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Speaker Series
Each year, Cloverleaf Garden Club hosts talented gardening, horticulture and other experts, promising to engage us, teach us and amuse us. From gardening myths to tips and tricks, from flowers to veggies, we work hard to showcase a variety of topics that will help you with your gardening dreams.
Presentations are on the third Wednesday of the month from 7:30 pm to 9:00 pm at 1389 Cawthra Rd., Mississauga.
2025 Speakers
Lisa Massie
The Monarch: An Icon on the Edge
Wednesday, March 19, 2025
7:30 pm
Monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) are perhaps the most well-known and beloved butterflies in North America. Seen in gardens, prairies, and natural areas from coast to coast, their arrival in Ontario each year is viewed by many as a welcome sign of the change in seasons from spring to summer. Renowned for their long-distance seasonal migration and spectacular winter gatherings in Mexico and California, the Monarch butterfly population has recently declined to dangerously low levels. This presentation will introduce attendees to the butterfly’s life-cycle and migration, discuss reasons for the recent decline in Monarch populations, and showcase the importance of providing nectar-rich flowers and native milkweed host plants in our gardens.
Lisa Massie has been a Xerces Ambassador since 2022, and has been gardening for 25 years. Although only a small townhouse backyard, her garden supports many pollinators. She has documented 27 butterfly and moth species, over 20 bee species (including six different bumblebee species!), and many more beneficial pollinators. She is growing seven different native milkweed species in her backyard and her garden is a Monarch Waystation, Certified Wildlife Habitat, and Bee-Friendly Garden.
Dugald Cameron
Summer Flowering Bulbs
Wednesday, May 21, 2025
7:30 pm
Flower, foliage and fragrance from easy-to-grow summer flowering bulbs. Dugald Cameron will show you how to grow them, what they like and how to overwinter indoors. Ideal for container gardening.
Together with his wife & father Dugald founded and ran the mail order nursery Garden Import from. 1983 to 2014. They specialized in the introduction of many new herbaceous perennials, bulbs, seeds, vines and shrubs to Canadian gardeners from coast to coast. During this time they established close connections with many of the world's leading hybridizers and nurserymen. Dugald has taught courses on a variety of subjects at the Toronto Botanical Garden where he was on the board of directors for 13 years and continues to volunteer there. He has taught at the OHA Judges courses, Master Gardener technical updates and spoken to many horticultural societies in southern Ontario for over 25 years. Dugald has also sat in for Ed Lawrence on CBC’s Ontario Today and was the founding president of the Greater Toronto Bulb Society.
Second Annual Fall Festival
Wednesday, September 17, 2025
7:30 pm
Join us for an evening of informal socializing where we celebrate our garden successes and learn from our failures. Mississauga Master Gardeners will be available to answer your garden questions.
We invite members to showcase their prized produce, flowers and photographs (digital or print), or even share a delicious recipe with your home grown ingredients.
Members are also invited to prepare a short talk of 2 to 5 minutes about their own gardens. Tell us what has worked especially well this year or what hasn't. Show us a slideshow of your garden and don't hesitate to ask questions or tell a story.
It's the members' evening of Bring & Brag, where you can share your gardening challenges and best practice tips! There will be no judging, just a good time with friends who are as passionate about all things gardening as you are. Need help developing your slideshow ? We can help!
Ramona Christiansen
How Trees Communicate: The Fascinating World of Mycorrhizal Connections
Wednesday, April 16, 2025
7:30 pm
We tend to think of trees in a forest as silent sentinels that compete with one another for water light and nutrients. But what if these assumptions are all wrong? Science has discovered that trees are actually social creatures that communicate with one another. Trees are linked to neighbouring trees by an underground network of fungi that resembles the neural networks in the brain. And, instead of simply competing for resources, they share them in times of stress. This is the fascinating underground world of mycorrhizae; a network of fungi that are extraordinarily important to trees and our climate. All trees and all plants in all of our forests around the world are dependent on the symbiotic relationship between the mycorrhizal fungi and the trees and plants. Learn what you, the backyard gardener can do, to help your trees flourish while protecting these fungi.
Ramona has been a gardener for over 25 years and owns a ravine property in Mississauga. She loves having her hands in the dirt and treasures her gardening tools which include a wood chipper, various chainsaws and pruners. She built a small greenhouse with the help of her husband during Covid and it is now her special retreat where I she goes with a glass of wine and her music to get the creative thoughts flowing. She joined Mississauga Master Gardeners in the fall of 2021 and it has been great working with people passionate about gardening. She has three adult children and two beautiful grandchildren who call her Buttercup! Before children, Ramona graduated with a Math degree from the University of Waterloo and worked in the Computer Industry as a programmer analyst for Crown Life Insurance.
Micael Erdman
Strawberry Social & Flower Arranging
Wednesday, June 18, 2025
7:30 pm
Join us for the highly anticipated return of the Strawberry Social! Enjoy an evening filled with delightful sweet treats and captivating eye candy as we welcome our June speaker, Michael Erdman. He will share his expertise on the principles of flower arranging and demonstrate these techniques in action. Don't miss out on this enchanting event!
Michael Erdman has co-authored books on perennial gardening and indoor gardening, and has been president of the Beach Garden Society. His Beach garden has been featured in local summer garden tours, and in numerous magazines, newspapers and TV programs. He tends hundreds of houseplants, including camellias and orchids. Always looking for new challenges, he completed the RBG and Garden Clubs of Ontario horticultural and floral design judging certification courses. Michael’s floral designs have won many awards at major juried shows such as Canada Blooms, the CNE, and the Garden Clubs of Ontario Triennial Shows. He is currently a member of Milne House Garden Club, the Garden Club of Toronto, and heads up the Greater Toronto Bulb Society.
Paul Gellatly
Falling For Autumn:
Planting with an Extended Season in Mind
Wednesday, October 15, 2025
7:30 pm
Autumn is the time of year when every leaf becomes a flower. When many gardeners are hanging up their shovels and secateurs for the season, reflecting on the season’s past, and dreaming about the garden to come… There are still weeks… and in some cases months of incredibly beautiful gardening to experience. Put on your sweater and fall in love with plants, foliage, and even some flowers, before the snow flies.
A passionate life-long horticulturist, Paul was featured on Season 1 of the award-winning television documentary series ‘Visionary Gardeners’. Paul is currently the CEO of The Tattooed Gardener Inc., and the Vice-President of the Etobicoke Horticultural Society. He is the former Director of Horticulture at the Toronto Botanical Garden, and the former Curatorial Gardener at The Toronto Zoo managing one of Canada’s largest tropical plant collections. Many online garden lovers may know Paul through his strong online presence as The Tattooed Gardener, with social media posts reaching 30-35 million people per month. He is an avid collector of rare and unusual plants with a personal collection of over 800 tropical plants. As an experienced hybridizer of daylilies, with 107 registrations with the American Hemerocallis Society. Paul is the recipient of the 2022 Douglas Lycett award for the daylily now registered ‘Oscar Peterson’
Make & Take Christmas Floral Workshop
with Michael Erdman
Wednesday, November 19, 2025
7:30 pm
Kick off the holiday season with one of our favourite presenters who makes a repeat visit to demonstrate a Christmas floral item and lead us in making our own version to take home.
Everyone is welcome to join in the fun. To make the this evening even more exciting, we’ll host a friendly competition where attendees can vote for the most festive arrangement.
The winner will earn that title!
Michael is a certified floral judge from the RBG and the Garden Club of Ontario and is an award-winning floral designer known for his stunning creations at Canada Blooms and the CNE. He will guide us in crafting beautiful festive holiday urns and a decorative door swag, with a focus on using foraged greenery and natural materials from your own garden. Don't miss this opportunity to bring a touch of nature to your holiday decor!