J T Int tianal Goodwill Garden and the English Garden in mm. 1955. WPRD. Victoria's Diamond Jubilee. Prior to being moved to Assiniboine Park, it had stood in front of the old City Hall. After its placement at the entrance to the English Garden, the fountain statue became an integral part of the park, but also an irresistible temptation toEpranksters. At least once a year since then the bronze boot has been stolen, leaving the boy to stare soulfully at his empty hand. The boot almost always turns up again and is easily remoufled, but if a new one has to be cast, it no costs almost $2,000.12 As for the English Garden itself, George Champion had originally designed and 5E- pervised the plaEting in 1927 and 1923.8 and probably had a plan on paper for itf'How- ever, successive garfinersjhfii changed it to suit their own tastes. When Assigiboine Park Superintendent Hector Macdonald gave an interview to the Winnipeg Tribune in 1959, he was quite adamant that there was no plan for the garden and he reported great diffi- culty in convincing visiting landscape archi- tects that this was the case. 1'The idea is con- trast, that’s all,” he said. ”...bright, light col- ors in the distance, darker colors for the rear views. The size of the place, three acres, with the wonderful treejbackground, softens the whole mass into a pleasing blend. That’s all we do.”13 Though the Edinburgh -trained Macdonald was making a difficult task sound easy, his attitude does suggest that the approach of the board's gardening staff to this garden was based more on horticultural craft and experience than on adherence to a previous design. European and British trained gardeners had been the mainstay of the board‘s staff since the beginning and the board relied on their expertise. By the 1950s, it was getting £2? we a WMEE IQ-flo more difficult to replace retiring gardeners like E. F. Ball, who had, themselves, been able to train the more junior gardeners and labour- ers. Fran} Ball had been with the board since 1920 and retired in 1954. It was he who per- sonally laid out the formal flower beds at City Hall and other civic properties, often incorpo- rating special cEIebratory elements. 1:1 1953 he had wgrked out a crown and the initials "ER" in flowers agCity Hall to honour Queen Eliza- beth’s coronation. No Canadian university or training school at that time had programs that produced similarly qualified gardeners. The board had to resort to stopgap measures in or- der to train staff. One of these was to offer two and—a—half day horticulture workshops for park keepers at the University of Mani- toba. One feature of the horticultural life of Winnipeg that happily seemed to f’esist change, however, was the annual fall Chrysan- themum show at the Assiniboine Park conser- vatory. It was still well attended and was one of those events by which Winnipeggers marked the change of seasons. Neighbourhood parks languished during the 19595. Many of their buildings dated back to the turn of the century and were badly in need of replacement. King Edward Park was extended and refurbished. St. Vital Park was used, throughout the decade, as a day camp- ing park but it still had no sewer or water ser- vice. Day camping was a valuable service but