Throughout the year, Vintage Gardener hosts seasonal Garden Festivals in Toronto’s gem, The Distillery Historic District. French-style Flower Carts laden with the season’s best, turn the District’s cobblestone plaza into a Garden Market Haven.

During each Festival, guests can roll up their sleeves and try their hand at any of the “on-the-spot” projects, or sign up for a Workshop, held mornings or evenings during the festival.

A highlight for each, is the Festival Luncheon or Brunch held at one of the District’s celebrated venues, …Tappo Wine Bar & Restaurant, The Fermenting Cellar, Archeo, or an Art Gallery…… where Vintage Gardener’s own Elaine & Anna Martin are both entertaining and informative. They share lots of tips for bringing a seasonal garden look into your home decorating and entertaining!

To enquire about including a similar event for your corporate function as a team-building session, spousal programme or fund-raising function, give us a call 416-364-6232 or email elaine@vintagegardener.com.

For larger groups or garden clubs - we've been known to send Elaine on the road !

Reservations: 416-364-6232 or Email Elaine


This Valentines Day...
Think outside the Chocolate Box.

The Vintage Gardener
and
Tappo Wine Bar & Restaurant

The Distillery Historic District

Saturday February 13 11:30am  to 2:00 (ish)

$175 for Two

Bring your Diva out for a Valentines to remember!

First you'll be welcomed with Champagne & Chef's choice amuse bouche, next you'll be elbows deep in roses, as Vintage Gardener (featured in November Style at Home) guides you to create your own three dozen Opera Bouquet of Roses, followed by an Elegant 3 course Luncheon by Tappo Wine Bar & Restaurant (cover story for Dining Out Magazine) and topped off with Celebrated Jazz & Blues performer Errol Fisher 

Now That's Outside the Box!

For reservation inquiries, call: 416.364.6232


A Cabin Fever Breakaway
...a festival for gardeners longing for Spring!!! 

Join us in The Distillery Historic District, where spring comes early this year at our Cabin Fever Breakaway. If you are a gardener longing for warm soil under your nails and the site of the first Robin, this may be just what the doctor ordered!

Cabin Fever Breakaway Festival starts with our annual Cabin Fever Breakaway Brunch (always a sell-out crowd!) Feb 20th and continues  to Feb 28th with daily workshops, and even a floral contest !!!

A great day with your client, mother or your friends.

 

Festival at a Glance:

  Sunday Feb 21 A Cabin Fever Breakaway Brunch
$55 per person or $95 for two
Tickets...
  Monday Feb 22 Spring Hanging Basket
$95 per person or $175 for two
Tickets...
  Tuesday Feb 23 Everlasting Window Box Garland
$75 per person or $125 for two
Tickets...
  Wednesday Feb 24 A Spring Tower
$95 per person or $175 for two
Tickets...
  Thursday Feb 25 A Spring Window Box
$125 per person or $195 for two
Tickets...
  Friday Feb 26 Provence Everlasting
$75 per person or $125 for two
Tickets...
  Saturday Feb 27 Hydrangea Wreath
$125 for two - Bring a Friend for Free!
Tickets...
  Sunday Feb 28


Annual Cabin Fever Breakaway Floral Contest!
 

Free!

 

For more information visit our Workshops Page
For reservation inquiries call 416.364.6232

 


A Cabin Fever Breakaway Brunch
The Distillery Historic District, Tappo Restaurant

Sunday February 21st  11:00 a.m. to 2:00 ish

$55 pp or $95 for two, includes brunch!

 Attend our Cabin Fever Breakaway Brunch (or any one of our workshops February 23 to March 1) and you’ll be surrounded by all manner of Spring… branches of quince, magnolia, apple, pear… forced to blossom, potted spring bulbs and fresh cut market flowers – muscari, parrot tulips, daffodils…

 Be inspired at our luncheon, with an entertaining and informative Spring Floral demonstration by Vintage Gardener’s Elaine Martin and her design team. They’ll offer tips on how to force branches and bulbs to bloom and invite an early spring into your home décor.

 (Yes you can purchase all of the demonstrated items – even say you made it if you like!)

Tickets:

For reservation inquiries call 416.364.6232


Cabin Fever Breakaway Floral Contest !!!
...and your opportunity to meet Gemini Award winner, Ambrose – host of HGTV’s  hit show “The Decorating Adventures of Ambrose Price” (he is one of our judges)

Sunday February 28
 
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 composition, 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 !


Mother’s Day Floral Festival

Sunday May 2nd to Sunday May 9th

It’s opening weekend for our Flower Market Carts!!!

And they will be pretty in pink!!! Hydrangea, Tulips, Azalea, Martha Washington Geraniums, Aqualegia and the like – perfect gifts for Mom!

Each Day throughout the Festival, we feature workshops and luncheons – a great way to spend a day with Mother !!!

 

 

Festival at a Glance:

  Sunday May 2 Mother’s Day Floral Brunch
$55 per person or $95 for two
Tickets...
  Monday May 3 TBA  
  Tuesday May 4 TBA  
  Wednesday May 5 TBA  
  Thursday May 6 TBA  
  Friday May 7 TBA  
  Saturday May 8 TBA  
  Sunday May 9 TBA  

For reservation inquiries call 416.364.6232


Mothers’ Day Brunch

Sunday May 2nd

$55 pp or $95 for two

 Join Elaine, our Vintage Gardener & her design team, for our annual Mother’s Day Brunch, on Sunday May 2nd, 11:00 am to 2:00 ish in The Distillery Historic District. $55 pp or $95 for two

Our Mothers’ Day Floral Festival continues to May 9 with daily workshops at Vintage Gardener, The Distillery Historic District (details here soon!)

Tickets...

For more information visit our Workshops Page
For reservation inquiries call 416.364.6232


Culinary Herb Festival 2010

Sunday, July 18th to Sunday July 25th

During the Festival, our market carts are full to the canopy with garden goodies & gadgets along with your favourite (and sometimes hard to find) culinary herb plants.

This year’s Festival Features:
· Ready to plant four inch herb pots, 3 for $10,
· Designer Terrace Planters $45, ready to pop in place – a Moveable Feast!

Each Day throughout the festival, Herbal Experts will be on hand to inspire and answer your garden questions and share tips and recipes.

As well, Vintage Gardener’s Floral Designers will create custom planters while you wait (or assist). Our special twist combines flowers (many edible) with herbs to create a textured and fragrant mini-garden, reminiscent of an 18th century French Peasant Garden (grandmother to a Formal Potager – which you can learn about at our Festival Brunch on Sunday July 18th).

Festival at a Glance:

  Sunday July 18 Culinary Herb Festival Luncheon
$55 per person or $95 for two
Tickets...
  Monday July 19 TBA  
  Tuesday July 20 TBA  
  Wednesday July 21 TBA  
  Thursday July 22 TBA  
  Friday July 23 TBA  
  Saturday July 24 TBA  
  Sunday July 25 TBA  

For reservation inquiries call 416.364.6232


The Festival Brunch

Sunday July 18th

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!

Hope to see you and your friends!

$55 per person, includes brunch
$95 for two, includes brunch

Tickets:

A Lavender Festival

Sunday, August 22 to 29, 2010

What is that saying? .. You can never be too rich, too thin or have enough lavender (or was it diamonds?). Come to our Lavender Festival to find all manner of things lavender! Lavender wreaths, lavender sachets, lavender hedges, lavender topiaries, lavender plants, lavender bouquets, lavender soaps, even lavender pet shampoo...well you get the picture!

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Throughout the festival week visit Vintage Gardener in the Distillery Historic District for all manner of Lavender samplings!

Glean tips on cultivating, planting and drying lavender from our Lavender experts and even learn a few medicinal and culinary secrets (sample some lavender cookies, lavender praline ice-cream, lavender lemonade…)

Try your hand at creating a dried lavender hedge, topiary, a sachet, (pay as go) or sign up for a morning or evening workshop!

Mark Sunday, August 22nd on your calendar and plan to attend our Lavender Festival Luncheon  in The Distillery Historic District. You will see first hand how we create those wonderful French-inspired florals you see throughout our studio. 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!!!

Festival at a Glance:

TBA

Gifts From the Garden Workshop  

TBA

Lavender Hedge Workshop  

TBA

Lavender Dome Workshop  

TBA

Lavender Wreath Workshop  

Sunday, Aug 22

Lavender Festival Brunch
$55 per person or $95 for two
Tickets...

For more details or to book, phone 416-364-6232 or email
More information on other
Festivals and Workshops


The Harvest Festival
The Distillery Historic District

Sunday September 26th to Sunday October 3rd

Capture the Autumn’s most vibrant at our Harvest Festival in the Distillery Historic District, where French market-style carts are gussied up with pumpkins & gourds, garlic & herbs, sunflowers & dahlias, grapevine, grains, lavender, & other dried flowers (we prefer to call them everlastings actually) ...

Join in on a morning or evening workshop to create your own Harvest Wreath, a Centrepiece or Harvest Dried Flower Hedge that highlights all the best of a thankful season.

At our Harvest Brunch, Elaine & Anna will have lots of tips and ideas for bringing an autumn garden look into your home decorating and entertaining! Like, welcome options for your entrance and front door, outdoor urns with fall’s treasures…. dahlias, zinnias, kale, heather and vines. Grand arrangements, garlands and wreaths with everlastings like grains and grasses, dried flowers, lavender and other herbs, grapevine, pumpkins and gourds – with a special accent on featuring your treasured antiques (and ones you’ve tucked away and forgotten).

Of course you will have a chance to purchase any of her creations made right there on the spot! Hope to see you there!

Festival at a Glance:

  Sunday Sep 26 Harvest Festival Brunch - $55 or $95 for two
  Monday Sep 27 TBA
  Tuesday Sep 28 TBA
  Wednesday Sep 29 Gifts from the Garden - $55
  Thursday Sep 30 Kitchen Harvest Wreath Master Class - $125
  Friday Oct 1 Harvest Windowsill Garden - $75
  Saturday Oct 2 Harvest Sunflower Wreath - $75
  Sunday Oct 3 TBA

For more details or to book, phone 416-364-6232 or email.
More information on other Festivals and Workshops.


Evergreen Festival 2009

Starts Wednesday November 18th

 

Tis the Season for over-the-top Holiday Decorating - Our Specialty!
As seen in this year’s Style at Home’s Festive Issue, …And featured on 96.3 (Alexa Petrenko will be broadcasting right from the Fair!!!)

This year’s festival starts November 18th through to mid December and transforms The Distillery Historic District, into a variable Evergreen French Garden Market!!! Stroll through the cobblestone laneways and enjoy the scents, sights and sounds of an old fashioned Christmas – with the Distillery’s usual contemporary twist! Pick up all of your seasonal must-haves, wreaths, evergreen boughs, berries, branches and cones. Sip on cider and make it a day of your own!

Festival at a Glance:

  Wednesday Nov 18 The Evergreen Festival Fair
The Fermenting Cellar in The Distillery Historic District - 11:00 am to 8:00pm
$20
  Thursday Nov 19 The Evergreen Festival Fair
The Fermenting Cellar in The Distillery Historic District - 11:00 am to 6:00 pm

$20
  Wednesday Nov 25 The Evergreen Wreath Workshop
Archeo in The Distillery Historic District
$135 includes materials and lunch
  Saturday Nov 28 The Evergreen Wreath Workshop
Archeo in The Distillery Historic District
$135 includes materials and lunch
  Sunday Nov 29

The Evergreen Festival Brunch
Archeo in The Distillery Historic District
$55 pp or $95 for two

  Wednesday Dec 2 The Evergreen Festival Luncheon
Archeo in The Distillery Historic District
$55 pp or $95 for two

...and other workshops throughout the Holiday Season

It all kicks off with a two day Festival Fair November 18th and 19th, held in The Distillery Historic District’s Fermenting Cellar. Tickets are $20.

The Evergreen Festival Fair promises to be a lot of fun!!!!

The Evergreen Stage: On stage every hour in the Fermenting Cellar is a different presentation/demonstration by Vintage Gardener and their celebrity guests.

The Evergreen Fair: Our Designers have set up stations in the Fermenting Cellar where you can “make-your-own” Evergreen Hostess Gifts, Wreaths, Planters, Centrepieces and Urns. Or visit our Ribbon & Bow Bar to learn to make your own drop-dead-gorgeous French Ribbon Bow!

 

The Evergreen Festival carries on:

Workshops take place mornings and evenings throughout the Evergreen Festival. And here is an Early Bird Special Offer! Purchase your workshop ticket before Labour Day for $95 per person; after Labour Day, it’s back to regular price $125.

And of course it would not be the same without our Festival Brunch held Sunday, November 29th & the Festival Luncheon Wednesday December 2nd – this year held at Archeo Trattoria in The Distillery Historic District.