Van Dusen Botanical Gardens
5251 Oak Street
Vancouver, BC
(604) 878-5860
http://www.vandusengarden.org

Location:
The garden is located in the heart of Vancouver at 5251 Oak Street at the corner of 37th Ave, between Oak & Granville Streets. Travel time by car or bus from downtown Vancouver or Vancouver International Airport is 10 minutes.

General Information:
In 1910, this site was an isolated acreage of stumps and bush. It was owned by the Canadian Pacific Railway and was leased by the Shaughnessy Golf Club from 1911 until 1960 when the golf club moved to a new location. The railway proposed a subdivision, but was opposed by many citizens. In 1966, the VanDusen Botanical Garden Association was formed to assist the Vancouver Park Board with saving the site. This effort was successful and the land was purchased with shared funding from the City of Vancouver, the Government of British Columbia and the Vancouver Foundation with a donation by W. J. VanDusen, after whom the Garden was named.
Development started in 1971 and VanDusen Botanical Garden officially opened to the public on August 30, 1975.

Age Group:
All age groups would like to explore flowers!

Family Adventure Programs: They offer programs called “Family Adventures” they are for families with children aged 4 and older

Hours of Operation:
Open 7 days a week (except Christmas Day)
January & February 10am - 4pm
March 10am - 5pm
April 10am - 6pm
May 10am - 8pm
June, July & August 10am - 9pm
September 10am - 7pm
October 10am - 5pm
November & December 10am - 4pm

Garden Shop:
Hours: 10 am – closing

Cost: (Currently)
Regular Admission Rates
(GST included) Summer Winter

Apr 1-Sept 30 & Oct 1-Mar 31
Adult $8.25 $6.00
Senior (65+) $6.00 $4.25
Youth (13-18 years) $6.25 $4.50
Child (6-12) $4.25 $3.00
Family (2 adults + children under 19) $19.00 $12.75
Children under 6 Free Free

* Special events such as Vancouver Sun Garden show and Christmas Festival of Lights, price increases, please see site for special event pricing

What is there to Do and See?
Family Adventurer Programs:
• Family Adventures are for children and their chaperones to enjoy together as a family (maximum 2 adults per family)
• Children must be accompanied by an adult
• Pre-registration is required*.
• Free to members
• Non-members: included with Garden admission
• Dress for weather as all activities take place out in the garden

In this Adventurer program, they offer ongoing programs for parents and kids like a scavenger hunt, planting seeds, play a range of fun, active nature games, explore 55 acres with texture in mind - how many different textures can you find in the Garden and how many different ways are there to collect them? Also try your hand at representing the Garden through a range of arty mediums such as paint, pastels and printing on this creative tour through VanDusen and/or Collect Nature's Treasures, discover where they came from and then turn them into your own works of art

Children’s Garden:
They have an area just meant for children to see and enjoy! Plants of unusual or bizarre shapes are planted here such as the corkscrew hazel, Corylus avellana 'Contorta'; weeping walnut, Juglans regia 'Pendula', and the pendulous mulberry bush, Morus alba 'Pendula'. Topiary figures of legendary beasts such as Sasquatch, Bigfoot, Ogopogo, the Lake Okanagan monster and a dragon are featured. The bench and seats are made of nephrite jade and the little boy with the dolphin in bronze is a replica of the Verrochio Putto in Florence. Near the espalier-trained apple trees on the cedar fence, is a small border which contains various food plants. In the summer, exotic fruits, pomegranates and bananas, are sometimes planted.

The 55 different areas to see are:

1. Children's Garden
2. Rose Garden
3. Ground Cover Plants
4. Laburnums and Related Trees
5. Perennials
6. Oaks (Quercus)
7. Beeches (Fagus)
8. Hydrangeas
9. Rhododendron Walk
10. Camellias
11. Korean Pavilion
12. Canadian Heritage Garden
13. Meditation Garden
14. The Maze
15. Sino-Himalayan Garden
16. Fern Dell
17. Conifers
18. Maples (Acer)
19. Lindens (Tilias)
20. Japanese Maples
21. Giant Redwoods
22. Bamboos
23. Yews (Taxus)
24. Crabapples & Flowering
Cherries (Malus and Prunus)
25. Bald Cypress
26. Eastern North
27. Hollies
28. Viburnums
29. Gingkos
29. Magnolias
30. Mediterranean Garden
31. Southern Hemisphere Flora
32. Heather Garden
33. Rose Family (Rosaceae)
34. Rock Garden, Glass House & Penjing (Bonsai) House
35. Western North American Flora
36. Phyllis Bentall Garden
37. Horse Chestnuts & Buckeyes
38. Herb Garden
39. Alma VanDusen Garden
40. Stone Garden
41. Mountain Ashes (Sorbus)
42. Ashes (Fraxinus)
43. Meconopsis Dell
44. Tree Peonies & Lilies (Lilium)
45. Firs (Abies)
46. Grotto
47. Lath House
48. Scottish Shelter
49. Garden Pavilion
50. Heron Lake
51. Livingstone Lake
52. Heather Lake
53. Library
54. Shaughnessy

Tours:
From April though the end of October, VanDusen Garden offers a variety of docent-led walking and cart tours of the Garden.

Guided Walking Tours
Daily at 2 p.m. plus Wednesday mornings at 11 a.m. Free for Members or with Garden admission. Meet at the Information Desk on the Deck.

Group Walking Tours
Available everyday for groups of 10 or more. Must be booked in advance by calling 604-257-8666.

Cart Tours
For seniors and the disabled, every day at 1, 2 and 3 p.m. plus Wednesday mornings at 11 a.m. Advance booking required for weekdays by calling 604-257-8666. Weekends and holidays are on a first come, first served basis. A cart holds 5 passengers and only one cart can be reserved at a time. We encourage groups booking for more than 5 people to

Garden Shop:
Where you can buy books, plants, tools, home & garden accessories, gifts, stationery, seeds and even jewellery .

Sculpture:
VanDusen houses a collection of several sculptures, including fountains, sited throughout the Garden. Eleven larger stone sculptures were created at the Vancouver International Stone Sculpture Symposium, held here in 1975. Additional sculptures came to the Garden as gifts or were commissioned by VanDusen Botanical Garden Association (VBGA).

Restauraunt:
Shaughnessy Restaurant at the renowned 55-acre VanDusen Botanical Garden. The garden restaurant provides a retreat like no other for those with discerning tastes - casual elegance, soothing ambiance, and picturesque garden vistas. Our seasonal, innovative contemporary West Coast menu focussing on fresh ingredients, many from the VanDusen Botanical Garden itself, is perfect for any meal of the day… a light lunch, weekend brunch, afternoon tea, or formal dinner.

Special Events;
See their calendar of events at http://www.city.vancouver.bc.ca/parks/parks/vandusen/website/events/calendar.htm for some neat programs!

Festival of Lights 2007:
December 7, 2007 - Jan 1, 2008. Times: 4:30 - 9:30 p.m. Closed December 25.

What can children gain from visiting the garden?
School children leave the Garden with a greater respect for nature, an increased understanding of how all its components interrelate and, most importantly, their own role in stewarding the natural world. Children are encouraged to use all their senses to explore the world about them. Their joy at experiencing its wonders is profound. For instance, in Passionate Pollinators, students from grades two through four are guided through the complexities of plant pollination. 'Why do plants have flowers?' 'What is pollen?' '‘What do flowers turn into?' 'How do they do it?' '‘What do insects, such as bees and moths, have to do with it?' 'Why do plants need to create seeds?'

These are big questions. Do you know the answers? Any eight- to ten-year old who has been to a VanDusen school program will be able to tell you. When the children see, smell, feel, touch and sometimes even taste what pollination is all about, abstract concepts become real and meaningful. They learn the value of living things and come to see that it is all connected. For nearly 30 years, VanDusen Garden has been connecting kids to nature and, by extension, to conservation.

Tips:
1. Dress appropriate for the weather
2. If enrolling in a program, call ahead and pre-register
3. Dress in clothes that can get dirty especially if enrolling in Family adventurer program!