The Next Instalment of our Special Summer Series!
Laking Garden, RBG, Burlington
By Stephanie Brash, Master Gardener, SCMG
The Laking Garden is home to the herbaceous perennial collection in the Royal Botanical Gardens in Burlington, Ontario. It is dedicated to Barbara Tarver Laking (1915-1986), who brought her life-long dedication to horticulture to the RBG, originating the decorative arts program and co-founding the RBG Auxilliary. Laking Garden is perfectly set on a fertile terraced plain that was once an orchard and a market garden, and some of the original apple and cherry trees still remain on site. It is particularly spectacular in early to mid-June when the iris and peony collections shine in their full glory. Walking amongst the perennial beds in Laking Garden gives one the quiet sense of being a part of history. Visitors to this special garden can walk through areas that showcase the passage of time, look at popular trends through the decades, trace the history of medicinal and ornamental plants, and appreciate how gardening trends have mirrored societal values and traditions.
For example, the beautiful iris bed shows the historical progression of these flowers, and what trends have been popular through the decades (ruffles, pastels, scents, large flowers or bicolours).
The Peony Collection is home to one of the most diverse and unique peony collections in North America. The collection showcases a high diversity of cultivars and hybrid introductions from the past 300 years, featuring single, double, Japanese, anemone, semi-double, bomb and double flower types, as well as tree peonies.
The Heritage Garden explores how early Ontario gardens mixed edible, medicinal and ornamental plants. It was rejuvenated in 2009 and includes many cultivars and species commonly grown in an Ontario garden between 1880 and 1920.
The garden features a “plants of necessity” area with heritage vegetables, herbs and fruits, and illustrates the importance of plants for food and medicine for early European settlers. The garden relates to human well-being, sustainability and resilience in the face of tough living conditions.
The “Garden of Luxury” represents the societal transition from gardens of subsistence to those of luxury and ornamental beauty, providing interesting insight into period living, societal values, economics, and how each of these have evolved. Also included is heritage plant material acquired from ghost towns of southern Ontario. The Barbara Laking Garden Memorial Heritage Garden is a seed and gene bank conserving plants that have practical and beneficial traits within their gene pool, such as disease and pest resistance, cold hardiness, their ability to attract pollinators and remove pollution, and provide pharmaceutical benefits. Conservation of these traits are important for future plant breeding and food security, for the more we can conserve within the gene pool now, the more plant diversity we can ensure for future human prosperity.
The Laking Garden is not to be missed. It combines a passion for colour and variety with love and respect for heritage and history. There will always be ideas and inspiration to be found here.
Coming Soon: Edwards Gardens, TBG, North York!!
https://www.rbg.ca/gardens-trails/by-attraction/laking-garden/
