Meetings

W.E.H.S. meetings are a great opportunity to learn something new, exchange ideas, and get together with other members and socialize.

Our meetings are generally held on the third Wednesday of the month (usually at 7:30), from February through May and from September through November, at the Monkland Community Center, 4410 Westhill Avenue, Montreal.   See below for the list of upcoming speakers and dates.  Meetings are held in English.

A typical meeting goes like this:

♦ Intro and housekeeping, including announcements of upcoming events, by Suzanne Csik, W.E.H.S. president

♦ A talk/presentation by a guest speaker

♦ Post-presentation Q&A

♦ Time to chat :)

Tea and baked goods are served during the meeting.

Coming up in 2025

February 2025

Join us the third week in February for our first meeting of 2025. Topic to be announced!

November 2024

Holiday Floral Arrangements: Learn How to Create Your Own. A professional florist demonstrated how to create holiday floral arrangements to grace our tables and living spaces.

October 2024

Intriguing Air Plants with Sheena Swirlz. Ms. Swirlz, coordinator of Urban Homesteading Montreal and the Balcony Garden Project, gave a fascinating demonstration on how to include soil-less plants in your indoor garden and shared best practices on growing and maintaining low-maintenance plants.

September 2024

How to Choose the Best Greenery for Your Backyard with Natacha Martin. Ms. Martin, owner of Oasis Urbain, a horticulture company in Montreal, showed us how to create fabulous outdoor spaces with the right trees, hedges and shrubs.

May 2024

May 15th – An Evening of Member Sharing: A Wealth of Horticultural Knowledge facilitated by Member-At-Large, John Warren
All present left much richer in horticultural knowledge and more prepared for the gardening season ahead. 

May 18th (SATURDAY) – Annual Perennial Sale 
in front of Jean Coutu Pharmacy, 6224 Somerled Ave. in N.D.G. Open to the public. Donations of perennials (by members & non-members) were greatly appreciated.

April 2024

Illustrated Herbals & the History of the Osler Library of the History of Medicine, McGill University - Dr. Mary Hague-Yearl presented this impressive library’s works on medicinal plants, herbals and more, along with an overview of the history of the Osler Library.

March 2024

Clematis & Rose: The Best of Friends - Dr. Christie Lovat - Clematis and rose have a long and complicated history in cultivation. We learned how to care for these two groups of plants and how they can be perfect partners in a garden.

February 2024

The Wonder of Weeds - Monica Giacomin - Identifying, growing, harvesting and transforming wild plants (weeds) into food and herbal medicine.

October 2023

Fossil Plants from the Lower St. Lawrence - Ingrid Birker, Alumna, Redpath Museum Public Education Program (McGill University)

May 2023

The Healing Power of Cannabis - Monica Giacomin, Community Herbalist & Educator, of Herbs on the Side,

April 2023

Climbing Plants for Home and Garden - Dr. Christie Lovit, PhD, from McGill's Bieler School of Environment

March 2023

Plant a Pollinator Garden - Reiko Kobayashi, Environment Technician for the Town of Montreal West

February 2023

La Falaise St-Jacques - Lisa Mintz, co-founder of Sauvons La Falaise! and executive director of Urbanature.

November 2022

Holiday Flower Arrangements - Elvira Louka, owner of Elvira Floral Studio and School of Floral Art

At left, some of the lovely creations Elvira produced during the meeting.

October 2022

Putting Your Garden To Bed For Winter - Laura Roch. owner of Roch Gardens

2022 October putting your garden to bed (18.02 MB)

September 2022

Wild About Mushrooms - Shawn Kearny

Useful links:

Mycoquebec.org - among the most comprehensive and up-to-date mushroom resources in North America.

Cercle des mycologues de Montréal - scientific focus, very well organized, quite a lot of high-quality low-cost activities

Cercle des mycologues de Lanaudière et de la Mauricie - a lot of scientifically sound activities, many close to Montréal.  Strong focus on gastronomy.

Mushroomexpert.com - one of the most comprehensive North American websites around

The Mycoboutique - located on Saint-Denis, this family business specializes in everything related to mushrooms.  It has on of the largest collections of English and French mushroom books anwhere - truly one-of-a-kind

Miron-Royer Foundation - dedicated, generous providers of good mushroom information and identification tools

May 2022

The Importance of Birds in Your Garden - Sheldon Harvey from Bird Protection Québec

Notes West End Horticultural Bird-friendly gardens (446.35 KB)

April 2022

Finding your Passion Through Flowers - Maryse Hudon, owner of Lutaflore

March 2022

Poison and Delight: A History of Food - Bruno Stenson, M.A., Historian