Joanne Young could make a room full of gardeners laugh just as easily as she could teach them to prune a shrub.
Friends and fellow gardeners are remembering Young for her vast knowledge in all things horticulture and her lighthearted disposition, which they say was as central to her lessons as the plants she loved and drew people to her workshops, columns and community projects.
Young died suddenly on Sept. 11 at the age of 56, in her home in St. Catharines.
As a member and past president of the Niagara-on-the-Lake Horticultural Society, she helped spearhead notable community projects, from pollinator gardens to the labyrinth behind the NOTL Public Library.
Current president Cindy Grant said Young was “the go-to person” in the horticultural society for “all gardening knowledge.”
“Not only that, for her humour and her wit,” she added. “She just made you smile.”
She’s completed more than 2,000 landscape plans for commercial and residential properties in her career and worked at Mori Gardens for more than 30 years.
“There’s literally hundreds of people in town that she designed gardens for over that period of time (at Mori),” said Grant.
Young later started running her own business as a garden coach business — a “huge success,” Grant said, which the society was “so very thrilled” to witness.
She shared her expertise with readers of The Lake Report, writing weekly columns that blended practical advice with playful turns of phrase — inspiring both novice and seasoned gardeners to find joy and possibility in their own yards.
She began working at Sykes Landscaping in 2022 as the horticultural specialist and “was literally our plant guru,” said lead landscape designer Pippa de Leonardis.
“She was incredibly generous with her knowledge.”
Their friendship grew out of years of collaboration in the garden design world — de Leonardis began working with her after starting at Mori Gardens in 2012.
Young leaves behind her mother, Verna Young, siblings Sandra Farrow, Bill Young, Darlene Kosonic, Yvonne Yarker and Carol Young, her grandparents Charles and Ruby Young and John and Dorothy Krugel, and several nieces, nephews and cousins.
Her loss leaves a gap that will be hard to fill, Grant said.
She was always the first to answer a call for help, leading cleanups, planning plantings and guiding the society’s work on community gardens.
“There’s lots of other good gardeners,” Grant said, “but in this case, I honestly don’t know how we’re going to replace Joanne.”
What set her apart was the way she taught.
“She had such a sense of humour and such a wonderful way of teaching,” said Wendy Cadman, another member of the society board.
Young could take a dry lesson on plant placement and turn it into a joke.
For example, she coined the term “plunk-itis,” Cadman said, to describe the impulse gardeners feel when they fall in love with a big, flashy plant and plunk it into the ground without thinking about how it fits into the overall design.
And when nothing seemed to work in a garden, Young would laugh and say, “Just plant a rock,” she said.
“Those are two of my favourites.”
Fellow board member Gee Rende said Young “was a masterful gardener.”
“She painted a canvas with a garden.”
Rende said Young loved all plants, but had a special fondness for those with texture.
“Flowers were wonderful, but she loved the grasses and the vines and the shrubs,” she added.
Her fall classes were set to continue this week — news of her passing has been met with grief and an outpouring of sadness from her students, said Rende.
“She was so loved,” she said. “Her impact just resonated.”
Young was “very humble” and frequently poked fun at herself.
“She is, or was, a very kind person and she’ll be terribly missed,” she said. “It still feels very unreal to, I think, everybody.”
Grant felt the suddenness of Young’s death: “It came right out of the blue,” she said. Young had just given a workshop on Saturday, Sept. 6.
That same day, Grant had her last encounter when she saw Young in high spirits at Silks Country Kitchen in Virgil.
Young had been out with her sister and a friend, picking up peaches and grapes and enjoying the day.
“Life was good,” Grant said. “She was in great form.”
Young’s touch can be seen in gardens across town, from the regional housing community on Davy Street to the library and William Nassau Park.
The society is considering ways to honour her, including renaming the William Nassau Park gardens she helped design or installing a permanent memorial such as a bench, plaque or garden.
Sykes Landscaping staff got a Shademaster tree in her honour and plan to plant it within the next week.
The tree, de Leonardis said, is “tough in all conditions — which Joanne was — (and) offers a beautiful dappled shade — which Joanne would have always appreciated.”
Cadman said there will be a fall memorial once her family’s wishes are known, which will be planned out at an upcoming general meeting. “It’s going to be a different meeting,” she said.
“It’s going to be a coming together of our society.”
She added that Young’s influence will live on.
“Everyone will be thinking about her and will probably think about the things that she’s taught us — and be sure to go out and do them.”
The final column Young wrote for The Lake Report, published Sept. 11, offered readers advice on adding water features to their gardens.
She signed off with a simple question: “Where can you place a water feature in your yard?”
Words that now read like a farewell, encouraging readers to keep creating beauty and joy in the spaces they tend.
paigeseburn@niagaranow.com
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