Our first garden, initially planted in 1972, the Perennial Border was designed to lead visitors to our field centre. Perennial borders are traditionally used to bring adornment to an otherwise uninteresting space. As such, perennial borders often run parallel with fence lines, edges of properties, or, in our case, a parking lot.

Here we had an opportunity to transform an exposed spot in the landscape into a festival of flowers with a border of sun-worshipping perennials. We added color and interest to this area by mixing perennial varieties with different bloom height, color and flowering times. For example, the upright stalks of blue Monkshood mixed with the standard Garden Phlox in pink and white add vertical interest in mid-season while the early blue-to-pink blooms of Lungwort are mixed with the yellow daisy-like flowers of Leopard’s Bane for early spring color.

With the addition of some summer annuals, all these sturdy perennials work together to provide a full growing season of constant color. 

Who would believe we could grow Asian plants in Newfoundland?

It is actually not that surprising when you consider that our climate is quite similar to northern Japan and southeastern Russia. Many popular garden plants have their origins in Asia - Lilac, Weigela, Hydrangea, old-fashioned Bleeding Heart, and Oriental Lilies, just to name a few. As exotic as Asian plants seem, several of them have been growing in Newfoundland gardens for over 100 years. The old-fashioned rugose or wild rose, so popular in many Newfoundland outports, is actually native to beaches of Far East Asia.

The plants growing in the Asian garden, as well as elsewhere in the Botanical Garden, are mostly species, not fancy hybrids; it’s one feature that separates a botanical garden from a public garden. From mid-May to mid-June this garden features primroses; by the end of June it’s the Himalayan blue poppies that steal the show, while in late summer oriental lilies and hydrangeas come into their own.

The shade garden was begun in 1998 and has been added to just about every year since then. Originally intended to showcase shade tolerant plants, the design changed a little after a couple of hurricanes blew down several of our mature trees. Now as a shade garden with sunny spots, we can grow just about any hardy perennial here. The backbone of this garden is our Hosta collection. With 25 varieties and up to 9 plants of each, that’s a lot of Hostas. Many other plants in our shade garden catch visitors' interest, such as the early flowering Hellebores, the many species of ferns, and of course the Himalayan blue poppies.

Never did we think back in 1971 when this land was first secured to develop our botanical garden that this old country road you are now walking on would lead so many thousands through this space.

When land was first secured for the Garden, this road was a common passage for local berry pickers and trouters heading to Oxen Pond to wet their line.

Many years ago the land around Oxen Pond held several year round homesteads but by the early 70’s those families had moved on to more modern living within St. John’s and beyond. Early work for our garden staff included clearing the site of abandoned homesteads, out buildings, and even rusting old cars whose purpose for travel had long since expired.

As you stroll along look to your right to see Rhododendrons planted in those early days. Probably the tallest rhodies in Newfoundland to date, these broadleaf evergreens now stretch into the coniferous canopy.

Of course you’ll want to visit the main flower gardens as you make your way down the hill, but after you’re done there, be sure to follow this old country road to Oxen Pond proper, and then go further on to discover the deep woods, bogs, fens, and rocky outcrops, all designed to display the natural side of the Botanical Garden    

This sheltered hideaway is a wonderful place to sit and take in the sights and fragrance of the roughly 200 different plants growing here. When construction began in 1984 the soil was quite rocky, but 30 years of good soil management, mainly picking out rocks and digging in organic matter, has produced a good soil base. This cottage, or country, garden with its archways, trellis, dry stone wall, and informal groupings of plants is a replica of the gardens common in the yards of homes in earlier England and eastern North America.

It has evolved into a gardener’s delight, where one can enjoy a wide diversity of plants from the white balls of the drumstick primrose to the massive blue spikes of the milky bellflower. Several flowering trees and shrubs, such as flowering crab, lilac, golden chain, and ninebark complement the other plants and add some height and a sense of permanency to the garden.

Cottage gardens were usually planted with “starts” or “slips” from family or friends, so they become a garden of memories as well as a place of peace and relaxation.

Newfoundland is the only place in the world to have naturally occurring limestone barrens. These barrens are located as a thin strip along the west coast of the Great Northern Peninsula. This area is home to over 100 provincially rare plants, including three endemic plants found nowhere else on earth.

The limestone scree located here is a representation of our limestone barrens so visitors can get a sense of what the barrens are like. All plants in this area are native to our limestone barrens. They may be small and not particularly showy, but such is the nature of these arctic-alpine plants. June is the main month of blooms. The adjacent limestone rock garden features several yellow lady slipper orchids. These are among the most showiest plants of Newfoundland`s limestone barrens.

This section of our rock garden is known as the old part, as it was constructed in 1972 in the traditional style: a sloped bank located in full sun, built up with rocks and a series of little terraces to represent a mountainside. The rocks are fairly small, as rocks go, and were placed by hand. The area was filled with a well-drained mix of screened topsoil, leafmold, and coarse sand, and then mulched with chip stone, about 1 inch thick. The south end was made into a scree garden, which is a reproduction of a talus slope or that pile of rocks at the base of a mountain. There is little real soil in a scree, and the plants growing there are usually deeply rooted with long tap roots.

The newer section has 2 distinct features - a limestone garden and a mountain gully with a stream. The limestone rock garden, built in 1989, is constructed with limestone rock from a quarry in Corner Brook. In this bed we grow lime-loving alpines that need the sweet soil found here. Many native plants, mostly from the west coast, are grown, such as yellow lady slipper, pussytoes, and dwarf willows. The main difference between the mountain gully and our other rock garden sections is the size of the rocks. These rocks are quite large, some the size of small cars, and were placed using heavy equipment and plenty of elbow grease. A small pool, stream, and a series of small waterfalls were added in 1995. Most of the plants in these gardens are true alpines, well suited to the harsh, windswept life above the treeline. With their low, tufted habit and tough foliage they survive where many plants would not.

From a horticultural point of view, Rhododendrons are considered the most important group of ornamental flowering shrubs. Rhododendrons are the single largest collection of plants we grow at the Garden, with over 200 different types being grown here. Our rhododendron collection is scattered throughout the Garden but are concentrated along this border, in the peat garden, and the rhododendron dell. The rhododendrons along this border were planted in the late 1980s, so are among the oldest and hence largest sized in the Garden.

Several of the rhododendrons in this border are hybrids that were developed at the Kentville Agricultural Station in Nova Scotia. As they were never released into the nursery trade, our Botanical Garden, as well as a few sites in Nova Scotia, are the only places where you can see these unique hybrids.

Peat is an important and common feature of the Newfoundland environment. Its potential in horticulture and landscaping is well illustrated in our peat garden. This garden was built in 1976 from locally-cut peat blocks and filled with a mixture of shredded peat, leafmold, and coarse sand at a ratio of 5:2:1. This low nutrient, acidic, moisture-retentive mix contains no mineral soil yet supports the over 250 plants growing here. Many native plants, such as rhodora, bog rosemary, and Labrador tea flourish, while ornamentals such as the 30 or so varieties of rhododendron also prosper.

Established in 1983, the woodland garden occupies a gentle slope that was originally forested with balsam fir and white spruce. Unlike its neighbour, the peat garden, this bed has a fairly nutrient-rich soil base, comprised of topsoil, leafmold, compost, and sand. Organic matter in the form of leafmold mulch is added every year in late spring and carefully dug in the next year. Although we have lost many of the tall conifers intended to provide the light shade associated with forest-dwelling plants, most of the 100 or so species have survived.

The first plants to flower in this garden are snowdrops and winter aoconite, usually before the snow is gone. The dozen varieties of primrose put on a great show, blooming from spring to mid-summer. The small, stone-edged pools are surrounded by marsh marigolds and the huge leaves of the Japanese butterbur.

Did you know that ferns are among the most ancient plants on earth? They date back to the Carboniferous Period, about 359 million years ago. They even predate the dinosaurs! So it’s not surprising that ferns are considered primitive plants. Ferns do not produce flowers or seeds, rather they reproduce by microscopic spores that blow in the wind. Newfoundland and Labrador has an impressive 50 species of native ferns.

Gardeners have had a fascination with ferns for well over 150 years. During the Victorian era, British gardeners experienced Pteridomania or a fern-craze. They travelled all over the British Isles looking for unusual varieties of ferns.  Many of their fern discoveries are still in existence today. In modern gardens ferns are often underutilized, but they are very useful in shady areas. There is a surprising diversity among ferns – some are lacy and fine textured, while others are more coarse and bold. They blend beautifully with other shade loving plants, such as hosta, violets, and bleeding hearts.  The ferns in our fern alley are a combination of both native species and those from other parts of the world.

This is quite a new garden, installed in 2014. That is why all the rhododendrons here are quite small compared to those elsewhere in the Botanical Garden. Most of the rhododendrons growing here are either hybrids that were developed at the Botanical Garden or wild species rhododendrons. While most commercially available rhododendrons are grown from cuttings, all of the plants growing here were grown from seed. It can take 10 years or more for a rhododendron to bloom when grown from seed. The hybrids here are one-of-a-kind and not yet available in the nursery trade. In essence, this is a trial bed to determine which of our made-in-Newfoundland hybrids might be suitable for release into local markets.

Scattered among the rhododendrons are azaleas. Did you know that botanically speaking azaleas are, in fact, a type of rhododendron? In essence, they are simply leaf-losing rhododendrons.

This living fossil was discovered in 1994 in a remote valley of the Blue Mountains in New South Wales, Australia. Thought to be extinct, this tree was only known from fossil records dating back to the Cretaceous Period, some 90 million years ago.

Wollemi Pine is not a true pine at all, but is a relative of the Norfolk Island Pine and Monkey Puzzle Tree, both of the Araucaria family. Rather than needles, it has flattened, thin leaves that look almost fern-like.

In the wild, it grows to about 40 meters, often multi-trunked.

Due to the extreme rarity of this species, the current wild population consisting of only about 100 trees, the actual location has never been disclosed to the public. Rare means valuable, and the black market on rare plants is worth millions. Therefore conservationists quickly realized a potential crisis and researched how to successfully propagate this rarity. Eventually small numbers were distributed to other botanical gardens. Our plant came to us as a young plant through a generous donation from a Friend of the Garden.

The Wollemi can regenerate new growth if the main plant is damaged. This may have been the feature that allowed it to survive into modern times. In the wilds of Australia it grows in a natural sub-tropical climate. Ours may spend the warm months of summer and early fall outside, but is moved inside to a cool greenhouse to overwinter, protecting it from our extreme cold.

It is well known the importance of a healthy and thriving insect population in our gardens. Bees, butterflies, and many other insects provide an important function by pollinating our flowering plants, therefore completing the cycle from flower to seed and then to new plants the following year. However, with many of today’s modern hybrids being sterile, the need for good nectaring plants in today’s garden is critical.  

Take a stroll through this collection. See many plants whose color is specifically designed to attract flying insects. Many of the plants here are common wild flowers from Newfoundland and Labrador mixed with plants from other temperate climates around the world. Red Bee Balm, Orange Rudbeckia, Blue Monkshood, and Purple Aster, all work together to provide a buffet for any passing insect.   

Heaths and Heathers, Dianthus, Buddleia, aka, The Butterfly Bush, plus a water feature that rounds out this complete garden ecosystem, all work together to complete the natural cycle for the garden year. Even the log archway provides shelter for overwintering insects and small mammals.

We, us humans, are attracted to flowers for obvious reasons. They are beautiful. Plus their sweet aromas are known to arouse our senses, while connecting us to nature in a way that cannot be synthetically produced. But never forget the original function of the flower. The only reason it exists is to attract a pollinator who will move from one flower to the next ensuring its future survival.

This corner of the Pollinator Garden is devoted to our collection of heaths, heathers, and their relatives. Heaths and heathers are related to rhododendrons and require similar growing conditions – full sun and well-drained acidic soil high in organic matter. Collectively, these plants are termed as ericaceous shrubs. People are often surprised to learn that heaths and heathers are closely related to our favourite berries such as blueberry, cranberry, and partridgeberry, the latter known in other parts of the world as lingonberry.

For many gardeners, the difference between a heath and a heather can be confusing. Heaths have needle-like leaves, urn-shaped flowers, and bloom mostly in spring, with some blooming in mid-summer. Heathers have scale-like leaves, tiny bell-shaped flowers, and bloom from late summer to fall. We grow these plants in our pollinator garden because heaths and heathers are important nectar sources for native bees, honeybees, and butterflies. Spring heath is especially important to pollinating insects, as it provides the first source of nectar after a long winter.

Greenhouses have played an important role in botanical gardens worldwide. The great glasshouses of Great Britain and France held many exotic rarities collected in the early days of exploration. With high light penetration, coupled with a dependable heat source during the colder months, greenhouses have become a haven for plants otherwise not hardy to the local climate.

The greenhouse you now stand in started as a propagation house for the very first plants which formed this botanical garden. For its first 20 years this house raised many plants from seed and cuttings, plants which went on to form the cornerstones for our many themed gardens.

With the development of a more substantial greenhouse and propagation buildings in what is now the botanical garden nursery, this house has been transformed into a Mediterranean oasis. Look up to see the grape vine which provides shade during the hot summer months and whose deciduous habit allows the much-needed winter sun through during those short days. Look for common herbs such as rosemary and sage. See geraniums, succulents, begonia, and jade; all go together to create a completely unlikely landscape for this northern boreal botanical garden.

The largest plant collection at the Botanical Garden belongs to a group referred to as alpines. Our rock gardens display plants from mountainous regions from around globe. These plants have adapted over thousands of years, to some very harsh growing conditions resulting in the group of plants we refer to as alpines.

The alpine house is a superb place to view and photograph alpine plants up close. Built in 1991 with funds raised by The Friends of the Garden (FOG), this structure has two viewing benches along the sides and a small indoor rock garden at the end. The plants are displayed in clay pots sunk into sand, which helps keep the roots cool and allows for some moisture absorption from the damp sand. The beauty of this design is that plants can be easily removed when they have finished flowering and then be replaced with others just coming into bloom. The roof shelters the plants from heavy rains that can ruin delicate flowers, and the slight shading allows the flowers to last longer. Miniature campanula, lewisia, and geraniums are just some of the scores of species presented for close inspection in the alpine house.

If Bonsai is the art of growing a tree in a small container, resulting in a miniaturized specimen with all the features of the mature specimen, Alpine Trough gardening is a way to grow alpine plants in a concrete container to create a “bonsaied” rock garden. Each of these unique planters are a complete landscape in miniature, designed to showcase the unique features of alpine plants.

Alpine troughs and sink gardens have been around for many years ever since famous British nurseryman Clarence Elliot first used an abandoned stone cattle watering trough as an alpine planter. Soon after displaying his troughs at the renowned Chelsea Flower Show in the early 1930’s, this unique method of container planting became popular beyond belief.

Of course it wasn’t long before the original stone troughs became scarce and therefore gardeners discovered “Hypertufa,” a loose mix of peat, sand, and cement formed to create the modern day alpine trough, mimicking the original.

Now alpine enthusiasts can display these plant jewels in custom made containers suitable to any alpine collection. With modern living making it difficult to manage large garden expanses, anyone can have their own alpine garden complete with rock outcrops, steep slopes, and gravel screes, all in scale of course, in an Alpine Trough. 

The heritage, or old-fashioned, garden is a collection of plants from old Newfoundland gardens, dating back to before 1940. Started in 1978, with its sunny location, deep, well-managed soil, and windbreak fence, this garden is one of our best growing areas. Visitors enjoy the over 70 different perennials in this display as they evoke remembrances of people and gardens past. Even the common names associated with many of these plants, such as boy’s love, grandmother’s bluebells, and live-forever, seem friendly in an old-fashioned way. Tough, hardy survivors of our unpredictable climate, some of these plants have been grown in Newfoundland for 200 years. An interesting fact considering that they are not food or medicinal plants, but were simply “a little bit of home” for our ancestors.

Have you ever noticed in alpine regions how many of the plants grow among cracks and crevices? We are recreating that effect in this garden. A crevice garden is a specialized form of rock gardening where the rocks are positioned closely together in a vertical pattern. This results in many narrow cracks and crevices where alpine plants can run, yet minimizes competition from their neighbours. This form of rock gardening was introduced by Czech Republic alpine gardeners, who have been perfecting crevice gardens since the 1970s. It is a relatively new form of rock gardening in North America but a style that is rapidly becoming popular. Crevice gardens require far less space than traditional rock gardens, yet can house many more plants.

Our crevice garden was purposely kept small so that visitors could get a sense of how they could build this type of rock garden in their own gardens. With the right selection of plants, you can have blooms in a crevice garden from early May through late October.

Today, many people are interested in growing their own food. But in a typical garden a vegetable plot could look out of place. What’s a gardener to do? The French figured out this dilemma many years ago by creating a potager garden. A potager garden is simply a vegetable plot which follows the principles of garden design to create an area which is not only ornamental, but productive too. The main points to consider are rhythm, line, colour, and texture, and it’s important to introduce a focal point to bring the whole design together. In our potager garden, the obelisks, dwarf apples, and fruiting shrubs act as our focal points. Rhythm is created by repeating certain plants such as a favourite annual, herb, or vegetable. Colour and textural contrasts are created by the specific combinations of plants utilized, such as the bold leaves of cabbage alongside the feathery foliage of parsley. Of course, the best thing about a potager is that most of the crops can be rotated annually, so every year you have the fun of creating a new design! A well-planned potager garden is sure to please not only the eye but the taste buds too!

The vegetable garden was constructed in 1995 and it has been growing ever since. Designed with raised beds, this style of gardening allows for larger amounts of produce to be grown in a smaller area, and soil management becomes much easier. All the normal Newfoundland veggies are grown as well as garlic, pole beans, and Spanish onions. There are no pesticides used at the garden, so insect protection is achieved by the use of row cover, a spun polyester material that allows for sun and water penetration but keeps out bugs.,