Viva Chorale

06/17/2026

The Fern Collectors - A Choral Concert
"Very Much looking forward to this concert! It's one of the most unusual programs I've put together so far. It's designed around a FERN FAD that took for the UK circa 1850-1900. I've added direct transitions between pieces including Canadian folk, Choral gems like Elgar's "My love dwelt in a northern land" and the Podd Brothers arrangement of "More waters Rising" - Come Check it out!! This weekend!!" Caroni Young, Artistic Director

This concert is NOT a collection of songs about ferns! There is something for everyone. And every song does somehow have a link, however tenuous, to a specific fern!

Concert venue: All Saints by-the-Sea, 110 Park Drive, Salt Spring Island
Concert times: Saturday June 20th at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday June 21st at 2:00 p.m.
Tickets: $30 for adults, $5 for youth (18 and under), available online via this link, or by cash at Apple Photo or at the door.

https://www.canadahelps.org/en/charities/Viva-Chorale-Society-Salt-Spring-Island/events/the-fern-collectors-choral-concert/

06/12/2026

Tickets are now on sale for our concerts on Sat-Sun June 20-21 "The Fern Collectors"!

This concert is NOT a collection of songs about ferns! Our repertoire is varied, from classical choral gems to folk music of the fun and fanciful. There is something for everyone. And every song does somehow have a link, however tenuous, to a specific fern!

Viva Chorale! choir is directed by Caroni Young, and accompanied by Patricia Flannagan.

Concert venue: All Saints by-the-Sea, 110 Park Drive, Salt Spring Island.

Concert times: Saturday June 20th at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday June 21st at 2:00 p.m.

Tickets: $30 for adults, $5 for youth (18 and under), available online via this link, or by cash at Apple Photo or at the door.

https://www.canadahelps.org/en/charities/Viva-Chorale-Society-Salt-Spring-Island/events/the-fern-collectors-choral-concert/

06/08/2026

The Fern Collectors! Get your tickets NOW!
Join Viva Chorale as they delve into the wild world of Pteridomania, the 19th century fad that swept through the U.K and the U.S. and caused the public from all walks of life to develop a fantastic case of Fern Fever! Here on Salt Spring we take the abundance of ferns for granted, in fact they are so common we would be hard pressed to find a stretch of forest without ferns.

In the mid 1800’s fern fever was all the rage! Fern collecting holidays were quite common and books for collectors and cultivators were widespread. It was quite common for the average family to have a special fern case in their living room! Fern patterned pottery, iron work, wallpaper and various Fern inspired items hit the shelves! Some Industrious folks would pick ferns in the morning and have them shipped to the big cities to sell in the afternoon.

Fern collecting became so popular that in many areas of the UK the act of fern collecting had to be banned as some varieties were becoming extinct!

However, this concert is NOT a collection of songs about ferns! Our repertoire is varied, from classical choral gems to folk music of the fun and fanciful. There is something for everyone. And every song does somehow have a link, however tenuous, to a specific fern! Can you guess which?! Be prepared to step into the role of Fern Collector as you pay close attention to our varied repertoire and seek to find the ferns referenced within. This interactive concert may cause you to suddenly stop on your walk, to peer intently into the nearest ditch, to look way up to the side of a mossy maple and suddenly develop a case of Fern Fever!

Viva Chorale! choir is directed by Caroni Young and accompanied by Patricia Flannagan.

Concert venue: All Saints by-the-Sea, 110 Park Drive, Salt Spring Island

Concert times: Saturday, June 20th at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, June 21st at 2:00 p.m.

Tickets: $30 for adults, $5 for youth (18 and under), available online via this link, or by cash at Apple Photo or at the door.

https://www.canadahelps.org/en/charities/Viva-Chorale-Society-Salt-Spring-Island/events/the-fern-collectors-choral-concert/

05/25/2026

Our Fern Collectors' concert is getting close! Although it is not a collection of songs about ferns, every song does somehow have a link, however tenuous, to a specific fern.

Here is an image of a Deer Fern aka Blechnum spicant:
"You walk two ways:
one frond reaching skyward, one keeping close to earth.
Teach us how to grow without forgetting
where our roots still drink."

04/27/2026

The Fern Collectors - Choral Concert:
Sword Fern - Polystichum munitum
Guardian of the forest edge,
you stand where paths begin and end.
Teach us strength that shelters
and constancy that does not harden.

Photo credit: Anthony Mensah on Unsplash

04/09/2026

Where the Ferns Remember

In the shaded ravines of Salt Spring
the ferns unscroll their ancient prayers—
green scripts written before fences,
before names were fixed to maps.

They rise where water moves slowly,
where stone keeps the memory of rain,
each frond a listening ear
to footsteps long gone.

Hands once gathered them gently,
or not gently enough,
yet still they return—
keepers of shade, of patience, of place.

Blessed are the ferns of the islands:
rooted in shadow, faithful to damp earth,
teaching us how to belong
without needing to be taken.

03/23/2026

Who collected ferns on Salt Spring & nearby islands?
Settlers & island naturalists: Early settlers, teachers, and clergy collected ferns as part of natural history study.
Pressed fern albums were common in island homes.
Specimens were often mailed to Victoria, Vancouver, and eastern Canada

Women played a key role: fern collecting was considered a “proper” scientific hobby; many women corresponded with botanists but were rarely credited.

Victoria-based botanists & institutions: Salt Spring and the Gulf Islands were frequent field destinations for members of the Victoria Natural History Society (founded 1884) and collectors supplying specimens to the Provincial Museum (later the Royal BC Museum)
universities and British herbaria.

Day trips by boat made the islands ideal collecting grounds.

03/21/2026

BC residents - here's an easy way to support Viva Chorale community choir! Buy raffle tickets for a chance to win up to $2,000! Our choir gets 60% of ticket sales through this link, and we really appreciate your support!!
https://bccf.rafflenexus.com/a/viva-chorale

03/16/2026

Victorian Fern Fever! Check it out!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hIHpvhxP18

Pteridomania, also known as Victorian Fern Fever, or Fern Madness, swept across Victorian England and almost wiped out an entire plant group. In this episode...

03/09/2026

The Fern Collectors: The Gulf Islands attracted fern collectors c. 1870s-1910s. Salt Spring Island and the surrounding Gulf Islands sit at a botanical crossroads of coastal Douglas Fir forests, Garry Oak meadows, and shaded ravines, sandstone bluffs, and moist shoreline forests. This diversity made the islands especially attractive to Victorian-era naturalists seeking unusual and abundant fern species within easy reach of Victoria.

Conservation awakening: By the early 1900s, overharvesting of ferns raised alarm. Strathcona Provincial Park (1911) helped protect key habitats. Fern collecting shifted from extraction to study and appreciation.

Today, evidence of the fern-collecting era (1840s-1910s) is found at the Royal BC Museum Herbarium, UBC Herbarium, and the National Herbarium of Canada.

Photo credit: thorsten-hack-q-u1ATikHTI-unsplash