{"id":8894,"date":"2025-07-03T16:58:30","date_gmt":"2025-07-03T19:58:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/?p=8894"},"modified":"2025-07-03T16:58:30","modified_gmt":"2025-07-03T19:58:30","slug":"queens-dogwood-festival-blooms-25-years-after-millennium-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/2025\/07\/03\/queens-dogwood-festival-blooms-25-years-after-millennium-project\/","title":{"rendered":"Queens dogwood festival blooms 25 years after millennium project"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

The Region of Queens Dogwood Festival kicks off Friday evening. (Rick Conrad)<\/p><\/div>\n

For the past 25 years, they\u2019ve brought vibrant pops of pink, yellow and white to front yards in many parts of Queens County.<\/span><\/p>\n

And this weekend, the inaugural Region of Queens Dogwood Festival will celebrate the 1,000 dogwood trees planted in the area since 2000.<\/span><\/p>\n

Stephanie Miller Vincent is organizing the three-day festival. While there have been some garden tours and teas around the dogwood in the past, she says this is the first time an event has focused solely on the trees.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>The end of April, something caught my eye and I was like, holy, this is the 25th anniversary of those original trees. If we don’t do something intentional this year, we really missed an opportunity. You know, it’ll be small, but it will be a celebration. The trees are going to bloom every single year.<\/p>\n

“It’s time that we start taking notice of them and welcome people to explore the community.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Christopher Clarke is the dogwood father of Queens County. He wanted to make the region the dogwood capital of Nova Scotia.<\/span><\/p>\n

As mayor, he began a millennial planting project in 2000, with the municipality selling 750 dogwoods at a relatively low cost.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThose 25-year-old trees are very large,” Miller Vincent says. “<\/span>Not everyone knows what they are, so I think they really catch people’s eye and their attention because they’re kind of like, my gosh, that is beautiful. And then they want to know more. And really, that’s part of the celebration that we’re doing is that these trees have been here for 25 years. And if you’ve driven through the community or come to the community since 2000, you may not know the reason why they’re here.<\/p>\n

“That pink pop of color is very different for people as they drive down the street, and it really does catch their eye.<\/span>\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"

Stephanie Miller Vincent (Courtesy of Stephanie Miller Vincent)<\/p><\/div>\n

An opening ceremony and tree planting are planned for Friday evening at the Queens County Museum. On Saturday, local artist Andre Haines will be leading a dogwood painting session in Cobb Park. That\u2019s where a dozen trees were planted after being donated by officials from the region\u2019s former sister city Dryden, Ontario.<\/span><\/p>\n

Also on Saturday, stained glass artist Scot Slessor will be holding a workshop at his studio in downtown Liverpool.<\/span><\/p>\n

On Sunday, photographer Amy McGowan will be in Cobb Park taking keepsake photos of people, their families and pets among the dogwoods.<\/span><\/p>\n

Miller Vincent has also created a crowdsourced map on the event\u2019s website with more than 100 dogwood tree locations from Port Medway to Port Mouton.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey are absolutely gorgeous. We\u2019ve had the perfect weather for big, bright, beautiful blossoms.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Miller Vincent plans to make the Region of Queens Dogwood Festival an annual event. And just like the trees themselves, she says she hopes the festival grows bigger every year.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAbsolutely. Bigger and better next year. We thought any celebration is a good celebration and we\u2019ll add things to it next year.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

For more information, visit <\/span>regionofqueensdogwoodfestival.ca<\/span><\/a> or follow their Facebook page<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Listen to the audio version of this story below<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/dogwoodfestivaljul325.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For the past 25 years, they\u2019ve brought vibrant pops of pink, yellow and white to front yards in many parts of Queens County. And this weekend, the inaugural Region of Queens Dogwood Festival will celebrate the 1,000 dogwood trees planted in the area since 2000. Stephanie Miller Vincent is organizing the three-day festival. While there […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,5],"tags":[1225,3255,2102,3252,3254,196,39,3253,49,24,3251,1707],"class_list":["post-8894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community-news","category-news-posts","tag-christopher-clarke","tag-cobb-park","tag-community","tag-dogwood-trees","tag-dogwoods","tag-festival","tag-liverpool","tag-millennium","tag-queens-county","tag-region-of-queens","tag-region-of-queens-dogwood-festival","tag-stephanie-miller-vincent"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8894"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8894\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8900,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8894\/revisions\/8900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}