USA & Canada

Regional Garden Travel Guide to USA and Canada

USA gardening history and traditions

America has a long gardening tradition, starting with 16th century Spanish settlers in the south east followed by English, Dutch and French settlers in the early 17th century who brought plants from Europe but also, as exploration and settlement pushed inland, collected the many unfamiliar useful and beautiful plants they found in this New World. Several of these were soon exploited commercially, such as tobacco, corn and cotton.

By the mid 1600s, English style gardens were being planted in north-eastern USA, the Dutch were growing flowers and there were large gardens surrounding cotton and tobacco plantations gardens, worked by slaves. In 1639, the Jamestown colony in Virginia required large landholders to plant orchards and gardens.

Throughout the 18th century, new public parks and gardens were established along the eastern coast. Middleton Place in Charleston South Carolina, considered to be America’s first landscaped garden, was begun in 1741, and notable public figures such as George Washington and Thomas Jefferson developed significant gardens, both for pleasure and produce.

After Louisiana was purchased from the French in 1803, westward expansion began in earnest, bringing with its waves of new migrants from Europe who brought diverse gardening styles. The idea of the ‘American Dream’ – having land of your own – encouraged the spread of ornamental landscape gardening as a way of expressing both ownership and individualism.

The grand-daddy of all public parks, Central Park in New York City was commissioned in 1858, designed by Frederick Olmstead and Calvert Vaux.

During the early 1860s, the Civil War which raged across eastern America destroyed many ornamental gardens, particularly those surrounding large plantations in the south. After the war, rebuilding and renewed prosperity in the late 19th century saw the development of many new formally laid-out ‘Victorian style’ private and public gardens and the importation of exotic new plants and garden styles from Japan, China and the Middle East. There was also a renewed appreciation of the natural landscape with USA’s first national park created at Yellowstone.

In the early 20th century there was a move to more naturalistic and romantic garden styles associated with the Arts and Crafts movement that was flourishing in architecture and decorative arts. Flower gardens, pergolas, rustic ornamentation and garden ‘rooms’ spread throughout America’s home gardens.

Unlike Europe, American gardening and public landscaping was largely untouched by the destruction of WW1 and flourished through an era of great prosperity until the 1940s. The American Horticultural Society and the Garden Club of America were founded and many greenbelt garden suburbs developed. In the west, new climate-appropriate gardening styles evolved based on Spanish and Italian gardens that used dry subtropics plants, succulents and palms.

During WW2 many gardens were redeveloped as produce ‘Victory’ gardens but returned to their more ornamental style during the 1950s. A huge housing boom meant that many Americans now had their own suburban dream home with its pristine, well watered front lawn and private backyard with paved patio. Many USA housing estates still require their residents to meticulously maintain a verdant front lawn. In 1955, Californian designer Thomas Church produced his highly influential book ‘Gardens Are for People’ which promoted gardens designed for outdoor living with paved patios, pergolas, swimming pools and barbecues – a style that was to influence American garden design into the late 20th century.

In the past few decades, the ‘New American Garden’ style has evolved to challenge the dominance of gardens filled with lawn and carefully pruned shrubs by using perennials to create naturalistic, flower-filled gardens of great seasonal change. Oehme and Van Sweden have become two of the world’s most influential landscape designers of the past 20 years.

Canadian gardening history and traditions

Canada’s European-style gardens began with the gardening traditions brought by the first French migrants, such as the potager garden. Many of these earliest gardens were those of religious communities, growing food but also providing places for prayer and contemplation. New settlers began to grow the plants they saw being cultivated by the indigenous Huron tribes, such as beans, maize and squash, and naturalists and plant collectors began to take back specimens of Canadian flora to Europe, such as Achillea (yarrow) and Solidago (goldenrod).

The British invasion in the mid 18th century brought with it the English natural landscape style of picturesque gardens with lakes and lawns, combined with the American influence of Frederick Olmstead, adopted by many wealthy home owners whose fortunes came from fur trading and timber. This was followed by the Victorian preference for gardenesque, with more formal arrangements of brightly-coloured annuals, straight paths, fountains and ponds. Early 20th century gardens picked up the new Beaux-Arts fashion for less structured gardens. In British Columbia in western Canada, Chinese and Japanese gardens styles became popular.

In the Canadian prairies, the short growing season and long distances encouraged home owners to grow their own produce and necessitated adapting the plant palette to one that could survive long and extremely cold winters. New cold-hardy hybrids were developed from the 1920s to expand the range of suitable plants, including roses, lilies and crab apples.

More recently, Canadian gardeners have also embraced the ‘new wild’ movement of meadow and perennial gardening.

Best times to visit USA and Canada gardens

Many garden tours of the USA and Canada are timed for September-October to experience the vivid fall colours, particularly of New England and Quebec. Unlike Europe, eastern North America has many deciduous forest trees that change to scarlet, red and burgundy, as well as yellows and oranges, giving it the most intense autumn/fall colours you will see.

Spring is also a peak time, when the acid green of new foliage and the proliferation of blossom trees, flowering bulbs and herbaceous perennials decorate many open gardens.

In the western states, spring through to mid-summer is an ideal time to experience flowering meadow perennials.

In south-eastern USA, you can enjoy late spring to early summer when the cities of South Carolina are bright with jacaranda, crepe myrtle, bougainvillea and fragrant bull bay magnolia and, further south in Florida, many of the subtropical gardens will be looking their best from late summer through early autumn/fall and even into winter.

Getting around to see gardens in USA and Canada

With its vast distances and well-developed motorways, with the exception of the bigger cities, hiring a car and driving is by far the easiest way of seeing American and Canadian gardens, or booking on to a garden tour. Many garden tours now include cruises, such as along the Hudson River and the Canadian lakes.

Gardens to visit in USA

– see Garden Guide to USA (under construction)
 

Gardens to visit in Canada

– see Garden Guide to Canada (under construction)
 

USA and Canada garden shows and events

Unlike Britain, Australia or New Zealand, most USA and Canada garden shows, especially in the colder zones, are held indoors often in early in spring, when gardeners are desperate for winter to be over. Many of the bigger shows, like the Philadelphia Flower Show have large display gardens, as well as the usual plants and gardening products.

A notable exception is the Jardins des Métis International Garden Festival at Reford Gardens in Québec, which shows a large outdoor collection of contemporary and artistic gardens from June to September.

Canada Garden Shows, Festivals and Events

Canada Blooms – March
BC Home and Garden Show
Home and Garden Show Toronto – March
Nuit Blanche Toronto – Oct
International Garden Festival Québec – June-Sept

USA Garden Shows, Festivals and Events

Great Gardens and Landscaping Symposium, Vermont – April
Nantucket Garden Festival – July
Philadelphia Flower Show – early March
New Jersey Home and Garden Show – March
Boston Flower and Garden Show – March
Chicago Flower and Garden Show – March
Winter Landscape Design Symposium, PA – Jan
Maryland Home and Garden Show – March
Wisconsin Garden Expo – Feb
Home and Garden Show Cleveland Ohio – Feb
Texas Home and Garden Show-  Feb
San Antonio Fall Home and Garden – Oct
Nashville Lawn and Garden Show – Feb
Dallas Blooms – Feb-April
Kansas City Garden Symposium – Feb
St Louis Home and Garden Show – Feb
Oklahoma Home and Garden Show – Jan
Salt Lake Home and Garden Fest – March
Northwest Flower and Garden Show, Seattle – Feb
Portland Fall Garden Show – Oct
Portland Garden and Patio Show
Oregon Yard, Patio and Garden Show – Feb
San Francisco Garden Show – March
San Francisco Botanical Garden Summer Fair – August
Fresno Home and Garden Show – March
California Home and Garden Show – Feb
Sunset Celebration Weekend – June