Mary Robertson, an avid gardener and community volunteer who left us in 2010, will be honoured posthumously later this month when her lifelong collection of botanical prints is offered for silent auction at the Creemore Log Cabin, with all proceeds going toward the development of gardens and landscaping at that new facility.
“It’s quite an impressive collection,” said John Ferris, the Log Cabin Committee member who’s organizing the event. In total, there are about 55 matted and framed prints, all presenting the latin name of whatever flower, vegetable or herb is illustrated in its botanically correct form. The prints are of varying sizes and ages, with some dating as far back as the late 19th Century.
The collection will be on public display at the Log Cabin on Saturday, May 19 from 9 am to 2 pm; Sunday, May 20 from 12 to 3 pm; and Saturday, May 26 from 9 am to 2 pm. Silent auction bids can be made at any time during those three periods. The exhibition will then end with a public reception from 2 to 3 pm on Saturday, May 26, during which time any final bidding will be done in live auction style.
The landscaping around the Cabin that will take place this summer using funds raised during the auction will be a lasting tribute to Robertson, and will include period-style perennial beds around the building and several heritage vegetable plots out back.
“Mary would be delighted that her prints are going to help out the Log Cabin,” said her friend and business partner Kathy Meeser, who encouraged Mary’s husband Stuart to donate them to that cause. “She was tremendously excited about the cabin when it was discovered.”
Many of the plants in Robertson’s gardens were sold during last year’s Horticultural Society Plant Sale, benefitting her other great passion. It was Robertson and Meeser who did the original gardening work in the Horticultural Park, and she spent many years volunteering for that organization.