Larry Sherk: One Hundred Years of Sheridan Nurseries

In May 1911 British landscape architects Howard Dunnington-Grubb and his wife Lorrie  settled in Toronto to set up one of Canada’s first landscape architecture firms.   In 1913 they purchased 100 acres of land in Ontario near the village of Sheridan.  An ad in a British journal soon brought a young Swedish born nurseryman, Herman Stensson and his wife and four young sons to Canada to establish this new nursery in the spring of 1914.   The first catalogue was released in the fall of 1914 for the 1914-1915 gardening season. Growth was rapid and by 1926 the nursery had grown to 250 acres with an extensive selection of trees, shrubs, evergreens, roses and perennials.   A hundred years later and still flourishing!

Larry Sherk is Sheridan’s retired Chief Horticulturalist and for the last twelve years it’s unofficial archivist and historian.  He is senior  author of the book “Ornamental Shrubs in Canada” and author of “Growing Canada’s Floral Emblems.”