Top 10 North American Gardens Worth Travelling For

The North American Garden Tourism Conference, held in Toronto from March 13 to 15, 2017, has announced the winners of the 2017 Garden Tourism Awards: the ‘Top 10 North American Gardens Worth Travelling For’. Garden Tourism Awards are presented to gardens that have distinguished themselves in the development and promotion of the garden experience as a tourism attraction.

“In the spirit of highlighting North America’s most dynamic garden experiences and in consultation with a North American jury, we are honored to announce the 2017 recipients of the ‘Top 10 North American Gardens Worth Travelling For’ Garden Tourism Awards,” said Michel Gauthier, Executive Director of the Canadian Garden Council and Chair of the North American Garden Tourism Conference.

2017 Top 10 North American Gardens Worth Travelling For

Here are the winners in alphabetical order. Unless otherwise stated, all gardens are open year-round.

Chicago Botanic Garden

This large, 385-acre (156-hectare) garden in the Chicago suburbs is mainly built on 9 islands in a small lake and includes 27 demonstration gardens, including a water garden, a coniferous collection, greenhouses, a vegetable garden, and many others. Undoubtedly the most famous of its gardens is the Japanese garden.

Address: 1000 Lake Cook Road, Glencoe, Illinois. Free admission. Paid parking. For further information: www.chicagobotanic.org

Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden

This walled Chinese garden of 0.3 acres (0.12 hectares), established in 1985 and 1986, is the first classical Chinese garden to be built outside China. A visit will show you a landscape garden dominated by rocks and fountains, bamboos and oriental plants, ponds and Chinese pavilions. It is located in the heart of Vancouver’s Chinatown. Note that Secret Journeys of a Lifetime: 500 of the World’s Best Hidden Travel Gems, published by National Geographic, considers this garden the best urban garden in the world!

Address: 578 Carrall Street, Vancouver, British Columbia. Paid admission. Information: vancouverchinesegarden.com

Hershey Gardens

This 23-acre (9.3 hectare) botanical garden and arboretum was offered to the town of Hershey (near Harrisburg, capital of the state of Pennsylvania) by the “Chocolate King”, Milton S. Hershey, in honor of his wife, Catherine. The garden is renowned for its vast rose garden including some 7,000 rosebushes of 275 varieties and its butterfly aviary. The Children’s Garden, with its 30 themed gardens where children can play at will, is very popular with families.

Address: 170 Hotel Road, Hershey, Pennsylvania. Paid admission. Information: www.hersheygardens.org

Ethnobotanical Garden of Oaxaca

This garden occupies 5.5 aces (2,3 hectares) behind Oaxaca’s Santo Domingo Church on the site of a former convent and is renowned for its vast collection of cacti and succulents native to the Mexican State of Oaxaca.

Address: Corner of Reforma and Constitution, Oaxaca, Mexico. Paid guided tour only (in Spanish, English or French). Information: jetnobot@prodigy.net.mx

Halifax Public Gardens

Established in 1867, the Gardens remain today the best preserved Victorian public park in North America, since they have been essentially maintained as is over their entire 150-year history. There are lawns, ponds, streams, bridges, a music kiosk, numerous flower beds and spectacular trees in the 16-acre (6-hectare) gardens. They are open from April to November.

Address: 5665 Spring Garden Rd, Halifax, Nova Scotia. Free admission. Information: www.halifaxpublicgardens.ca/

Las Pozas

Created by eccentric British poet Edward James between 1949 and 1984, this garden mixes surrealist structures and gigantic sculptures with tropical plantations, all cut into a jungle dotted with waterfalls and rushing streams. Nearly abandoned for many years, the garden is now almost entirely restored.

Address: Camino Paseo Las Pozas, Barrio La Conchita, Xilitla, San Luis Potosí, Mexico. Paid admission. Information: xilitla.org

Long View House and Gardens

This historic mansion is surrounded by 8 acres (3 hectares) of gardens. The mansion is unusual in that it offers 4 different facades, each with a garden in a very different style. The most famous garden is undoubtedly the Spanish court, with its ponds and fountains reminiscent of those of the Alhambra in Granada, Spain. Long View is considered the ultimate work of one of the first female landscape architects, Ellen Biddle Shipman.

Address: 7 Bamboo Road, New Orleans, Louisiana. Paid admission. Information: longuevue.com

Reford Gardens

This is a 20-acre (8-hectare) English-style garden of, established between 1926 and 1958 by Elsie Reford on the site of her family’s fishing camp. It includes some 3,000 species, including the famous Himalayan blue poppy (Meconopsis betoniciflora), the garden’s emblem. It is also the site of the annual International Garden Festival, an exhibition of contemporary landscaping. The garden is open from June to October.

Address: 200 Route 132, Price, Quebec. Paid admission. Information: www.refordgardens.com

San Diego Botanic Garden

This 37-acre (15-hectare) botanical garden was formerly known as Quail Botanical Gardens. It includes more than 3,000 species and varieties of plants, including the largest collection of bamboo in the United States. There is a succulent garden, a rainforest, a Mediterranean garden and a garden dedicated to Californian native plants. The large conservatory currently under construction is due to open at the end of 2017.

Address: 230 Quail Gardens Drive, Encinitas, California. Paid admission. Information: www.sdbgarden.org

Tucson Botanical Garden

This 5.5-acre (2-hectare) botanical garden includes 16 residentially-scaled urban gardens linked by a path. Thus you wander from discovery to discovery as you visit. There is a Zen garden, a prehistoric garden, a butterfly garden, a children’s garden and, above all, a garden of cacti and succulents designed to represent the nearby Sonoran Desert.

Address: 2150 N Alvernon Way, Tucson, Arizona. Paid admission. Information: www.tucsonbotanical.org

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I’ve visited most of these gardens and the award is truly well-deserved: they are indeed worth travelling for. I hope you’ll get a chance to visit some of them, if not all of them, sometime soon!