We're planning a family trip up to Niagara Falls and I'm hoping to get a few hours to visit a botanical garden - can anyone recommend a place close to the Canadian side of Niagara Falls?
Thanks!
where to go around the Canadian side of Niagara Falls
Well I dont know how close you want but the Royal Botanical Gardens are in Hamilton - it really is not all that far from Niagara. But I dont live in Ontario so maybe locals will have some closer suggestions for you.
Here is their website,
http://www.rbg.ca/
I would love to go to the RBG but after looking at their web page I think I better see if I can find some gardening friends to make a day or weekend of it. I know my family - I'll be in Never Never Land and they'll be looking at their watches and whining about lunch. Thanks for bringing this back to my attention!
The botanical gardens in Niagara are lovely. However, I've only seen them in July and August, I don't know what they look like at the moment as the spring flowers around here are just about done, and the summer flowers are just starting and wouldn't be in their prime.
The link with directions etc. http://www.niagaraparks.com/nature/botanical.php
Don't go on a Saturday, you'll run into MANY MANY wedding parties taking photographs. They get in the way of really good flower viewing. Plus, they take up all the parking!!!
Hi Alyrics, I agree with Heavenly. Do check out the Niagara Parks Botanical Gardens which is maintained by the Niagara Parks School of Horticulture. They also have some really nice parks (may be Queen Victoria Park - not sure of the name though) close to the border crossing also with many nice plantings of cannas and other non-hardy plants like hibiscus and lantana. Hopefully they have everything planted by this time of year. Start walking to the right of the border crossing and continue for about 1/2 to 1 hour to see everything. If you are into nature there is also a Butterfly conservatory that is nice to see and a bird exhibit with various tropical birds flying around inside a large conservatory (close to the border crossing/casino). I also heard about a humming bird conservatory in that area also but I haven't been there yet.
Here is a link with some details and other sites to visit. http://www.niagaraparks.com/nature/index.php
Have a great trip!
Well my CA friends, just got back and accidentally followed all your suggestions! We went up to the Butterfly Conservatory at the Niagara Gardens, and although I didn't get to see the whole place, I enjoyed what I did see. I was just at the Chicago Botanical Gardens a week ago and it is always so interesting to see how diverse designers can be with the same pallette of colors and nearly the same ranges of plants. I was shocked to see one huge group planting of chives, all in perfect little purple ball blooms. I let some go one year and I'm still using Round-Up trying to get them out of everything. They must pull them all up as soon as the flowers are almost done - or cut back all the flower heads.
Still they make a lot of bulblets. What else - at the entrance they used midnight blue - almost black planters of all different sizes but the same style and had huge groupings, all filled with solid orange pansies - it was really stunning. The stylized hedges were all neatly clipped and everything looked well cared for. Like ChiBo they used a lot of purple Alliums in their plantings - which I am going to do also. I'll get back over there one day and really take more time.