MGAA: Spring Symposium (On-Line)
2026 MGAA’s Spring Symposium
Feb. 28th 9-3:30
Speakers:
Wilbert Ronald of Jeffries nurseries: Columnar Trees
Columnar trees are extremely popular accent and screening trees in the flat Canadian prairies. In recent years the Columnar Swedish aspen cultivar was among the most popular of columnar trees but it has lost its position due to disease and introduction of other new trees. A number of newer columnar trees including columnar flowering crabapples, columnar Parkland Pillar birch and other trees are coming to the forefront.
John Acorn, Naturalist: Butterflies in the Garden and Beyond
There are more than 170 species of butterflies in Alberta, and many of these are familiar garden insects. Gardening for butterflies involves the use of both nectar-source flowers to attract the adults, and caterpillar food plants to sustain the larvae. Naturally, most types of pesticides should be avoided. Monarchs are of course the most popular of the Alberta species, but in truth they are almost entirely limited to the southern centres such as Medicine Hat and Lethbridge. And if the garden butterflies are an inspiration to you, you might also enjoy pursuing butterflies farther afield, in environments that are difficult to replicate in a managed garden.
Tony Spencer: Wildscaping
In the post-wild countryside of Mono, Ontario, Tony Spencer is conducting a series of open experiments to combine naturalistic planting design with Blue-Green Infrastructure into a fluid ecological art form.
Working on the local level ,he cultivates his universal concept of Wildscaping. This is about using plant-driven landscape design to create and sustain dynamic garden spaces, filled with beauty and wildlife, to rekindle our relationship to the natural world.
The focus of this talk is how to link home to landscape in a symbiotic loop to build new nature and adapt to the inevitable extremes of the new climate.
General Public $45. — MGAA Members $35. — MGAA Students $25.
For Tickets: eTransfer to: treasurer@mgaab.org
This is a zoom presentation.
More Information on our Speakers:
Tony Spencer
Tony Spencer is the Canadian writer, photographer, and planting designer behind The New Perennialist. He is recognized and published internationally in the world of naturalistic garden design. In 2024, Tony won his second top Landscape Design Award of Excellence from the US-based Perennial Plant Association (PPA).
He was also was named PPA Garden Media Promoter of the year along with a 2024 Silver Medal for Social Media from Garden Comm. Day today, Tony is a puckish ringleader for the naturalistic movement with over 100kfollowers on his various social media channels. He travels extensively to gardens and symposiums in his primary role as a communicator, documenter and sharer of ideas for this movement. Tony is currently at work on an upcoming book for Timber Press with a publishing date of summer 2027.
John Acorn
John Acorn teaches in the Department of Renewable Resources at the University of Alberta. John has been a lifelong naturalist, and he is best known for his television series Acorn, The Nature Nut, in which he blended a broad knowledge of animals with a flair for music and humour. He is also the author of some twenty books on natural history subjects and dozens of research articles and papers.
From cutting edge science to old-fashioned nature study,
John enjoys and promotes a broad appreciation of the natural world around us. He is the recipient of the University of Alberta’s Distinguished Alumni Award, The Entomological Foundation’s Medal of Honor, National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada’s (NSERC) Michael Smith Award for Science Promotion, and the Royal Society of Canada’s McNeil Medal for the Public Awareness of Science.
Wilbert Ronald
Jeffries Nurseries Ltd was… “founded by Wilbert and Sharon Ronald in 1982, this family owned wholesale operation has since grown from a small retail garden centre to become one of Manitoba’s largest nurseries. Under our Northern Garden Collection brand, we strive to provide quality plants across Western Canada, Ontario and the northern states of the USA.
As a company we strive to be a leader in plant improvement through research and innovation for Canada and the Northen States area. As a result, over 40 new plants have been introduced to the market. Research has been directed towards overcoming disease problems such as Dutch Elm Disease, Bronze Leaf Disease of aspens, and Black Knot Disease of purple leafed sherries. … We strongly support our own Research and Development programs and those in adjacent provinces and States. We also support the landscape and gardening sector by sponsorship of Communities in Bloom, The Prairie Garden and lending support to numerous allied groups.”