You been to the RBG recently?

We've been members of the Royal Botanical Gardens for almost 30 years. We went yesterday, in spite of the traffic chaos caused by the closure of the TO bound lanes of the Skyway Bridge, for some quiet time amongst the flowers.

We chose Hendrie Park yesterday (in Aldershot, just over the Grindstone Creek Bridge from York Boulevard) to find that, while the roses are pretty much done, there's lots in bloom.  There's serious construction going on there, too. Footings are being poured, for what I'm not sure. They've also started the major renovations of the Rock Garden which will include a new orientation centre and renovations to the entire garden and the Tea House. And the gardens are far better cared for than has been the case in past years.

It seems they've finally found the money to make the RBG what it always ought to have been: a major tourist draw.

The RBG is most famous for its Lilac Dell which is the world's reference collection of those shrubs, but that's only interesting for a few weeks in the late spring. There are, however, other cultivated gardens like the newly redesigned Laking Perennial Collection. In addition, one can walk  27 km of trails through the various ecosystems within the garden's 2700 acres, that's 11 sq. km, which encompass all of the land around Cootes Paradise, the marsh at the westernmost end of the lake.

Here are a few photos I took in the Hendrie Garden.

A view of the allée leading to the RBG Centre.

Fountain on the path to the themed gardens.

There are two of these infinity reflecting pools.

You can see both of them here. Note the shoes.
Two gardens are in the pools cleaning with a net strainer

Water lilies, about to bloom

These are all echinacea purpurea, Purple Coneflower.
As you can see, they're not all purple.


Text and photos all Copyright © 2014 David S. Fawcett