Fertile giants
Tree ferns rise on Top 5 list of gardens: Mark Cullen,
We are now weeks into the winter season. It is time to dream.
Canadian gardeners are up there amongst world-class winter dreamers since we have such a long season to indulge. With this in mind, I have some suggestions for your possible travel plans. Whenever I visit a city for the first time, I Google the local public gardens to see what’s out there. I’m surprised quite often by what I find. For instance: Trebah Garden, Cornwall, England: I look to gardens to be inspired, and to learn: How does the hand of man partner with Mother Nature to create space that gets me off the park bench, draws me in and exploring every corner?
Trebah is pure magic. While it is a relatively small public garden of 26 acres, the land rolls from the top of a hill down more than 60 metres to the English Channel. There, the garden meets the beach of Falmouth Bay. I have been to Trebah four times and each visit opens my eyes to new possibilities.
It helps that this garden has a deep pedigree. Once the land was settled by a Mennonite family in the 1860s, the transformation of it began in earnest. When the owners travelled into London, they would acquire Australian tree ferns available for cheap at the dock yards. The ferns were used as ballast in ships returning from Australia and now, more than 150 years later, there is the most remarkable forest of giant tree ferns growing at Trebah. Standing under them helps you understand what it is to be a garden toad, looking at the world through the filter of evergreen fern foliage. trebahgarden.co.uk Kew Gardens, London, England: This is one of the oldest botanical gardens on the planet and, with 30,000 living plants, it is the largest collection in the world. Kew has more impact on your life than you likely know. Consider that more than 30 per cent of all modern medicine is plant-based and that Kew employs more than 300 full-time medical research staff and owns the world’s deepest and oldest collection of seeds. All of this means nothing to the casual visitor since it all happens behind the scenes.
But the scenes you do encounter when you visit Kew are well worth the trip. You can stroll the grounds for hours without repeating steps, lounge under the massive, centuries-old trees and stop to smell the roses or stroll through their famous greenhouses. And you can do this most any time of year. I was there a month ago, in early December, and thoroughly enjoyed myself. I recommend that you book a tour of some of the back spaces of the place to really make your investment of time worthwhile. It’s also accessible by subway, or the tube. kew.org Brooklyn Botanic Gardens, New York: I have read about this place forever but to see it, as I finally did last year for the first time, was incredible. This garden demonstrates how much we can do with a small, urban property. Somehow they fit extensive greenhouses, demonstration gardens, a horticultural school, perennial borders and an educational garden to demonstrate the connections between man and nature through the gardening experience into a handful of acres, in the middle of the most populated borough in New York. You can reach this garden by subway, too; easy peasy. Try not to rush your time there. bbg.org Toronto Music Garden: Lucky for those of us in the GTA, that we don’t have to travel far to find an extraordinary public garden. In Toronto, we have a marvellous garden on a mere two acres, right on the banks of Lake Ontario and overlooking the Toronto harbour with a clear view of Toronto Island. It’s the perfect place to sit and contemplate the good fortune of being a Torontonian. This garden was originally designed for installation in Boston, but that city could not make it happen. Their loss is our gain. It is free to visit and now that the extensive street construction is mostly over on Queens Quay, we can drink it all in to the sound of seagulls soaring in the sky above. harbourfrontcentre.com Royal Botanical Gardens and Montreal Botanical Gardens: This is like having twins and trying to choose which one you like the most. I love them equally, but for different reasons (because each is unique in its own way!).
The Royal Botanical Garden is massive in scale, suburban, and has extensive elements that hold appeal for everyone. Want a walking trail into the wilderness? A formal rose garden? Extensive perennial borders? A place for a wedding, or to teach your kids how food is grown? It is all there in its formal and casual presentation. This year marks the grand reopening of the famous rock garden. Don’t miss it. rbg.ca
The public grounds at Montreal Botanical Gardens are worth a special trip to that city. This garden is so much more than a garden, but a great garden it most certainly is! Beautifully themed, it takes you on a breathtaking botanical journey as you walk from one section to another along a path. Look for special events each season. espacepourlavie.ca/en/ botanical-garden Mark Cullen is an expert gardener, author, broadcaster and garden editor of Reno & Decor magazine. Watch him on CTV Canada AM every Wednesday at 8:45 a.m. Email him at groundskeeper@markcullen.com. Follow him on Twitter @MarkCullen4 and Facebook.