Elsie Reford

Elsie Reford (née Meighen; January 22, 1872 – November 8, 1967) was a pioneer of Canadian horticulture, creating one of the largest private gardens in Canada on her estate, Estevan Lodge, in eastern Quebec.

Coming from modest backgrounds themselves, Reford’s parents ensured that their children received a good education.

They both loved the outdoors and they spent several weeks a year in a log cabin they built at Lac Caribou, south of Rimouski.

She believed it important that the women become involved in debates over the great issues of the day, "something beyond the local gossip of the hour".

Her acquaintance with Lord Grey, the Governor-General of Canada from 1904 to 1911, led to her involvement in organizing, in 1908, Quebec City’s tercentennial celebrations.

After the war, she was active in the Victorian Order of Nurses, the Montreal Council of Social Agencies, and the National Association of Conservative Women.

In 1925 at the age of 53 years, Reford was operated for appendicitis and during her convalescence, her doctor counselled against fishing, fearing that she did not have the strength to return to the river.

To counteract nature’s deficiencies, she created soil for each of the plants she had selected, bringing peat and sand from nearby farms.