Biographies

Charlie Dobbin is a well-known horticulturist and landscape designer with more than 20 years professional gardening experience. Charlie had been the Horticultural Director for Canada Blooms since 2003. Each year starting in June, Charlie leads the teams of designers and landscapers to ensure that the more than 75,000 trees, plants, flowers and bulbs and more than 40 feature gardens are ready for Canada Blooms in March.

In addition to her work with Canada Blooms, Charlie co-hosted HGTV?s popular One Garden Two Looks, from 2002 to 2005, and has delivered practical and entertaining gardening tips on City TV, CHTV and The Weather Network. During an 18-year career in retail, she also gave many seminars and demonstrations, wrote and edited articles for newspaper and magazines, had her own radio show, and made guest appearances on over a hundred television programs.

In May 2002 Charlie started her own consulting company ?Garden Solutions by Charlie Dobbin.?

Since designing the first Canada Blooms in 1997, Colomba Fuller has given her time, enthusiasm and talents to each of the following Festivals over the past 12 years. As Artistic Director, Colomba works to develop and bring to life a unique vision and theme for each year?s Festival.

Colomba is a member of the Board of Directors at the Toronto Botanical Gardens, a member of the Garden Club of Toronto, and a qualified floral design judge. With more than 20 years experience, she has also acted as artistic director for the World Association of Flower Arrangers and received a gold medal for her co-design of the Tides of Time Garden at the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair. Her own urban Toronto garden has been featured on HGTV as well as appearing in several garden books and magazines.

Colomba owns and operates a firm specializing in event planning as well as interior, floral and garden design. She has worked on events like the Brazilian Ball, along with many other charitable events. Aside from her love of gardening and design, Colomba is also very active in the art world.

Gerry Ginsberg joined Canada Blooms in August 2007, bringing with him a breadth of experience in the management and development of festivals and events across Ontario and the United States. As general manager, Gerry has worked to enhance the experience of the more than 100,000 visitors that enjoy Canada Blooms each year by engaging new regional, national and international partners.

Through his career, Gerry has worked in senior management positions with major Ontario Municipalities and private corporations in the areas of special event planning and sponsorship development. Prior to joining Canada Blooms, Gerry was the Executive Director of the Edison Festival of Lights in Florida, and General Manager of the Niagara Grape & Wine Festival.

Co-Chair for Canada Blooms 2008, Joyce Johnson has been an active member of the Garden Club of Toronto since 1999. She has served on the Board of Directors as Chair ofthe Horticultural Committee and for the past four years staged the horticultural competition in the Canada Blooms? Floral Hall

Joyce is a passionate gardener both indoors and outdoors. She loves the challenge of competing in both horticulture and floral design classes and has won many awards at Canada Blooms. In 2006, she completed a three-year course and qualified as an accredited floral design judge.

This is Joyce?s second year as Co-Chair of Canada Blooms and she has one more year on the Canada Blooms Horticultural Society Board of Directors.

Peter Guinane is Co-Chair for Canada Blooms 2008. He joined the Board of Directors for Canada Blooms three years ago to assist with planning and strategy. As part of his involvement with Landscape Ontario, Peter is also the Chair of the Landscape Contractors Commodity Group, which deals with issues specifically affecting the landscape contractors in Ontario.

Peter is founding partner of Oriole Landscaping Ltd., one of Toronto?s premiere landscaping companies. Together with Oriole Landscaping, Peter has created award-winning feature gardens at Canada Blooms almost every year from the very first show in 1997. Peter?s work has been featured in Canadian House and Home, Gardening Life, Canadian Gardening, The Toronto Star and The Globe and Mail. He has been featured in a series of episodes for the Let?s Build program in the 90?s, and recently contributed to the Mark Cullen Show on CFRB.