Lorrie Dunington-Grubb

Lorrie Alfreda Dunington-Grubb
Lorrie Dunington c. 1900
Born	1877 England
Died	17 January 1945 Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Nationality	British, Canadian
Occupation	Landscape gardener
Known for	Sheridan Nurseries

Lorrie Alfreda Dunington-Grubb (1877 – 17 January 1945) was an English landscape architect. She moved to Canada in 1911 with her husband and business partner Howard Dunington-Grubb where they founded Sheridan Nurseries. She was active in garden design, a writer and a patron of the arts.

Lorrie Alfreda Dunington was born in England in 1877. Her childhood was spent in India, South Africa and Australia. She attended Swanley Horticultural College in England where she studied garden design for two years. After graduating she obtained a position as head gardener of an Irish estate. She formed a partnership with H. Selfe-Leonard, a gardener particularly known for his rock gardens, and they designed gardens throughout Britain. Leonard was a follower of Gertrude Jekyll. Lorrie's love of herbaceous gardens may have come from Leonard, or through meeting with Jekyll herself.

Lorrie had the ambition of becoming a landscape architect. The profession was not taught in England at the time, but she managed to acquire the knowledge through private lessons and technical courses. She opened an office in London and practiced in Britain for several years, gaining a high reputation. In 1910 Lorrie Dunington met Howard Grubb, also a landscape architect, and the two married in the spring on 1911. They combined their surnames to become Mr. and Mrs. Dunington-Grubb.

Howard and Lorrie moved to Toronto in 1911. They quickly became busy with commissions for the boulevards and parks of the Lawrence Park suburb of Toronto, and with private commissions for landscaping the gardens of new homes there. Lorrie Dunington-Grubb worked on her own or with her husband on the design of private and public gardens, garden suburbs and town planning projects. In 1913 they received commissions to prepare plans for the subdivisions of Colvin Park in Buffalo, New York, Oriole Park in Toronto and the Workman's Garden Village for the Riordan Pulp and Paper Company in Hawkesbury, Ontario. In Toronto they also designed the grounds of the Old Mill Tea Room, the Humber Valley Surveys and the 15-acre Chorley Park. Later works included the Rainbow Bridge Gardens and Oakes Garden Theatre in Niagara Falls, Ontario, the McMaster University entrance gardens and Gore Park in Hamilton, Ontario.