One of the largest, most complex and educational gardens I have visited! This place is heaven, green oasis or any other description you want to use, its all of that and more! There are more than 27000 plants here and too many dedicated sections to count! It's splendid, it's amazing and you will love it just as much as I did! As I said, there are a lot of sections to visit and here are some of my favorite's worth popping in!

I'd say it's a must to visit the food garden! I know it doesn't sound as exciting as visiting a tropical country glasshouse, but everyone should see at least once in a life see how peanuts grow, or what ginger plants look like or even how everyday herbs we use, smell like. It's amazing we all recognize the food in supermarkets, but how many of us recognize the plant? Part of the food section is a Dye-producing Plants garden showing visitors which plants we used for hundreds of years to color materials. That was eye-opening to me and a very exciting part of my visit.

I also liked the Toxic and Medicinal section of the garden - and as the name suggests you'll find plants here that might help you or end you! There are bilingual descriptions and signs, so you can read all about them. And not only here, these signs are all around the gardens, making this visit very informative!

The Alpine gardens are fabulous! And they feature a waterfall which is a beautiful addition to already stunning gardens! There are many subsections showing flora from different continents - there is alpine garden of South Africa, Italian Dolomites or Indian Himalayas. If you keep your eyes open and mouth shut, you might even see some birds here.

I guess the most attractive part of the Gardens would be either the Chinese Garden or Japanese Garden. I loved the Chinese garden, very well designed, with typical Chinese style pagodas spread around an azure blue lake. Stunning views and plenty to see and do around, but popular, therefore crowded. The Japanese garden was a bit let down. I didn't find it interesting at all and I have definitely seen better ones. If you are short with time, skip this one! I must say though, there are plenty of sitting areas and benches scattered around the gardens  as I have seen people relaxing and enjoying themselves.

Visiting the glasshouses is also a must as they are included in the daily ticket. They can be entered from outside the gardens, not the inside. The good thing about the ticket is you can re-enter the gardens as many times you want during the day, like we did. Anyway the glasshouse features many different sections, some with tropical fruit plants, some with succulents, and my favorite, with bromelias! This is also the first glasshouse featuring a living setting of plants and humans I have seen. What I mean is, there are house-like structures in the glasshouse and planting done cohesively around them!

We bought the tickets online, which helped us to skip the actual queue at the kiosk. Parking situation is excellent as there is parking right in front of the entrance! We came early in the morning and didn't have a problem finding space, but that might be different in peak hours. The flat daily rate of 13 CAD is great value! Grabbing a printed map of the gardens helps, but frankly it is not the best designed map, I ended up using the signposts around the gardens more than the map.

Unfortunately there are not many options to eat or drink here. There are no vending machines inside the gardens, not even in the visitors center outside. The only option is to grab a bite near the entrance (close to the Rose garden) or bring your own food. However they serve amazing vegetarian sandwiches and tastiest vanilla ice cream!

The visitors center features amenities such as a restroom, library and gift shop, however as I mentioned no food.

Be prepared to spend a whole day here! It's absolutely worth your time! Visited on a Saturday, July 2023.

PS: Don't look for the living plant sculptures, this was a temporary exhibition many years back and it does not exist anymore!