"I went downtown to get booked in," explains Ed, a Toronto native who'd arrived in Ottawa on that very day. After being recruited straight from school by the National Capital Commission (NCC) – to tend garden at the capital's six official residences, no less – he was, understandably, eager to get started. "But they had just moved the personnel office from one building to another, and they couldn't do anything with me that day," he recalls. "So I went home. "Well, the next day I caught hell," chuckles Ed, with a hint of his signature smile. He was relatively green at the time when it came to hobnobbing with heads of state, but in time he would come to arrange floral displays for kings, queens, presidents and even movie stars. "But nobody told me where else to go," he remarks. "And the first thing the boss asked me the next day was, 'Are you available to work overtime tonight?'"
Indeed, the 57-year-old put in his fair share of double duty while potting, weeding, culturing and harvesting for umpteen governors-general and prime ministers during three decades as NCC chief horticultural specialist. Also host of a popular CBC call-in radio show, Ed has raised roses for former prime minister Pierre Trudeau, given gardening advice to leaders of the opposition, and even arranged floral displays for luncheons with Queen Elizabeth.
Ed cut his teeth as a youthful botanist while growing up in downtown Toronto. And though he's since grown accustomed to country life, he says the numerous ravines and parks in the southern Ontario city provided ample plant-scouting opportunities. "As a kid, gardening was one of those things I took to," he recalls. He'd trim hedges, weed his parent's garden – he'd even weed and landscape his elderly neighbours' gardens – just to be outside, content with the hum of the earth. "It was like going into a totally different space," he reflects of the garden in his parents' backyard, close to the picturesque Rosehill Reservoir Park. "It was totally different than any kind of room, or any spaces inside any kind of building."
Ed’s latest project has involved taking his years of experience and putting it all together in a new gardening how-to book, entitled Gardening Grief and Glory. It’s packed with useful tips, including his famous "40-parts water to one-part soap" solution for nasty cases of aphids, earwigs, thrips and mites.
But even though Ed is known in some circles as the "Wayne Gretzky of gardening" thanks to his vast repository of flora-related knowledge, getting in touch with the soil and putting down roots has never been about status. He also prefers to live simply on a sprawling chunk of Ottawa Valley land just outside Almonte "There's nothing like sowing seeds and seeing them germinate," explains Ed, who adds that in his own garden he prefers hardy, indigenous plants like black-eyed susans and holly hawks. Tufts of grey and a hint of well-earned smile lines frame his otherwise boyish face, which grows animated after the “g”-word is finally breached. "(Gardening) is like this little miracle you get to watch," he continues. "You're dealing with life – it's another form of life, of course – but you're dealing with life, constantly. "There's a connection to the earth with that, and with the soil."
As Leonard Lee, the founder of Lee Valley Tools, puts it, Ed enjoys connecting with more than just the soil. Indeed, during the infamous ice storm of 1998, he says Ed volunteered a series of tips on how to alleviate damage to vegetation and trees. "There was a lot of bad information floating around (at the time)," says Leonard, a longtime friend and sometimes business partner, who's known Ed for more than 15 years and also lives on a farm in the Almonte area. "But it was often, during that kind of thing when there was no money involved, that he really came through."
It's this same affability that's guided Ed through two decades of a successful radio show, no doubt, though Leonard says gardening has never been their main point of contact. "We're friends, first and foremost," he says. "I've always been a conservationist, and while I have the same love of nature, I don't have the skill level to keep up (with Ed). My wife, who is a superb gardener, can go ahead and talk Latin names with him forever. But when I've got bugs in my trees, I call him and ask him what I should do."
Gardening, explains Ed, might just be the one great equalizer between people. Trudeau, he says, found the roses at 24 Sussex "calming." "He was somebody who was tuned into that kind of thing, even though he didn't have much time for it," explains Ed – while perennial leader of the opposition Robert Stanfield regularly got down on all fours to weed the rosebeds at Stornoway, when he wasn't out playing football. "These people are there because they're in a position of power, but they're sitting down and talking with you about plants," he explains. "And when that happens, you meet them as human beings instead of as politicians, or TV stars, or whatever they might be. "Everybody has some kind of touch with it."
Royal assent
Governors-General under Ed Lawrence's watch: The Right Honourable Jules Leger (1975-2005) The Right Honourable Edward Schreyer 1979-1984 The Right Honourable Ramon John Hnatyshyn 1984-1990 The Right Honourable Romeo LeBlanc 1995-1999 The Right Honourable Adrienne Clarkson 1999-2005
Foreign leaders and dignitaries who planted trees during Ed's term:
- John F. Kennedy - Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis - Richard Nixon - Bill Clinton - Kofi Annan - Queen Elizabeth II - Boris Yeltsin - Vladimir Putin - Vicente Fox
Ed's favourite plants:
Though he's planted and cared for a wide swath of vegetation over his career – including hundreds of trees planted at Rideau Hall by foreign dignitaries, including the king and queen of Belgium, former United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan, and former U.S. president John F. Kennedy – Ed says that in his own garden he prefers hardy, indigenous plants like black-eyed susans and holly hawks. In fact, Ed says he's spent the last few years sprinkling wildflower seeds around his property, and the results in the summertime are spectacular.
Ed's famous recipe for aphids, earwings, mites, thrips, etc.
Mix 40 parts water with 1 part liquid soap (20 oz. spray bottle plus one tablespoon soap) Spray plant thoroughly and leave on for 10 minutes. Rinse with spray of clear, room temperature water. Repeat three times over a 10-day period.
Ed's recipe for dealing with ants:
Mix 2 cups warm water with 1 teaspoon of boric acid and 6 tablespoons of sugar. Cut six 1 cm. holes around sides at the base of a plastic margarine-type container. Soak 2 cotton balls in prepared liquid and place in container, replace lid. Place in path of ants and leave for several weeks. Label and store surplus mixture in fridge, replenish as necessary.
