to topiary a lavender plant. Elaine and Anna will share stories from their own experience creating their 20 year in the making Hockley Valley, French Peasant Garden, where they learned a great deal about growing, drying and cooking with Lavender!!!
$35 (Includes LunchBrunch at The Boiler House)
$65 for two (Includes Lunch Brunch for Two at The Boiler House)
This is a terrific light-hearted “introductory workshop”. You will learn a lot about dried flowers – harvesting, drying, decorating…… and you will make a variety of small gifts from the everlasting garden to take home with you.
This breath-taking Kitchen Harvest Wreath is choc-a-block full of the season’s finest. It is a tad intricate, so you will want to have had a bit of experience before tackling this one! (i.e. attended a few of our workshops previously, know how to use a florist’s pic etc.)
Morning Workshop $175 includes materials ! (book before Labour Day $145)
Evening Workshop $175 includes ! (book before Labour Day $145)
Artistically place dried flowers and grains “garland-like” into a hand-crafted stone windowbox. This is a narrow arrangement (approx.) so it fits nicely on a narrow dining table or a window sill. Follow the care instructions and this will last for many years. To remove dust – use a hair-blower on low setting.
Morning Workshop $125 includes materials ! (book before Labour Day $95)
Evening Workshop $125 includes ! (book before Labour Day $95)
This is a simpler wreath to make than the one listed above – so no worries if you have never done anything since Brownie craft group !
You’ll entwine Fresh Sunflowers, Hydrangea, Lavender
and other herbs to create your own 24”(ish) wreath!
Complete with our signature French organza ribbon. This workshop includes light lunch at the Boiler House !
Morning Workshop $125 includes materials ! (book before Labour Day $95)
Evening Workshop $125 includes ! (book before Labour Day $95)
If you have been wondering how we preserve those beautiful flowers featured in our studio … or how to put those wonderful grand harvest arrangements together You will want to mark Sunday October 4th on your calendar!
Harvest is Elaine and Anna’s favourite time of the year! The warm sun and cool breeze in the garden….. wonderful soups of pumpkin and squash, herb breads, and tons and tons of flowers!!!
You may have met Elaine & Anna at our studio in the Distillery District, or you may have read about them in one of your favourite magazines, or even seen them on television…
What you may not know is that they have both spent (what seems) a lifetime in the garden… beginning with growing up on a dirt road, Elaine outside of Streetsville and Anna in Hockley Valley, and within a gardening family… ask Elaine to tell her stories of running through a field of peonies at the tender age of six, or Anna about strolling through a meadow lacing flowers to make a fairy crown!… or shelling peas with great aunts, or get them to show you the trophy (great) grandfather won at the New Toronto Garden Show in 1929, or her (grand) parents’ garden columns in the Brampton Times… and then get her on to stories of grandma…… drying, pressing, stamping or eating flowers!
… Elaine is a Fifth Generation Canadian Gardener
… so for Anna – that makes Six!!!
Elaine and Anna have spent twenty years gardening on their 27 acres in the Hockley Valley … gleaning much knowledge and many more stories to share!!!
So… On October 4th they will be offering tips on harvesting
… not the vegetable garden – but rather – the floral garden!
Learn when and how to cut and dry flowers like peonies, lavender, larkspur, sunflowers, sea holly, globe thistle, yarrow, hydrangea… well the list goes on….
And watch them toss together their magical floral urns, centrepieces, garlands, swags and wreaths.
You will surely be inspired!
$35 per person (includes brunch at The Boiler House)
Evergreen Festive Wreath Workshop $135 includes lunch!!! At The Boiler House Restaurant. Entwine your own curb-stopper wreath, with salal, magnolia, seeded eucalyptus, hydrangea and pomegranates. Add evergreen favourites like pine and blueberried juniper for a festive look.
$135 per person (includes all materials, instruction and lunch at The Boiler House Restaurant)
For those who can not make it during the week we also offer a Saturday Evergreen Festive Wreath Workshop $135 includes lunch!!! At The Boiler House Restaurant
$135 per person (includes all materials, instruction and lunch at The Boiler House Restaurant)
Sunday, November 29th, 2009, Distillery Historic
District
Our Annual, Evergreen Festival Brunch this year is at Archeo Trattorio in the Distillery Historic District. Onstage will be our Vintage Gardeners, Elaine and Anna Martin, demonstrating festive fare and sharing all their tips with flair and style.
If you have ever attended one of their presentations in the past, you already know how fun this will surely be. We are expecting a sell-out crowd and so you will want to make your reservation early!
$55 per person or $95 for two (includes lunch at Archeo Trattorio)
Each year, we also offer during the week, our annual, Evergreen Festival Luncheon this year is at Archeo Trattorio in the Distillery Historic District. Onstage will be our Vintage Gardeners, Elaine and Anna Martin, demonstrating festive fare and sharing all their tips with flair and style.
If you have ever attended one of their presentations in the past, you already know how fun this will surely be. We are expecting a sell-out crowd and so you will want to make your reservation early!
$55 per person or $95 for two (includes lunch at Archeo Trattorio)
What better way to warm a gardener’s winter soul than a day spent amongst spring blossoms and early bulbs in full bloom – all in a spectacular setting in the Distillery Historic District!
Elaine, our Vintage Gardener shares her secrets to encouraging early blooms, and decorating your home with the hope of an early spring!
Your opportunity to meet Ambrose – host of HGTV’s new hit show “The Decorating Adventures of Ambrose Price” (he is one of our judges)
This is your chance to shine! Take a risk! Show off a little! Just have some mid-winter fun!!!
Our suppliers have donated some pretty cool prizes. There is no cost to you – but Ambrose and I will ask you to drop your toonies into a jar for our Cancer Research drive!
So take a look at the categories listed below, unleash your creativity and Bring your entries in to our studio in the Distillery Historic District before 11:00 am – Judging begins promptly at 11:30 am !!! (You’ll need to RSVP to let us know you are coming – because that is just polite!)
Five categories to enter:
Small Pleasures - Spring Miniature – this is a fresh cut floral arrangement which must be smaller than 5” measured in any direction. Judges will look for creative containers and spring mini flowers for a charming miniature arrangement.
For the Birds - Branches in Blossom – this is an arrangement emphasizing tall branches forced to an early spring bloom. You may add greenery and spring cut flowers also. You can set beside the arrangement a co-ordinated treasure to make it a “vignette”. Judges will be looking for a component for our feathered friends.
Give us a Song and Name it! ..Dusting off your Top Hat (well, antique) – Open up your cupboards, attic or an old hope chest and find something you have not used for a while – a wedding gift, a hand-me-down, and in this, design a spring arrangement of your own inspired by the title of an old song – plants, cut flowers or everlastings – your choice.
Spring Window Box Plantings – This is to be an arrangement of plants – Spring plantings of course – so get your fingers dirty ! Judges will look for compostion, plant choice and placement to make an interesting “indoor” window box for a hopeful hint of Spring.
The Centre of Attention – a spring centrepiece for a dinner party – This should be designed to have a conversation over and around – at a Spring dinner party. Judges here will be looking for interesting colour combinations.
Have fun !!!! and see you Saturday morning ! RSVP please so we know to expect you !
