Stanley Park

Gardens

Almost from the park's inception, early pioneers were thinking of beautification on a scale that included as many varieties of plants, trees and shrubs as were available on the market. It is important to remember that the latter part of the 19th Century brought a tremendous interest in exotic plant species that were being brought into wider cultivation by the exploring, great plant hunters. This too was a booming time for conservatories and glass houses where tender plant treasures from around the world, such as orchids and palms, were finding their way into the Victorian home. Early Vancouverites also wanted to prove that the Pacific Northwest could support the finer side of horticulture.

Stanley Park was the heart of horticultural operations where nursery plants were grown in a series of greenhouses for bedding-out throughout the flourishing park system. In 1929 the Park Board secured a larger nursery site at Sunset Park and moved its major growing operation to that location. However, a number of glasshouses remained, near to where the rose arbors are now, as floral display facilities for the visiting public. These buildings were removed in the early 1960s.

Ted & Mary Greig Rhododendron Garden »

Among the little known treasures of Stanley Park, the azaleas and rhododendrons skirting the pitch and putt were part of an extensive collection obtained from Ted and Mary Greig of Royston Nurseries on Vancouver Island in the 1960s.

Though undoubtedly at their peak during the first two weeks in May, walks in the Ted & Mary Greig Rhododendron Garden from March through summer, always reveal something new in bloom and a quiet beauty.

Community Garden

The newest horticultural addition to Vancouver's premier greenspace is the Stanley Park Community Garden, constructed in the summer of 2003 and located near the tennis courts at the foot of Alberni Street. This garden includes 30 individual flower plots cared for by West End residents along with a demonstration garden of plants native to British Columbia. The native plant garden will provide people with practical information and real life examples of the beauty and utility of returning their own backyards to native habitats.

This cooperative project is a Park Partners Project created primarily through the efforts of volunteers and managed jointly by the West End Residents' Association and the Stanley Park Ecology Society .

Ornamental Plantings - Near Beach Avenue Entrance

Ornamental trees show us a pretty face either in form, flower, leaf, seed or bark. An amazing plantation of such trees exists in and around the Stanley Park Pitch & Putt Golf Course. A wonderful man, Dr. John Yak, whose avocations after his retirement from medicine were botany and ornithology, approached the Park Board in the early 1970s with a slim, hand-typed book identifying what he described as a "priceless" collection of ornamental trees. Dr. Yak, then about 90, had catalogued each important specimen so that a comprehensive guide would be at the disposal of both the Park Board staff and the public. This first research by Dr. Yak proved an invaluable resource for subsequent publications and articles on this subject.

Specimens to watch for include Sargent's magnolia - looking like enormous pink hankies when in magnificent bloom in early April - which produces the largest bloom in the magnolia family. Also there are two Wilson's magnolias whose buds are egg-shaped and, when open in May, proffer a lemony scent followed by a purplish scarlet seed head in autumn. Sprenger's magnolia is here, its late winter, furry flower buds decorating the bare branches before exploding into a pinky froth in late March. Also found around the pitch & putt pathway is a terrific collection of camellias with colorful blossoms ranging from white to palest pink at their peak from late March to early April. Literally hundreds of further ornamental trees are found in this location, many around the Park Board administration office at the Beach Avenue entrance to Stanley Park. This office building's granite front wall is clothed in a magnificent espaliered specimen of blue atlas cedar which, planted when the building was constructed in 1961, reminds us of the powers of pruning. Veils of weeping beech are nearby, next to a small grove of white pine

Rose and Perennial Beds

The Stanley Park Rose Garden was first established by the Kiwanis Club in 1920 "to demonstrate the possibilities of rose culture in Vancouver". The number of roses have increased during the ensuing years with over 3500 plants now on display. A stylish westcoast-inspired arbor sports a charming combination of early blooming old-fashioned rose varieties sharing space with numerous clematis plants giving this structure more than one season of blowsy bloom.

Large floral display beds slope down toward the causeway and up to the Stanley Park Pavilion area with mass plantings of perennials and annuals in summer, and bulbs in springtime. This is the park's epicentre of bloom between June and October and in late March and April.

Shakespeare Garden »

Nestled between the Rose Garden and the forest in Stanley Park, the Shakespeare Garden pays homage to the bard. The garden is a diverse arboretum that includes trees mentioned in his plays and poems.

There are about 45 trees that form the arboretum that accompanies the monument. Trees designated from the works of Shakespeare have been affixed with plaques that display their appropriate quotes. These Shakespeare trees are integrated throughout the arboretum for visitors to find as they explore the garden.

Stanley Park Rock Garden »

Started in 1911 by master gardener John Montgomery from boulders excavated for the construction of the new Stanley Park Pavilion, the Rock Garden was the first public garden in the City of Vancouver. The story of the Rock Garden remained forgotten, and the true extent was not realized until the devastating wind storm of December 2006 revealed lost portions of this garden landscape. In October 2011, a commemorative plaque was unveiled at the Rock Garden which celebrated its 100th Anniversary along with the nearby Stanley Park Pavilion.

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