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The green oasis that is the Palm House at Toronto's Allan Gardens, open every day
The green oasis that is the Palm House at Toronto's Allan Gardens, open every day

Allan Gardens

Downtown Toronto’s indoor botanical garden, Allan Gardens (free! open every day!), is where you go when winter is too much.

The main Palm House conservatory we see today (above) opened in 1910, replacing an 1879 pavilion destroyed by fire in 1902. There are five other greenhouses, including (with plants per the City of Toronto’s Allan Gardens website) the Tropical Houses (orchids, bromeliads, begonia, gesneriads), the Cool Temperate House (camellias, jasmine, plants from Australia and the Mediterranean), and the Tropical Landscape House (cycads, gingers, hibiscus, a green jade vine).

Toronto's Allan Gardens in 1890, showing the Horticultural Pavilion (1879-1902). Photo by Josiah Bruce, courtesy Toronto Public Library.
Toronto’s Allan Gardens in 1890, showing the Horticultural Pavilion (1879-1902). Photo by Josiah Bruce, courtesy Toronto Public Library.

My favourite greenhouse, the Arid House, features a wide selection of cacti and succulents, and offers a very welcome respite when the weather’s -25° outside. You can almost imagine yourself in Arizona. Almost.

An educational sign explains that while all cacti are succulent (containing fleshy, water-retaining tissue), not all succulents are cacti. So there you go.
An educational sign explains that while all cacti are succulent (containing fleshy, water-retaining tissue), not all succulents are cacti. So there you go.

Seek out the resident turtles in one of the water features. They are endlessly watchable. On a visit six years ago a caretaker told me that they were not “installed” by the conservatory staff, but simply appeared (due to someone’s offering them a better home?). Nevertheless, they seem healthy and happy, and are pretty adorable.

Only five or six turtles can fit on the rock at a time, so as one comes up, another plops off. Over and over. (This is a 2013 photo but they're still there in 2019.)
Only five or six turtles can fit on the rock at a time, so as one comes up, another plops off. Over and over. (This is a 2013 photo but they’re still there in 2019.)

A sign I’d never noticed on the north side of the complex referred to Allan Gardens Children’s Conservatory, which made me wonder if I’d been getting the name of the gardens wrong all along. Nope, here’s the answer.

The latest addition to the site is the Children’s Conservatory, which opened in 2004. The University of Toronto Botany Department donated the historic greenhouse (built in 1932), moved it from its original location and attached to the existing conservatory at Allan Gardens. The Children’s Conservatory is closed to the public but offers horticultural programs for children.City of Toronto, Allan Gardens Conservatory

Allan Gardens also starred in the erotic thriller Chloe (2009), directed by Atom Egoyan and featuring Julianne Moore, Amanda Seyfried, and Liam Neeson. So that lends the place a certain unforgettable je ne sais quoi (see trailer below).

Allan Gardens is museum no. 38 in my #100museums challenge (see 100 Museums Challenge).