History Since the beginning, strong leadership and enthusiastic members have helped to maintain the vitality of this organization. On April 28, 1933, a meeting was held in a Pickering schoolroom for the purpose of considering the formation of a Horticultural Society. Mr. John F. Clark was the first speaker to address the Society on June 12th. He gave an illustrated lecture on "Continuous Bloom in the Garden" and our first flower show was held on Wednesday, August 23rd in St. Andrews Hall. Since its earliest days, the Horticultural Society has been concerned with the education and the beautification of the community. For several years we have been actively involved in planting and maintaining perennial flower beds in Pickering's Esplanade Park. In addition to that, we are proud to have been given responsibility for planning, planting and maintenance of a flower bed at Liverpool / Krosno and 30 planters at the south end of Liverpool Rd., now a very popular Pickering attraction. In the last number of years we have seen many changes. New schools, fire halls, town hall and subdivision upon subdivision of new homes have developed across the landscape. Large and small malls for retail and service outlets, new churches and a large recreational complex have been built to serve the needs of the community. New and improved nurseries emerged to serve our needs. New members looking for information were welcomed into our Horticultural Society. In 1997, after much debate, our Society chose the Peony as its official flower. We hope that the Town of Pickering will also adopt the Peony as its own. 1997 was also the year when the Society realized that it had outgrown its favourite meeting location, notably, St. Andrews Church. We made the difficult decision to relocate our meeting place to the Pickering Recreational Complex and have been happy there ever since. In 1997 the Society chose the Peony as its official flower.