» Parks and Gardens
Vancouver's temperate climate and soft, plentiful rains encourage verdant growth throughout the Lower Mainland, sustaining a wide array of gardens, parks and green spaces. B.C.'s provincial flower is the dogwood (Cornus Nauttallii) and in spring, the region's spreading dogwood trees are clothed in fragile, creamy blossoms.
Stanley Park
(www.vancouverparks.ca)
Vancouver's leading recreational space and the city's giant green heart, Stanley Park is a magnificent 404 hectares (1,000 acres) of dense West Coast forest. Dozens of marked trails enable roaming through this "jungle" of giant trees while a 10.5-kilometre (6.5-mile) seawall pathway provides some of the best sea-to-sky mountain views anywhere in the world. Other highlights include a mini-forest of totem poles, some excellent, family-friendly beaches and a large outdoor swimming pool overlooking the waterfront. The best way to see what's on offer is to take a narrated one-hour Stanley Park Horse-Drawn Tour (www.stanleypark.com).
The park is home to an array of visitor attractions, including the family-friendly Vancouver Aquarium (www.vanaqua.org), the Children's Farmyard and Railway, and the Nature House at Lost Lagoon (www.stanleyparkecology.ca). Others might prefer the popular rose or rhododendron gardens. The park is also a great spot on a summer evening - take in an al fresco show at Malkin Bowl's Theatre Under the Stars (www.tuts.ca) or just listen out for the boom of the Nine O'clock Gun, which sounds at 9 p.m. every evening. Diners are also well-catered to here - there are several lunch and dinner options around the park, including the celebrated Fish House in Stanley Park (www.fishhousestanleypark.com), one of Vancouver's best seafood restaurants.
Story idea:
Stanley Park suffered extensive tree damage during a tumultuous storm in late 2006. Consider a story on the restoration project, including interviews with those involved in the project and historians on the park's colourful role in Vancouver's history.
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Vandusen Botanical Garden
(www.vandusengarden.org)
When the Shaughnessy Golf Club moved a few kilometres south in 1960, the aim was to turn the remaining 22.25-hectare (55-acre) course into a posh subdivision of sprawling mansions. The local gentry, unconvinced their neighbourhood needed more homes, lobbied the city and provincial governments, as well as the Vancouver Foundation, then led by W.J. VanDusen, to buy the grounds and turn them into a botanical garden. The result: a world-class bed of flowers and a ranking among North America's top 10 garden attractions.
Set against the distant backdrop of the North Shore mountains, VanDusen offers a network of 40 small, specialized gardens. In spring, its Rhododendron Walk blazes with colour, while the nearby Korean Pavilion is a focal point for the garden's Asian plant collection. Planted in 1981, there is also a maze, walled by 1,000 pyramidal cedars, that's a children's delight and a favoured location for TV and movie producers. In winter, the gardens are famed for their Christmas light display.
Bloedel Floral Conservatory and Queen Elizabeth Park
(www.vancouverparks.ca)
Vancouver's "Little Mountain," the city's highest point, is a 150-metre (500-foot) granite outcropping that, for years, was an industrial rock quarry. Now, it's a spectacular setting for a 52-hectare (130-acre) city park-and-garden complex that receives six million visitors a year - second only to the much larger Stanley Park.
Designed by the Vancouver Park Board and opened in the 1960s, the park's centrepiece is the Bloedel Floral Conservatory, a huge glass bubble that's one of the largest domed greenhouses in the world. It's home to hundreds of exotic plants and birds, which fly past you as you wander its winding paths. The park's nearby Arboretum houses one or two of nearly every tree native to Canada, plus some exotic specimens from other countries. North of the Conservatory, the North Quarry Garden specializes in plants that prefer dry conditions and its focus includes oriental horticulture.
University of British Columbia
UBC Botanical Garden
(www.ubcbotanicalgarden.org)
The oldest and one of Canada's finest botanical gardens is really five gardens in one, each with a different theme and character. These include the Asian Garden, with its fragile magnolias and 400 varieties of brilliant rhododendrons; the B.C. Native Garden, displaying more than 3,500 plants from across the province; the Alpine Garden, displaying rare, low-growing, mountain plants from Australia, South America, Europe, Asia and Africa; the Physic Garden, which re-creates a 16th-century monastic herb garden; and the Food Garden, an amazing patchwork of raised beds and more than 180 fruit trees.
UBC Nitobe Memorial Garden
(www.nitobe.org)
Named after Dr. Inazo Nitobe, a Japanese scholar and diplomat, this tranquil garden features gently curving paths flanked by carefully-placed rocks, trees and shrubs. Visitors can wander counter-clockwise, accompanied by the soothing sounds of the lake, waterfalls and tiny streams, and experience a host of native and imported plants, azaleas, maples and flowering cherry trees, that colour the gardens year round.
Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden
(www.vancouverchinesegarden.com)
This treasure of tranquillity is valued for its rarity - built at a cost of over $5.3 million in 1986, it was the first, full-scale classical Chinese garden built outside China. All components of the garden were carefully selected from nature or hand-built by skilled artisans in China. These 52 artisans brought with them all the materials and traditional tools needed to spend 13 months building this historical, architectural and horticultural masterpiece. Unlike in a Western garden, the major feature of a classical Chinese garden is not necessarily the plants. An artful blending of architecture, culturally significant plants, naturally sculpted rocks, and elegantly winding jade-green waterways follow ancient Chinese garden traditions.
Minter Gardens
(www.mintergardens.com)
Open April to mid-October, Chilliwack's 32-acre Minter Gardens is divided into 11 themed areas. It's owned and overseen by renowned gardening expert Brian Minter, who travels the world to find new and exciting plants for the gardens every year. Celebrated for its rose gardens, conservatories and large collection of Penjing Rock Bonsai - the biggest outside China - the attraction, which is a 90-minute drive from Vancouver, is a popular day trip from the city, especially in summer when the gardens are ablaze with blooming flowers.
Lighthouse Park
The smooth rock bluff surrounding the old-fashioned Point Atkinson Lighthouse in this West Vancouver park is an ideal spot for picnicking and, particularly on sunny weekends, you'll find lots of couples here. It's a 20-minute highway drive from downtown Vancouver. During the summer, the park is a favoured location for wedding parties having their pictures taken. The lighthouse stands amidst some of the Lower Mainland's oldest Douglas firs, accompanied by eagle nests and the twisted, rust-red trunks of nearby arbutus trees.
Park and Tilford Gardens and Shops
(www.parkandtilford.ca/pandtgardens.htm)
Created in 1969, these glorious gardens are a popular spot for summer weddings - it's easy to understand why. It's eight themed gardens range from the roses and cool formality of the White Garden to the colourful spring bulbs and spreading annuals of the Display Garden, while the Oriental Garden showcases traditional bonsai trees and a tranquil pond. Located on the site of a former winery/distillery, the gardens also offer a popular Christmas light display. |
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