Nova Scotia Garden Travel Coalition launches Nova Scotia’s Garden Road Trip

2015-06-23 14:30:58

The Nova Scotia Garden Travel Coalition is launching a tourism initiative that links together nine gardens throughout central and southwest Nova Scotia. Nova Scotia’s Garden Road Trip offers a route of garden destinations to plant & garden lovers seeking plant and landscape joy.

“Gardening and Garden Tourism are hot,” says volunteer coordinator, Sheila Stevenson, “and Nova Scotia could be, but is not, on the Garden Traveller’s map.” According to Michel Gauthier, Executive Director of the Canadian Garden Council, “Over the next 10 years, Canada will see unprecedented growth in Garden Tourism.”

Research shows that gardens are key motivators for travelling, or enhancements for a destination. Travel Activities and Motivations Survey, Canadian & US Markets, Ontario (TAMS) in 2006 showed that

13 million North Americans visited gardens of Canada while on overnight trips
Virtually ½ of travelling Canadians and American attend horticultural-related events and attractions while on a pleasure trip
10.5% of Canadians specifically travel to visit garden-themed attractions, as do 13.1% of Americans

Garden travel connects visitors to the people and culture of their destination. Garden tourists are learners and want to experience new things. They are attracted, like pollinators, to vegetation and to landscapes, parks, outdoor activities, cultural activities, food, and shopping. They want to know about plants they’ve seen and where to buy them.

A productive conversation about Nova Scotia’s Garden Culture and Garden Tourism, hosted in Annapolis Royal in August 2013 by Keith Crysler and Sheila Stevenson of the board of directors of the Annapolis Royal Historic Gardens, included representatives from gardens and the trades, as well as organizations and supporters.

A working group, now the NS Garden Travel Coalition, formed to move toward two goals: develop a directory of where to see all kinds of plants & gardens in NS, and get gardens recognized by the NS Tourism Agency as a category in the NS tourism product. While both goals are still to be achieved, the working group accepted the Agency’s offer to put together an itinerary of gardens for the Road Trip series hosted on the Agency’s website. They came up with an inaugural mix of public and commercial gardens for the project that include:

Truro. Dalhousie Agricultural Campus. Multiple gardens
Cole Harbour. Cole Harbour Heritage Farm gardens
Halifax. The Halifax Public Gardens
Grand Pre. Tangled Garden
W0lfville. Harriet Irving Botanical Gardens
Annapolis Royal. Historic Gardens
Kejimkujik National Park and National Historic Site. Butterfly Gardens
Milton, Queens C0unty. Pine Grove Park
West Pubnico. Ouest-Ville Perennials

Find details about each Road Trip site at nsgardens.com. Then plan to hit the road . Coalition member Nina Newington observes that “our garden landscapes in Nova Scotia complement the diversity of our natural landscapes. Nova Scotia offers really distinct locales, each within an hour-or-two drive. We’re a great Road Trip kind of place.”

And come out to the Halifax Public Gardens, Saturday, June 20 from 10 am to 4 pm. Coalition rep and Dal AC Gardens’ Jeff Morton will be at a tent near Hort Hall and the ice cream. The launch coincides with Garden Days, Canada’s coast to coast celebration of all things gardening, and offers plenty of activities at the Halifax Public Gardens, June 19th to 21st.

In the meantime, the Coalition is in search of partners and players to gather info and experiences for the directory, and to recognize the reality that Garden Tourism is a good bet for this province and worth the development required to put us on the Garden Travel map.

For more information, contact Sheila Stevenson. [email protected]. 902-479-3740

Click here to download Nova Scotia’s Garden Road Trip brochure

More News | Back