Edwards Gardens is a

botanical garden A botanical garden or botanic gardenThe terms ''botanic'' and ''botanical'' and ''garden'' or ''gardens'' are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word ''botanic'' is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens, an ...

located on the southwest corner of

Leslie Street Leslie may refer to: * Leslie (name), a name and list of people with the given name or surname, including fictional characters Families * Clan Leslie, a Scottish clan with the motto "grip fast" * Leslie (Russian nobility), a Russian noble famil ...

and Lawrence Avenue East in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

, Canada. It is also the site of the Toronto Botanical Garden, a private not-for profit organization previously called the Civic Garden Centre. It is a former estate garden featuring annuals,

rose A rose is either a woody perennial flowering plant of the genus ''Rosa'' (), in the family Rosaceae (), or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred species and tens of thousands of cultivars. They form a group of plants that can be ...

s and

wildflower A wildflower (or wild flower) is a flower that grows in the wild, meaning it was not intentionally seeded or planted. The term implies that the plant probably is neither a hybrid nor a selected cultivar that is in any way different from the ...

s and an extensive rockery. It is located on Wilket Creek, one of the

tributaries A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem (or parent) river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries and the main stem river drain the surrounding drainag ...

of the Don River West Branch. The estate's title was once held by Alexander Milne, a Scottish weaver who settled there after the

War of 1812 The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States, United States of America and its Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous allies against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom ...

and left in 1832. Although the property remained in the Milne family, it was left in neglect. The land and the woollen/saw mills were bought by Rupert E. Edwards in 1944 and he created a magnificent garden there. He sold the property to the Municipality of

Metro Toronto The Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto was an upper-tier level of municipal government in Ontario, Canada, from 1953 to 1998. It was made up of the old city of Toronto and numerous townships, towns and villages that surrounded Toronto, whic ...

in 1955 to become a public park, and it became Edwards Gardens in 1956. Toronto Botanical Garden (formerly Civic Garden Centre) relocated into the Milne home on the site in 1959. Edwards Gardens is one of several parks located along Toronto's ravines, many of which are connected by hiking and cycling trails, and connected to the shores of

Lake Ontario Lake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded on the north, west, and southwest by the Canadian province of Ontario, and on the south and east by the U.S. state of New York. The Canada–United States border ...

. The park's manicured lawns and flower beds make it a popular destination for wedding parties to take photographs. In 2013, Edwards Gardens won an Award of Excellence under the Regional Citation (New Directions) category from the

Canadian Society of Landscape Architects The Canadian Society of Landscape Architects (French:''Association des architectes paysagistes du Canada''; CSLA-AAPC) is the national organization representing 1600 landscape architects in Canada's ten provinces and three territories. The organizat ...

for their sustainably designed parking lot.

References

External links

*
Edwards Gardens (at Toronto Botanical Garden)

Toronto Botanical Garden
Botanical gardens in Canada Don River (Ontario) Parks in Toronto Rivers of Toronto Gardens in Canada Estate gardens in Canada 1956 establishments in Ontario {{Authority control

See also

References

External links