Walsh Craig receives Fellow Award from IPPS

EPeggy Walsh Craig of the Canadian Ornamental Plant Foundation receives the Fellow Award from the IPPS Eastern Region recently in Cleveland, OH. Photo provided.

International Plant Propagators’ Society
News Release

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Peggy Walsh Craig was recently elected as a Fellow of the Eastern Region of the International Plant Propagators’ Society at their annual meeting in Cleveland, OH. The Fellows Award is an honor the Region awards to its members for exceptional service to the Society and to the advancement of the field of propagation and production.

An IPPS member since 1979, Walsh Craig has contributed unselfishly to IPPS. She has served on numerous committees, most notably Long Range Planning and as Chair of the Publicity Committee. She has assisted in arranging area meetings, coordinated tours and presented papers at annual meetings. She currently sits on the Eastern Region Board of Directors, a three-year term of service.
As Peggy frequently has told growers, “You should belong to IPPS! It’s the very best organization in the business for production and propagation information.”

Since 1991 Walsh Craig has been the Managing Director of the Canadian Ornamental Plant Foundation (COPF). The Foundation serves to provide effective solutions in the management of propagation rights to growers and breeders for the benefit of the industry.
Peggy works to educate the ornamentals industry both inside and outside Canada about plant patents and Canadian Plant Breeders’ Rights. Under Peggy’s direction of COPF, gross royalty income for ornamental plant breeders grew by 500% as she turned a fledgling entity into a world-class organization.

After graduating from the University of Guelph in horticulture in 1976, Walsh Craig worked for 10 years in wholesale nurseries in southern Ontario. She helped grow, sell and ship tens of thousands of trees and shrubs. She also worked at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Hamilton, Ontario for a year as a Plant Records Technician. Walsh Craig has published over 100 articles in trade journals and gardening magazines.

Walsh Craig has been involved in the North Bay Ontario area promoting environmental issues for the past two decades through these organizations: Nipissing Environmental Watch (NEW), the Waste Resources Liaison, Sustainable Communities and Pesticide Advisory Committees of the City of North Bay, Greater Nipissing Stewardship Council, Nipissing Botanical Gardens, and North Bay Blooms. She has worked on numerous conservation and preservation issues. Peggy’s daughter Mariah states that her mother “has always been ahead of her time when it comes to being environmentally friendly”.

The International Plant Propagators’ Society is a non-profit organization of nearly 2500 members organized into eight separate regions around the world. The membership is made up of those with a professional interest in plant propagation and production from businesses, colleges and universities, botanic gardens and arboreta. The motto of this non-commercial organization is “To Seek and To Share” knowledge and experience in plant propagation and production.

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