Serene Landscapes - Magic and Mystery in the Great Public Gardens of North America

Next Sunday I'll be speaking at the Ontario Rock and Hardy Plant Society at 1:30pm. The meeting is at the Toronto Botanical Gardens in the main hall. The topic is "Magic and Mystery in the Great Public Gardens of North America".  We visit public gardens where this theme is alive in the garden design, structures and plantings.  We range from the magician's tricks to the mysteries of the universe.  Today's garden - the Aga Khan Museum and Park falls into the latter range.  It is a spiritual and mystical garden.  For those of you living in Toronto it is an easy trip to visit and a special experience awaits you.  Here's more... The Aga Khan Museum and Park has been planted for an autumn show of colour.  I went to see what the display looked like.  There is a depth and height of the building on the landscape that is remarkable and is created with the reflecting infinity pools. I was looking for these reflecting pools to create magic with the orange and red leaves of the trees, and for the white building to contrast with the colours and magnify the intensity of colour. You can see the effects of the reflecting pool in the second picture. I didn't find the brilliance of colour that might have been - with the high winds of the last few weeks, there aren't many leaves on the trees.  With the multi-stemed trees, there will be many branches on the trees.  As they mature over time, the show will be something to see.

Views of Niagara

I was at a garden meeting at the Toronto Botanical Gardens yesterday and took some time to visit the Aga Khan Museum and Garden.  I wanted to see the Autumn colours as this is a key feature of the plant choices.  There was a some colour, but the leaves have been blown off the trees so there was less than I'd hoped for. This is such an astonishing building and garden.  With the infinity water pools, the white walls of the building, and the grand walk ways, everything is harmonized and serene. Coming back to Niagara, we drove around the escarpment and took a view of Niagara Falls from Megalomaniac the Winery.  Remember the posting last week  'The Great Toronto Mirage'?  Yesterday's view of Toronto was very clear and the buildings on the landscape extend from Toronto right through to Hamilton in a continuous line. At Megalomaniac, I was able to get a good picture of the Niagara Falls view, and include a cropped view so you can see the 'thumb print' stubby building in the centre.  It is Brock University in St. Catharines, and then Niagara Falls is beyond that.  The Skyline Tower is the telling shape of Niagara Falls. There are no articles (other than camera lens compression) to explain this compression phenomenon that we saw. Storms were ahead for the Niagara Falls area.  Voting is ahead for us today.

The Aga Khan Museum and Garden

I've seen the garden of the decade.  We visited the Aga Khan Museum and Garden yesterday. I will give you more information on the gardens and the design - here are some pictures for now.