Toronto Botanical Garden

Though it teemed with overgrown plants and weeds, the property that eventually became Edwards Gardens satisfied Toronto businessman Rupert Edwards's dreams of living in the country. The addition of one of Canada's largest rockeries and a private 9-hole golf course helped rejuvenate the once unruly land, which Edwards converted into a public park in 1956. These days, themed gardens sprawl across the award-winning facility's nearly four acres, where guests can pass through aromatic plant displays and pick up tips and techniques for their own gardening. Elsewhere, the sloping green roof and 5,000-square-foot glass pavilion of The George and Kathy Dembroski Centre for Horticulture shelters guests as they learn about the gardens' numerous green initiatives. Lectures, workshops, special events, and children's education programs further enrich each visitor's horticultural knowledge, as do Weston Family Library's nearly 10,000 books, periodicals, and tell-all memoirs penned by the ivy that's decorated area mansions for generations.