VanDusen Botanical Gardens, Vancouver, British Columbia

Essondale (now the Riverview Psychiatric Hospital in Coquitlam) is the site of the earliest botanical garden in Canada, started by “Botany John” Davidson, the provincial botanist. He moved the botanical garden to the new UBC campus in 1916, where it remains to this day. This gorgeous botanical garden had a humble beginning, and let that be a lesson to us all--things can be transformed, you just have to have a vision, and a lot of luck, money, and zoning. This started as part of the railroad, then in 1912 it became a golf course. I do not know if it is true, but there are some large swaths of grass remaing, and maybe they linger from that time.

Roy Forster was the garden’s curator from 1977-1996; he oversaw the planting of 12,000 trees, flowers and shrubs representing 3,072 species. During excavation, workers discovered sea shells — evidence that the land had been under the ocean about 12,000 years ago. In 1999, Forster received the Order of Canada in recognition of his work in designing the VanDusen gardens