Join the Movement to Build our National Botanical Garden in Ottawa
Canadensis is a registered Canadian charity. Donations are tax deductible. A tax receipt will be sent for all donations.
Canadensis our National Botanical Garden
For all of us
Contribute now to creating a legacy botanical garden for Ottawa, our Capital and Canada, benefiting all Canadians for generations to come.
The time has never been better.
We Have the Opportunity to Improve Our Quality of Life, and We’re Doing Something About It!
Canadensis: The Garden of Canada will offer a unique place to celebrate our great natural heritage and demonstrate our ongoing commitment to sustainability in the context of climate change.
Ottawa is the only G20 capital that has no botanical garden to display, interpret and promote Canada’s botanical diversity and beauty, as well as Canada’s vast horticultural, agricultural and arboricultural knowledge and expertise.
All life depends on plants. Botany matters. In today’s world, where environmental systems are increasingly interdependent, living plants are literally the “lungs” of the planet. They provide all of our food directly or indirectly. Plants provide most of the medicine used throughout the world as well as the building of raw materials and sources of many kinds of products, many of which we have yet to recognize or develop. Plants beautify and enrich our lives and give peace to our souls and facilitate our ability to envisage a more complete and richer future.
Canadian botany focus in one location
Our botanical garden will focus on displaying plants from all parts of Canada throughout the gardens, providing a unique venue for education, research, conservation and public enjoyment. Plants will be curated as collections within a living museum.
Education in Environmental Stewardship
In cooperation with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, the Arboretum, The Fletcher Wildlife Garden, and the Central Experimental Farm, Canadensis garden will be a public showcase for relevant research underway for our changing times.
With our orderly and diverse collections of plants and extensive education programs, we are ideally positioned to make major contribution to our lives and to help us envisage the future.
Sustainability and Enrichment
Sustainability and enrichment will be driving values for our Children’s Garden, Climate Change Lab, Economy Garden, Conservatory, Garden Design lab, Urban Agricultural exhibits and many more…
A Place to enjoy and rejuvenate
Gardens have the ability to heal our spirits in troubled times and to lead us to envisage a brighter, positive and productive future, as we pursue our busy lives in the midst of ever-competing demands of the modern world.
Jobs and Economic Benefits
Construction of this major infrastructure project will give a measurable boost to the construction industry. Once operational, the Garden will be a destination asset in Canada’s Capital, creating many permanent and seasonal positions within the site. The total economic and tourism spin offs to the National Capital area will be significant.
Of Interest
Plants of National Botanical Significance: Thank Yew! A Cancer-fighter from the Forest Floor
In mature forests, the towering trees attract most of the attention, but, sometimes, the less dominant plants also have interesting stories to tell. Dwelling in the shady understory of eastern North American forests is a prostrate, spreading shrub with national botanical significance in Canada because of its crucial role in human medicine. The Canada yew, Taxus…
In Praise of Ottawa’s Central Experimental Farm: History and Heritage
Thank you to Felicity Gerard for creating this wonderful video about the Central Experimental Farm. Thanks also to Jane Panet of the Ottawa Garden Club for sharing it with us. Some beautiful photographs of Canadensis are included. Amazing!
Canada Goldenrod: Much Maligned and Misjudged
The Canada goldenrod is scientifically known as Solidago Canadensis. Other common names of the flower are Giant Goldenrod, Tall Goldenrod, and Rough. The plant has a bad reputation for causing allergy symptoms during the summer. However, the culprit for hay fever is wind-pollinated plants, which this goldenrod is not. The bountiful swarm of insects found…
A Central Location of National Significance
Located along Prince of Wales Drive and adjacent to the Historic Rideau Canal at Hartwells Locks, our National Botanical Garden occupies a 34-acres parcel of land at the southeast corner of the Central Experimental Farm.
Canadensis is situated on unceded Anishinaabe Algonquin territory. The peoples of the Anishinaabe Algonquin Nation have lived on this territory for millennia. Their culture and presence have nurtured and continue to nurture this land. The Canadian Botanical Garden Society honours the peoples and land of the Anishinaabe Algonquin Nation.
With the addition of Canadensis to the existing Canada Agricultural and Food Museum, Fletcher Wildlife Garden, National Arboretum, Central Experimental Farm Ornamental Beds and Commissioners’ Park Floral Displays, these varied attractions will provide a unique horticultural hub. This exciting world-class garden destination will benefit the greater community as well as visitors from across Canada and elsewhere.
Canadensis Looking South
Canadensis Looking West
Canadensis Looking North
This is Ottawa’s chance to add a city-improving enhancement that will attract tourists and residents year round. Let’s seize the moment.
– Randall Denley
