Toronto

Casa Loma Garden » The 'medieval' castle was designed by E.J. Lennox for Sir Henry Pellatt - with electricity and a telephone exchange. The stone for the outer wall came from Scotland and 'casa' is Italian for house. It became known as Pellatt's Folly after his death. The Victorian garden he built was like illustrations of nineteenth century English castle gardens and required a small army of gardeners. The bedding has been partly restored and some new theme gardens have been made in the Casa Loma Gardens. Read more on Casa Loma Garden

Edwards Gardens » Rupert Edwards bought the estate in 1944 and made the garden, largely in the style of the previous century. It has a picturesque lawn, gardenesque planting and views of a rugged valley with a large rock garden, wildflowers and rhododendrons. Read more on Edwards Gardens

Toronto Music Garden » The Toronto Music Garden was designed by landscape architect Julie Moir Messervy in collaboration with the cellist Yo-Yo Ma. Its design is based on the First Suite for Unaccompanied Cello by J.S. Bach, which has six garden 'movements': the Prelude, the Allemande, the Courante, the Sarabande, the Menuett, and the Gigue. These are reflected in gardens of Canadian Shield boulders, a birch wood, a wildflower meadow, ornamental grasses and conifers. Julie Messervy has a particular interest in contemplative gardens trained with the eminent Japanese garden master Kinsaku Nakane in Kyoto. Goethe's wrote that 'Architecture is frozen music' and one might riposte that 'Gardens are living music' - or rat..... Read more on Toronto Music Garden

Niagara Parks Floral Clock and Gardens » The Niagara Floral Clock was inspired by the Floral Clock in Princes Street Gardens at the foot of The Mound in Edinburgh. Nearby is the Centennial Lilac Gardens and 1.5 miles south is the Niagara Parks Botanical Garden and School of Horticulture. They are good places to see elaborate floral carpet bedding displays of the kind popular in the nineteenth century. The Niagara Parks Commission runs a Fragrance Garden with indoor floral bedding and there is a Butterfly Conservatory (in the Botanical Gardens) Read more on Niagara Parks Floral Clock and Gardens