This past year, the spectacular horticultural attraction has seen plants take root and people visit from around the world. The Leaf has moved beyond its stunning architecture and the thousands of trees, shrubs, flowers, and other plant life, to become a meeting place in the community.
Throughout this year people have made connections—with the plants, with each other, and nature as a whole. It's been wonderful to watch our visitors gather and explore as they learn about the world’s natural and cultural diversity.
Our dedicated team, a collective of passionate individuals, has played a huge role in turning The Leaf from a concept into a reality. Their commitment has positioned The Leaf as a premier horticultural attraction, centre for education, events venue, dining location, and award-winning green space.
As we raise a figurative glass to toast the accomplishments of the past year, our heartfelt appreciation goes to our exceptional team members and community who have been integral to The Leaf's success.
We asked members of The Leaf team to share highlights and favourite memories from the past year.
Rhonda Halliday, Horticultural Supervisor at The Leaf
I am very lucky to have been part of the crew that planted all of the plants that you see in The Leaf. I very recently got to do a presentation that compared what the plants were like when we first planted them to how they are now almost a year later, and to see the incredible amount of growth is wonderful. It's a testament to how hard the horticulture crew works in this building and how serious they are about their jobs.
To give you an idea of how some things have grown, look at the blood bananas. I remember planting these bananas and when I planted them, they were the same height as myself. And as you can see now, they're probably three, maybe even four times my size and that's in only a year. And that's just a very small portion of what is going on in this building. It's amazing how much the plants have grown in and established, and it's just a wonderful ecosystem that we have going on here now!
Michelle Peterson, Sales & Catering Manager
I'm most proud of our first event, the opening event at The Leaf. After all the years of waiting, to see it pulled off successfully was just a giant breath of fresh air. It took months of planning, and a lot of moving parts and honestly, it wouldn't have been as successful as it was if it wasn't for all the departments of Assiniboine Park Conservancy coming together as one.
The feedback we have received has been phenomenal. We are such a new team, but we've come together strong over the past year. I've heard numerous wonderful comments about the biomes, Gather and the coffee bar, everything to do with the Leaf. It's brought a lot of people together.
My favourite memory was hosting the swearing-in ceremony for the new Premier and Cabinet members. It was such an honour to host something so diverse here.
Heiko Duehrsen, Executive Chef
For me, it was the first day that we opened. At the end of the day, after the restaurant and banquets were running their first event, I could look at the entire building and the staff we put together. This has been five years in the making, and I got to see it come to fruition and what a great team we put together. It was a great feeling at the end of the day.
My favourite memory is coming in to Gather and eating as a guest and getting to experience it from the guest's point of view and just being blown away by the ambience, the service, and the menu. I was really happy about that.
Carmen Grey, Horticulture Operations Coordinator
Something that I'm proud of is having the opportunity to work with the various departments here at the Park. It's been super eye-opening to see how many people it takes to make something like this happen. It's been very rewarding to work with Marketing and Communications and our Finance departments. I'm very fortunate in my role as the coordinator for the Horticulture department and Operations that I get to spend time with all of these other departments to make something like this happen, whether it's providing workshops or summer camps. It's great to see how this space can be used in so many different ways!
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Bonnie Tulloch, Education Coordinator
The thing that I'm most proud of at The Leaf is our engagement with community members. We've had a couple of unique programs this year with IRCOM, the Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization of Manitoba, and we had newcomer Canadians visit. They so appreciated just seeing all the beauty of The Leaf, but when they connect with plants from their home country, it's really powerful. Particularly with banana plants, some of the community members from the Philippines have talked about how the banana plant is incorporated into their regional dishes.
One of my favourite memories is facilitating camp this summer at The Leaf. We made pizza incorporating herbs from the garden and we had fresh vegetables with dip and made ice cream with lemon verbena. Sometimes kids don't know where their food comes from, so this gave them a unique perspective. They saw the carrots come out of the dirt in the gardens – but of course, ice cream was their favourite!
Mike Degroot, Chef at Gather Craft Kitchen & Bar
I think my favourite memory was the period when we were first moving into the building and we were hiring the crews and getting the project ready to lift off. It had been five years of building and planning and testing and delays, so to finally be able to walk into the building and start putting food on plates and getting boots on the ground was amazing. The excitement from everyone who touched this project was just through the roof at that point. So that's my favorite memory those initial phases of moving in and getting unpacked and getting started.
The thing I'm most proud of has got to be the staff. The people we have on the team are some of the best cooks I've ever had the privilege of working with. They're hardworking, they're ambitious, they're clean, their food is delicious every time. I sort of fed them an idea that we could build a restaurant that was a cut above everything we'd all tried to do before, gave them a direction to run with, and they all picked up the ball and sprinted with it. I'm very proud of all of them.
Jacqueline, Volunteer at The Leaf
As a volunteer at The Leaf, I can see visitors' reactions as they first enter this magnificent building and then proceed to explore the biomes. People of all ages are in awe of the architecture, the koi pond, the waterfall, the canopy walk, and of course the plants. The plants and the trees with their luscious colours, their amazing fragrances, their diverse shapes and sizes.
I've had many conversations with people who tell me that they have moved here from either Central America, Africa, Southeast Asia or the Caribbean, and it truly warms my heart to see their joy and hear their excitement when they tell me that walking through The Leaf and seeing all the beautiful plants reminds them of home, their homeland, and triggers for them some awesome memories. It is such a privilege to be invited into those conversations.
Wade Meisner, Curator, Horticulture
It is amazing on our first anniversary how mature and full the Tropical Biome has become, especially looking at the bananas and even the bamboo, how large they're growing and almost touching the ceiling in our first year. It'll be a challenge to start doing the maintenance of all the plant material as it gets more established, then thinning out plant material, pruning plant material and trimming it for the future.
When we first opened, we knew we overplanted so that we'd get that lush feeling. So now we'll have to go through and start doing the edit process, both in the Tropical and the Mediterranean Biomes to see which varieties we want to keep and which varieties unfortunately have to be relocated elsewhere.
Aaron Crawford, APC Banquets & Catering Chef
I'm most proud of my culinary team. We've done huge banquets for hundreds of people at a time and couldn't be prouder as their leader. It was very neat to be part of this exciting opportunity at The Leaf.
The Leaf will continue to be a dynamic space with horticultural displays, educational programs, events, and interactive encounters as we move into 2024!
We can't wait to see what connections form between people and plants as the space continues to change and grow.
