The Centre for Canadian Historical Horticultural Studies (CCHHS) includes archives and a program of scholarly study within Royal Botanical Gardens, Ontario (Hamilton, Ontario and Burlington, Ontario). It focuses on collecting and preserving literature, documents, and artifacts relevant to the history of horticulture in Canada. [1]
Royal Botanical Gardens began to accumulate literature on Canadian horticulture in the 1960s. In 1979 the CCHHS was formally established as a collaboration between Royal Botanical Gardens and the Dunington-Grubb Foundation. Ina Vrugtman, Royal Botanical Gardens' librarian, coordinated the work of the Centre until her retirement in 1995.
In 1984 the Centre co-sponsored the publication of Edwinna von Baeyer's book, Rhetoric and Roses: A History of Canadian Gardening. [2] The Centre published Canadian Horticultural History, An Interdisciplinary Journal as eight issues in three volumes between 1985 and 1995. [3] The journal covered topics on early Canadian botany, landscape architecture, and plant hybridisation.
Due to changes at Royal Botanical Gardens the scholarly program of the Centre was inactive for several years, although the archival collections continued to grow throughout this period.
The Centre also co-sponsored a 2017 workshop at York University exploring the role women played in botany and horticulture in nineteenth-century Canada called, Women, Men, and Plants in 19th-Century Canada: New Resources, New Perspectives. [4]
The CCHHS's collection encompasses resources relating to horticultural plants and their development and uses in Canada. Resources outlining the history of Canadian landscape design also form an important part of the collection. [5] Some of these materials give a more technical account of Canadian horticulture, while others offer a larger view of social changes in Canadian society.
Special Collections:
Archival Fonds and Collections:
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Royal Botanical Gardens is a member of the Archives Association of Ontario.
A botanical garden or botanic garden is a garden with a documented collection of living plants for the purpose of scientific research, conservation, display, and education. It is their mandate as a botanical garden that plants are labelled with their botanical names. It may contain specialist plant collections such as cacti and other succulent plants, herb gardens, plants from particular parts of the world, and so on; there may be glasshouses or shadehouses, again with special collections such as tropical plants, alpine plants, or other exotic plants that are not native to that region.
Horticulture is the art and science of growing plants. This definition is seen in its etymology, which is derived from the Latin words hortus, which means "garden" and cultura which means "to cultivate". There are various divisions of horticulture because plants are grown for a variety of purposes. These divisions include, but are not limited to: gardening, plant production/propagation, arboriculture, landscaping, floriculture and turf maintenance. For each of these, there are various professions, aspects, tools used and associated challenges; Each requiring highly specialized skills and knowledge of the horticulturist.
An arboretum is a botanical collection composed exclusively of trees of a variety of species. Originally mostly created as a section in a larger garden or park for specimens of mostly non-local species, many modern arboreta are in botanical gardens as living collections of woody plants and are intended at least in part for scientific study.
Royal Botanical Gardens (RBG) is headquartered in Burlington. RBG is a national historic site of Canada that covers extensive environmentally protected areas, historic sites, and culturally relevant gardens from Burlington to neighbouring Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. It is one of the major tourist attractions between Niagara Falls and Toronto, as well as being a significant local and regional horticultural, education, conservation, and scientific resource.
Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria are botanic gardens across two sites–Melbourne and Cranbourne.
A plantsman is an enthusiastic and knowledgeable gardener, nurseryman or nurserywoman. "Plantsman" can refer to a male or female person, though the terms plantswoman, or even plantsperson, are sometimes used. The word is sometimes said to be synonymous with "botanist" or "horticulturist", but that would indicate a professional involvement, whereas "plantsman" reflects an attitude to plants. A horticulturist may be a plantsman, but a plantsman is not necessarily a horticulturist.
Sir Harry James Veitch was an English horticulturist in the nineteenth century, who was the head of the family nursery business, James Veitch & Sons, based in Chelsea, London. He was instrumental in establishing the Chelsea Flower Show, which led to his being knighted for services to horticulture.
William Baylor Hartland (1836–1912) was a plantsman from Ireland.
The Parkwood Estate, located in Oshawa, Ontario, was the residence of Samuel McLaughlin and was home to the McLaughlin family from 1917 until 1972. The residence was designed by Darling and Pearson, a noted Toronto architectural firm, with construction starting in 1916. In 1989, Parkwood was officially designated a National Historic Site, and tours are now given year-round.
Theodore Payne, was an English horticulturist, gardener, landscape designer, and botanist. His best known work was done over his adult life in Southern California.
The Field Elm cultivar Ulmus minor 'Viminalis Pulverulenta' (:'powdery'), also known as 'Viminalis Variegata', a variegated form of U. minor 'Viminalis', was first mentioned by Dieck, in 1885 as U. scabra viminalis pulverulentaHort., but without description. Nursery, arboretum, and herbarium specimens confirm that this cultivar was sometimes regarded as synonymous with U. minor 'Viminalis Marginata', first listed in 1864, which is variegated mostly on the leaf margin. It is likely, however, that 'Pulverulenta' was the U. 'Viminalis Variegata', Variegated Twiggy-branched elm, that was listed and described by John Frederick Wood, F.H.S., in The Midland Florist and Suburban Horticulturist 1847 and 1851, pre-dating both Kirchner and Dieck. Wood did not specify the nature of the variegation.
Annie L. Jack was a Canadian writer. She was the first Canadian professional female garden writer.
The Oman Botanic Garden is a development of the Diwan of Royal Court in Oman, with plants, landscapes, and cultural traditions native to Oman. The gardens are located on 423 hectares in Al Khoud, on the campus of Sultan Qaboos University. The garden's collection includes approximately 1200 species of plants, displayed in various habitats such as deserts, monsoon cloud forests, and wadis. The garden has several educational exhibits that teach visitors about Oman's plants and how they are utilised.
The Toronto Botanical Garden (TBG) is located at 777 Lawrence Avenue East at Leslie Street, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Termed "The little garden with big ideas", the TBG is nearly four acres and features 17 themed "city-sized gardens". Located in the north-east corner of Edwards Gardens, the TBG is a non-profit horticultural and educational organization with a mission to connect people, plants and the natural world through education, inspiration and leadership.
Lorrie Alfreda Dunington-Grubb was an English landscape architect. She moved to Canada in 1911 with her husband and business partner Howard Dunington-Grubb where they founded Sheridan Nurseries. She was active in garden design, a writer and a patron of the arts.
Sheridan Nurseries is a Canadian garden supplies company based in the Toronto area. The company has over 375 hectares of land for growing plants and eight garden centers. Employment varies seasonally, but during peak periods it has over 1,000 staff.
Christian Ramsay, Countess of Dalhousie informally Lady Dalhousie, néeBroun; was a Scottish botanist and natural historian. She married George Ramsay, 9th Earl of Dalhousie and travelled with him when he was appointed Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia, Governor General of Canada and Commander in Chief of the Indian Army. While travelling, she collected and catalogued many species of plants, presented scientific papers to societies and donated many collections to different botanical groups.
Isabella Preston was a horticulturist and public servant widely recognized for her achievements in plant hybridization and extensive work in ornamental plant breeding. She is Canada’s first female professional plant breeder. During her 26-year career, she produced nearly 200 new hardy hybrids of lily, lilac, crab apple, iris and rose plants for Canada's cold climate. While female plant breeders were rather rare in her day, she quietly challenged gender bias and set the stage for new generations of breeding programs at the Central Experimental Farm in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada and elsewhere.
Hugh Ronalds was an esteemed nurseryman and horticulturalist in Brentford, who published Pyrus Malus Brentfordiensis: or, a Concise Description of Selected Apples (1831). His plants were some of the first European species to be shipped to Australia when the British colony was founded.
Freek Vrugtman was a Canadian botanist and horticulturist. Vrugtman was Curator at both University of British Columbia Botanical Garden in Vancouver, British Columbia, and Royal Botanical Gardens (RBG) in Burlington, Ontario, Canada. For 45 years he served as the International Registrar for Hybrid Cultivars of Lilacs in the Genus Syringa.