Royal Botanical Gardens

Centennial Rose Garden

Peak interest: June to October

Rose Garden Rejuvenation

We can’t wait to present our rejuvenated Rose Garden, OPENING SUMMER 2018.

Click here to read more about the project and to see an artist's render of the final product.

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 from 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

The 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

This garden features plants of ethnobotanical value used in medieval times for medicinal, culinary, aromatic and dye purposes. These plants predate the many modern synthetic products we use today and were essential to survival in medieval times. 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.

The Global Garden: Plant Treasures of the New and Old Worlds

Celebrate the plants of the Pan Am countries, and learn about their impacts on the rest of the world. This new garden opens on June 21, 2015 at 5:30 p.m. as the Pan Am Torch Relay visits RBG.

Each region of the world has useful plants deeply rooted in its culture. Plants native to the Pan American region sustained cultures and civilizations for millennia, but after colonization, many were introduced to Europe. As they were assimilated into the Old World, these plants changed cultures and economies, and drove the first wave of globalization. This garden compares and contrasts the useful plants of the Old and New Worlds, reinforcing the message that our lives depend upon a whole world of plants.

Watch for special programming focused on this garden throughout July.

The Global Garden has been developed with the support of the Ontario Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Sport.

Trials Garden

Each summer we partner with University of Guelph to trial (“try out”) new cultivated varieties of annuals. The Plant Agriculture Department receives seed from plant breeders, and produces seedlings which are distributed to several sites across southern Ontario. These are planted and as they grow, they are evaluated to see how they perform in our climate and soils. Evaluation criteria include features like the number of blooms, condition of foliage, and overall landscape impact. Depending on how well they perform, these cultivars may become available commercially.

Come visit the Trials Garden, and then go online and vote for your favourites!

Collection of Canadian-originated Trees

Peak interest: All year

This Gardens collection showcases many 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

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 along with their cultivars 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.

The garden was originally designed by Martin Wade Landscape Architects in consultation with native plant gardening advocate and author, Lorraine Johnson.

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.

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.

Rose Circle

The Rose circle is a burst of colour all summer with its dense planting of Roses intermixed with perennial grasses. Rosa 'RadSunny' is showcased here and is part of The Knock Out® family of roses, known for their ease of care, disease resistance and generous bloom cycle.

Reflecting Pools

Installed in 2007, the pair of infinity edged reflecting pools are planted 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.

Prehistoric Grove

Go back in time with this planting of living fossils. This grove features plants that were once thought to be extinct but have since been re-discovered and brought into cultivation. This planting showcases Metasequoia (Dawn Redwood), Ginkgo (Ginkgo) and Sciadopitys (Japanese Umbrella-pine) species and their cultivars.

All America Selections

Royal Botanical Gardens is one of a select group of prestigious public gardens that displays the All-America Selections (AAS), plants vetted by an independent plant trialing and award program. AAS works with the world’s most prominent breeders to trial their best new varieties and have the plants rated by independent horticulture experts. Only the best performers are declared AAS Winners.

We have been displaying AAS winners at RBG since 1971. The flowers and vegetables grown in our AAS display area in Hendrie Park are reliable new varieties that have proven their superior garden performance across North America and are available at your local garden retailer or from your favorite online seed source.

The 200 AAS Display Gardens are also invited to enter their display in a Landscape Design contest, and in 2014, our AAS Display was one of the winners! Drop by our 2015 AAS design entry when you visit – it’s right next to our new Global Garden.

Narcissus Collection

Daffodils are divided into 13 horticultural divisions based on characteristics such as the number of flowers per stem and flower type. The 10, 000 Daffodils planted in this collection show the diversity of all 13 divisions.

Natives of Europe, North Africa, and western Asia, these hardy plants need a good cold winter for root development, making our region a perfect fit. Need another reason to plant them? Daffodils are unappealing to deer, who love to feast on other bulb plants. So, if growing Tulips just supports your local deer population, try Daffodils instead. After centuries of breeding, there is a daffodil for virtually every purpose; you can cut them, pot them, add them to borders and rock gardens, and plant them right in your lawn (like we did). Though some like moist soil and others prefer dry, they all live the sun.

Installed in the fall of 2011, this collection was made possible by an anonymous donor.

White Garden

The White Garden celebrates plants…in monochrome! This garden features plants with white flowers, berries, foliage or bark. The central grass area provides a tranquil venue for relaxing, enjoying the beauty around you and if you time it right, listening to live music in the garden.