Hendrie Park
Hendrie Park has something for everyone. Meandering through its collections, displays and interesting landscape features, the visitor can smell a rose or be challenged by the thought provoking stories in the medicinal garden. This garden truly illustrates the diversity of both plants and garden design. Discover native plants in a cultivated setting, a new look at vegetable gardening and the see the sky reflected on dark water.
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Rose Collection
Peak interest: June to October
The Centennial Rose Garden, which opened in 1967, contains modern hybrid roses that are suitable and hardy for growing in local conditions. The collection displays breeding trends within the genus in particular showcasing the range of colour and form of the flowers. Here you will find roses for every situation in colours that range from pure white, cream, buff, yellows, apricots, oranges, pinks and corals and reds. The center of the garden is devoted to modern roses – hybrid teas, floribundas, and grandifloras.
Bordering the modern roses are beds containing modern shrub roses which bloom repeatedly are fragrant and are winter hardy, hybrid rugosa roses which are able to withstand extreme cold, strong winds and poor soils, Canadian rose introductions bred to withstand extreme Canadian winters, English roses which are notably fragrant and repeat blooming, and old garden roses which are the most fragrant of all roses.
A new feature of the rose garden is the pair of infinity edged reflecting pools with a mix of hardy and tropical water plants. The jewel tones of the water lilies can best be appreciated in late July and August.
Medicinal Garden
Peak interest: April to October
Think of the medication you and your family use in a single year. Have you taken codeine to stop a cough? ASA to ease a headache? Digoxin for heart problems? These are among the many prescribed medications that are derived from plants valued for their medicinal value. Medicines are only one of wealth of beneficial properties derived form plants with important ethnobotanical value for humanity. As a result, the conservation of these plants in the wild and in botanical gardens is of immense value to our species
Each bed in this garden focuses on a particular part of the human body, with plants arranged by the disease they treat. Interpretive materials examine not only the plants and the medicines they yield, but also the health implications of the loss of wild plant species and habitat. Visitors can compare medicinal herbs from various cultures, and see the sources of both ancient traditional medicines and the compounds used in current medical research.
The Medicinal Garden is supported by Ontario 2000 and the Department of Canadian Heritage—Museums Assistance Program.
Lily Collection
Peak interest: June to August
Renovated in 2009/10 our new lily display integrates the collection with a display of popular perennials giving this garden area season long interest. The collection is laid out to reflect the diversity and divisions of the Lilium genus in accordance with the Royal Horticultural Society in the U.K. Within each division you will discover how the efforts of plant breeders have resulted in various breeding trends improving the resilience and vigor of garden lilies. Heritage varieties are also included in the display as heirloom varieties are the seed and pollen parents of modern lilies. These older plants are valuable as they conserve diversity within the genus and retain desirable traits for future breeding. Canadian breeders such as Isabella Preston and William D. Evans are featured. Also included are shade-loving lilies (martagon hybrids), Ontario-natives, and some of the newest Orienpet hybrid lilies.
This collection was developed with the help of the Ontario Regional Lily Society, who continue to play an active role in its ongoing management.
Scented Garden
Peak interest: April to October
An avenue of Chinese flowering dogwood (Cornus kousa) leads you to the Scented Garden, with its traditional stone walls, gravel paths, boxwood edging, and cooling central fountain.
Plant scents can be penetrating or elusive and subtle but touch our lives in many ways. They not only arouse our memory—lilacs are the essence of spring, and fresh-mown hay means the height of summer—but we have long used plants to add fragrance to ourselves and our homes.
Scented plants are often used commercially in the production of perfumes and fragrances. The fragrance produced by some plants is extremely complex. Take lilacs for example. The fragrance is made up of 185 different compounds. As a result, essential oils from lilac flowers are too intricate to reproduce and so lilac perfume in cosmetics is actually derived from extracts of non-related flowers.
The scents and fragrances produced by plants aren’t just for our pleasure alone. Some plants rely on wind or gravity, for pollination but many rely on scent. The fragrance of the flower alerts pollinators such as insects, bats and hummingbirds that the plant is ready to be pollinated. When the animals arrive to collect pollen or nectar the pollen gets transferred. As a result, plants and pollinators often display a long history of mutual evolution.
The Scented Garden explores the range of scents through the use of annuals, perennials and shrubs that produce scented flowers as well as scented, "scratch and sniff" leaves.
Medieval Garden
Peak interest: April to October
Currently under renovation, this garden will feature plants of ethnobotanical value used in medieval times for medicinal, culinary, aromatic and dye purposes. These plants were essential to survive on an everyday basis and predate the many modern synthetic or manufactured products we use today and which in their production may harm the environment. The medieval garden is truly a garden of sustainability and human resilience.
This garden features an analemmatic sundial (the visitor becomes the gnomon and casts the shadow).
The sundial was designed and built with assistance of Dr. Paul Lapp.
The World of Botany
Peak interest: all year
All life depends on plants and the World of Botany explores the science of plant classification and examines a diversity of plant relationships, including ecological, economic, geographical, genetic and the interactions between plants and animals. This diversity of plants along with other life forms is used as measure of the health of our planet. The biodiversity found on the earth today consists of many millions of species and needs to be conserved for our future prosperity. Botanical gardens such as RBG are conserving plants for future generations and a healthy planet.
The design of this garden is based on the first western botanical garden, developed at the university in Padua, Italy, in 1542.
Vines, Climbers and Espaliers Collection
Peak interest: all year
This collection displays the diversity of climbing plants and the adaptations that they use to reach new heights. Most climbers are plants with slender flexible stems and are well adapted to compete with trees and shrubs for sunlight. Rather than having evolved to survive in a shaded understory, vines climb over other plants and objects to position themselves where they can receive more sun. Several diverse climbing mechanisms have evolved such as sticky cups, tiny tendrils, or aerial roots to help them climb up and over other plants.
You'll also find examples of espaliered plants—those pruned and trained to grow against a wall or fence. This technique can be used to influence growth habit, flower production and also utilize space vertically in any garden to pack more into less space.
The Morrison Woodland Garden
Peak interest: all year
Life on the forest floor is a challenge. Intense spring sun is followed by deep summer shade. Around the temperate world, Europe, Japan, and here in southern Ontario, plants adapt in similar ways. Many forest species compress their peak growth and bloom into the short period after spring thaw and before tree leaves block the sun. Later, only shade-tolerant plants (those that can photosynthesize in low light) will thrive. By July, Ontario's native woodland wildflowers have all but disappeared.
Never take your native woodlanders for granted. Plants such as Trillium are highly desirable and sought after plants in places beyond Canada. Sometimes plants such as these become so sought after that plant collectors take plants from the wild and this can seriously reduce and threaten native plant populations. Knowing the provenance of the plants you buy for your garden is very important.
To extend the seasonal interest of this garden, other shade-tolerant plants from the world's temperate forests are included to display the diversity of plants adapted to shade conditions.
A memorial donation by the family of Hamilton physician and surgeon Dr. Roy Edward Morrison assists in the development and maintenance of this garden.
Display Beds
Peak interest: July to September
As part of the horticultural research that takes place within our living laboratory Royal Botanical Gardens partners with the University of Guelph in evaluating new annual plants. These plants are not yet available in the trade and so you can see the latest (and maybe those destined to be the greatest) in new annuals developed by commercial seed companies in our trial beds.
Each year, we receive plants of new cultivars for trial and evaluation under local conditions. The evaluations take place three times during the season and document such things as flower production, colour and form, resistance to pests and diseases and if the plant grows well or not in local conditions. Recent research suggests that the average lifespan of a new cultivar from introduction to being replaced by a superior plant is only five years. As a result, trial plants are added to our herbarium collections for future research and reference before these plants disappear from the horticultural trade forever.
Also featured are the current and recent AAS (All American Selection) winning cultivars of flowers and vegetables.
One feature of, popular with visitors each year, is our annual display of dahlias. Native to Mexico, Central America, and Colombia, dahlias were introduced to the horticultural world in 1872. The eleven groups assigned to the Dahlia genus by Britain’s Royal Horticultural Society are represented.
Colourful displays of annuals can be found throughout the garden. Some are traditional; others are innovative and even provocative. These displays contain annual cultivars that have proven, over many years, to be superior and reliable throughout the entire summer season at the Gardens.
Collection of Canadian-originated Trees
Peak interest: All year
The Gardens purposefully seeks to acquire for its collections many of the varieties of cultivated plants created by Canadian plant breeders. This collection contains cultivars of ornamental trees developed in Canada. Of special interest are several varieties of American elm (Ulmus americana), which are resistant to Dutch elm disease.
Helen M. Kippax Garden
Peak interest: All year Download a pdf of our brochure. The Helen M. Kippax Wild Plant Garden was opened in 2008 thanks to the generosity of Mary Stedman, and her late sisters Margaret and Ruth to celebrate their aunt, Helen M. Kippax, one of the founding members of the Canadian Society for Landscape Architecture. The garden was designed to display how native plants bring beauty, ecological function, biodiversity and sustainability to gardens. In the context of this garden, Royal Botanical Gardens defines a native species as one that was present in Ontario prior to the arrival of European colonists in the 18th century.
Bounded on three sides by the natural lands of the Grindstone Creek Valley, the garden features native trees, shrubs, perennials and grasses and their cultivars, and makes some limited use of cultivated varieties of native plants and ornamentals to add extra colour. Over 135 native species are displayed in plant community zones that represent several local habitats including prairie, oak savannah, Carolinian forest and wetland pond. Turf areas feature Eco-lawn, an environmentally friendly alternative to traditional lawns. The physical setting of the Grindstone Creek valley and tableland is celebrated and incorporated into the layout of the garden through a series of vistas creating a visual and physical dialogue between the garden and the valley. Suitable woodlot edge plants are utilized as an interface between the woodland/valley land and the garden. Rather than seeing the forested valley slopes as a backdrop, this design embraces the forest as an integral part of the garden. In the context of this garden, Royal Botanical Gardens defines a native species as one that was present in Ontario prior to the arrival of European colonists in the 18th century.
The garden design is by Martin Wade Landscape Architects in consultation with native plant gardening advocate and author, Lorraine Johnson.
In the context of this garden, Royal Botanical Gardens defines a native species as one that was present in Ontario prior to the arrival of European colonists in the 18th century.
Veggie Village: 100 Mile produce gardens
Veggie Village is a display garden showcasing the many ways in which you can grow vegetables at home. The garden consists of nine vegetable demonstration plots as well as an interpretive zone where visitors can learn why and how we should all be eating and growing our own local produce. Visitors are encouraged to take the veg pledge, and help us fill our “carrot pledge meter”.
I/we pledge to use locally grown produce in at least one meal a week for a year to help reduce my/our carbon footprint.
Visitors to the garden will find gardening tips and recipes scattered throughout the vegetable plots. They will also see cell phone decals on the interpretive signage which provides visitors with a phone number to call for a self-guided tour.
The 2013 demonstration plot line up is as follows:
Carbon Cycling – This garden illustrates how vegetables fit into the carbon cycle. Vegetables, like all plants, take carbon dioxide from the air and turn it into biomass, a process known as carbon sequestration. In this garden you will find vegetables that sequester large amounts of carbon during their lifecycle.
Grandmother’s Garden – Grandma’s garden features tried and true varieties from days gone by. Inter-planting heritage varieties with flowers, using home-made cold frames, compost bins and trellis, this garden shows visitors how to grow heritage vegetables while reducing their carbon footprint, the old fashioned way.
On the Balcony - Patio - This garden illustrates how to grow local and reduce your carbon footprint while living in a condominium or apartment building. With matching containers and vegetables varieties suited to these containers, this garden shows visitors how to harvest Tomatoes, Cucumbers, herbs and more from their balcony.
On the Balcony with Emma - This garden of “leftovers” shows visitors how to grow vegetables out of any container they can find, such as a rubber boot or an old tire. Emma’s balcony illustrates how anyone can grow their own vegetables and reduce their carbon footprint, with little space and financial investment.
On the Balcony - Textural Terrace - This terrace shows how a large backyard deck/patio with raised wooden containers can be used for growing vegetables. Dense plantings of common vegetables like Kale, Kohlrabi and Fennel illustrates how vegetables can be just as ornamental as bedding plants, whilst providing a bountiful harvest.
Gardens’ Cafe Kitchen Garden – This garden is a “working garden” used by The Gardens’ Café. These vegetables will be used in many dishes served at The Gardens Café this year, particularly during our edible weekend events.
Herbal Delight – This garden illustrates how easy it is to have herbs and spices at your fingertips. With 6 varieties of Mint, 10 varieties of Thyme, 9 varieties of Basil and many other herbs, any meal could be spiced up while keeping your carbon footprint small.
Urban Edibles – This garden shows visitors how to grow “trendy” versions of their favourite vegetables (to impress the neighbours) whilst reducing their carbon footprint. This year look for Quinoa, Stevia and Flax!
Global Garden – This garden showcases those vegetables that are used in various cultures around the world. This year, the focus is on Thai vegetables. Look for Long Beans, Lemon Grass, Bitter Melon and more!
Imagination Grove
Peak Interest: All year
A family friendly garden, the imagination grove has activities for children and parents alike to reconnect with nature and learn respect for cultivated garden spaces. Play a round of hopscotch, find fairies in the maze, measure your height against a leaf or just relax and read a story under the broad canopy of the linden tree.