Bonnie Richardson / Queensland

Catharine East

Centre Street

Churchill Circle

Dutch Memorial

Festival Gardens

Iris Garden

Pergola Garden

Shakespearean Gardens

The Ted Blowes Memorial Pollinator Peace Garden.

Library Garden

More Stratford Gardens

These lovely gardens on Queensland Road, are a good choice for a quiet walk with flowering plants, shrubs and trees.  

Catharine East memorial garden is on John Street South, almost directly opposite the main gates of Avondale Cemetery. It is a fine location for flowering and ornamental shrubs, including some very unusual varieties.

Centre Street Garden is at the intersection of Centre Street and T. J. Dolan Drive, east of John Street near a very interesting and pleasant residential area.  The garden is designed to represent two ponds separated by a tumbling stream, with very attractive and enjoyable plants suggesting a meadow overlooking the Avon River. 

Churchill Circle includes four garden areas with many perennial and annual varieties.  The garden is within the traffic circle at the end of John Street North, and it is not unusual to see cars making repeated circuits of the traffic circle to view the flowers. There is ample parking nearby for a walk around the gardens, which is highly recommended.

The Dutch Memorial Garden, at the intersection of Huron, Mornington and William Streets, commemorates Stratford’s friendship with Dutch Troops stationed here during the Second World War.  It has a fine display of red and white spring tulips (representing the relationship between Canada and Holland) and many beautiful summer flowers.  

These gardens (principally The Arthur Meighan Gardens, The Elizabethan Gardens and The Carpet Gardens) are on the grounds of the main theatre of Stratford Shakespeare Festival.  It is not unusual to meet visitors who are there specifically to enjoy the gardens with large varieties of perennial, annual and aquatic plants.

This garden is set in beautiful parkland on MacLagan Drive.  Visitors enjoy many beautiful varieties of early, mid-season and later iris with ornamental grasses and sedum as the season continues.

The Pergola garden is on the north shore of Lake Victoria.  Stratford’s first pergola, built in 1933, was destroyed in a 1937 flood.  This Pergola was constructed in 2010 and has become a very popular place for walking and enjoyment of surrounding gardens.

Extending west from Huron Street on the south shore of the Avon River, the Shakespearean Gardens have been an attraction since 1939, representing the beginning of Stratford’s park system.  Originally conceived as a setting for plants and flowers in Shakespeare’s writings, the gardens now have many more varieties, as well as a large selection from Shakespeare’s time.

Stratford’s newest public garden is in Upper Queens Park.  The garden is butterfly-shaped with plantings chosen particularly to attract butterflies and other pollinators. It is near other gardens in the area known as Confederation Park.

Stratford’s public gardens are major attractions, but the city has many more gardens to enjoy. As an annual Communities In Bloom participant, Stratford won the national competition in 2003 and is a finalist in 2017. Watch for gardens throughout the city with thousands of plants maintained by the Parks Department. Enjoy gardens maintained by Stratford businesses and the many gardens maintained by home owners. For those who enjoy gardens and gardening, there always seems something new to see in Stratford.