The Year of the Garden proclaimed for Oshawa in 2022

Flower Power was blooming at Oshawa’s council chambers Monday, with Council looking at three separate flowery motions, though just one was approved.

The motion with the most chatter centred around changing Oshawa’s official flower from the rose to the peony. On the surface the idea has merit as the City has hosted a Peony Festival for nearly 20 years and with more 300 varieties of the flower in the gardens near Children’s Arena the festival has become one of Canada’s largest.

But, as Councillor Brian Nicholson pointed out, changing the official flower is not a simple matter and there would be considerable time and expense involved in making the switch.

A motion to put the idea out for public participation was eventually carried.

“Let’s ask the people what they want,” Nicholson said.

A second request was to proclaim Oshawa a Garden Friendly City and council agreed to apply for such a designation.

The only motion councillors were able to completely back was to proclaim 2022 as the Year of the Garden, an initiative supported by Communities in Bloom and the Canadian Garden Council.

That motion passed unanimously, 11-0.