Royal
Botanical Gardens (RBG) is Canada’s largest botanical garden
and one of the country’s premier cultural, education and
scientific institutions. It has extensive educational programs
and serves as an outdoor laboratory for scientific research.
RBG was established as an independent entity in 1941 by an act
of the provincial government, but the project traces its
origins to the late 1920s when the City of Hamilton began
acquiring land for the beautification of the city’s northwest
entrance. Of the Gardens’ 1,100 hectares (2,700 acres), about
120 hectares (297 acres) are cultivated, while the rest
remains a managed natural area. The glory of the Arboretum is
the Katie Osborne
Lilac Garden, which boasts the world’s
largest living collection of lilacs.
Royal Botanical Gardens is the
only Canadian botanical garden to have maintained consistent
growth and development. Moreover, it is the result of the
joint effort of talented landscape architects, botanists and
plan curators, thereby reflecting a historical and aesthetic
character that is distinct in Canada.
