Garden day trips in Southern Ontario
If you are considering garden day trips this summer, you'll find plenty of interesting gardens to tour in southern Ontario.
We live in a horticulturally rich region, and Patricia Singer's book, Great Gardens to Visit: A Guide to Ontario's Outstanding Private Gardens, is a well-illustrated guidebook.
Covering the entire province, and divided into Ontario tourism regions, the book provides detailed descriptions of private gardens that welcome visitors. Included is contact information to arrange your garden day trips. Our garden is listed - see page 87.
Why plant a wildflower meadow?
Photo: © Y.Cunnington
Canning Perennials - Chris Lepard's eight-acre garden is located outside Paris, Ont. The grounds of this boutique nursery are well worth garden day trips in spring and summer.
Chris has a terrific eye for plant combinations and integrating ornamental grasses into her plantings. Her gardens feature alpine plantings, trough displays, water features and extensive perennial borders.
A selection of choice plants is for sale from spring into mid-August. Garden tours are free. Phytosanitary certificates available for American plant shoppers. Open from April 24th, seven days a week, 9 am to 5 pm. Closed for the season after mid-August.
Trails End Iris Gardens - Bob and Ann Granatier have been living on their country property in the Brantford area for almost a decade. They moved there to pursue their love of gardening and to develop their business, Trails End Iris Gardens.
Visit their website for open house dates in May and June, and buy quality iris varieties directly from the grower - over 5,000 plants and 250+ award winning varieties.
Royal Botanical Gardens - Hamilton, Burlington, Ont. RBG is a popular destination for garden day trips. Includes five major garden areas, four nature sanctuaries and 30 kilometers of walking trails.
Click on RBG's website to find out what's in bloom. You can make a stop at one of the garden areas - the rock garden, rose garden, Laking Garden perennial displays or arboretum and Nature Center - or, even better, spend a day exploring all that the RBG has to offer.
RBG Centre is open year-round, daily, 9 a.m. to dusk, (closed December 25 and January 1). All outdoor gardens: seasonal, daily, 9:30 a.m. to dusk. Mediterranean Garden located at RBG Center: year-round, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The Potting Shed - Dunneville, Ont. Jack Kent is an enthusiastic hybridizer of daylilies, which he sells at his nursery, in addition to an extensive selection of hosta and peony cultivars and ornamental grasses.
He recently moved his nursery from Cayuga to Dunneville, and this season his colorful display gardens will be more established. They are well worth a visit in mid-summer, when the daylilies are in full bloom.
The Potting Shed is open seven days a week from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm - May 1 to Sept. 30, including holidays.
Celtic Dream Garden - Vinemount, Ont. Generally, garden day trips are a bit dull for kids, but this is one garden that's sure to appeal to the younger set.
Tolkien's Middle Earth doesn't seem far-fetched at Bryce and Jennifer Weylie's four-acre country garden, which is located a 30-minute drive west of Hamilton, heading towards the Niagara region.
The property is punctuated by the fantastical twig structures, often clad with clematis and other vines, that Bryce fashions himself. Towards the back, huge twig castles and forts create a magical atmosphere.
Bryce and Jennifer have created large beds of perennials and ornamental grasses, into which they have incorporated numerous choice and often rare trees and shrubs. Twig garden accents and hypertufa creations for sale.
Hours - May to July: Tuesday to Sunday 10-4 pm. Aug. to Oct. - Weekdays by appointment, Weekends, 10-4 pm.
Rainbow Acres - At Harvey and Diane Carver's Rainbow Acres Mount Hope Daylily Farm, just outside Hamilton, you can take a walk through gardens of over 1,000 varieties of daylilies, iris and lilies.
Plenty of plants for sale, but there is no website yet, so call for more information:(905) 679-4205. Location: 8211 White Church Rd. East, Mount Hope, On., L0R 1W0.
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