Gardens are rarely on my to-do list when I visit a city.  I just don’t get a kick out of looking at rosebushes and flowerbeds.  So I didn’t have high expectations when I checked out Vancouver’s VanDusen Botanical Garden (on Oak Street, between 37th and 33rd avenues) for the very first time over the weekend.

Turns out I was completely wrong.  Although VanDusen does have some spectacular flora, the word “garden” doesn’t do it justice.  It’s more like an all-natural theme park, conceived on a enormous scale and executed brilliantly.

Photo credit: Remy Scalza

First, VanDusen is huge.  Because it’s not far at all from the downtown core, I was expecting a modest little park, a la Chinatown’s Dr. Sun Yat-Sen garden.  But VanDusen encompasses 55 acres of grasslands, forests, lakes and even a waterfall.  It’s big enough to get lost in – and I think that’s exactly the point.

A bewildering web of pathways leads from the entrance into the gardens.  There’s no single stroll or circuit to complete.  So you’re left to wander and explore.  One moment, you’re pushing through dense stands of rhododendrons, whose branches form a tunnel overhead.  The next, you’re on the edge of a lagoon cluttered with lily pads and lotus flowers.  Up ahead, a bamboo grove offers shelter from the afternoon sun.

The sheer size of VanDusen means you get a kind of tranquility and seclusion that’s hard to find in the city – especially on a beautiful summer day, when Vancouver top spots like Stanley Park and English Bay are bustling with crowds.   VanDusen’s admission fee keeps the masses out and – though it’s a bit steep at $10.25 – is easily worth it.

And I haven’t even mentioned the hedge maze yet.  Tucked away in a remote nook of the park is a large – and surprisingly complex – maze composed of thousands of 8-foot-tall pyramidal cedars.  I wandered in expecting to zip right through and got lost inside for five minutes.

What makes everything that much more impressive is that VanDusen got its start only in 1975, after a dedicated group of citizens banded together to save the Shaughnessy Golf Club from development.  It’s amazing to think that in just 35 years or so, gardeners have transformed an old golf course into a park with lakes, waterfalls and elaborate biomes representing areas as diverse as the Mediterranean and the Himalayas.

Any other VanDusen fans out there?  What makes the garden unique for you?