GPOD on the Road: Gage Park Tropical Greenhouse


Friend-of-the-GPOD Cherry Ong is taking us along today to tour a beautiful greenhouse.

Serendipitous visits are fun! In a recent trip to Ontario, we saw a street banner that advertised the Spring Bulb Show at the Gage Park Tropical Greenhouse in Hamilton, Ontario. I didn’t even know about the greenhouse, so after Googling it I decided it was worth checking out.

The Gage Park Tropical Greenhouse is located at 1000 Main Street East, Hamilton. It is a newly constructed 14,000-square-foot (1300-square-meter), fully accessible greenhouse that features a collection of subtropical plants, unique species, and palm trees. It is designed as a community gathering place, providing opportunities as an educational center and a rentable space for special events, including wedding photos. The greenhouse also features waterfalls, ponds with fish, turtles, and waterlilies, and tiered concrete seating. Admission is free.

photo from the bottom of a Fiji fan palm up into the leavesI can’t get over how fabulous this Fiji fan palm is! (Pritchardia pacifica). According to the information at the greenhouse, it is native to Tonga and can be found in similar climate types in the southwestern Pacific such as Fiji, Samoa, and the Marquesas, but this was likely due to human introduction in these areas.

wide shot of various palms in the greenhouseTowering palms provide scale to how spectacular the height and size of this greenhouse is.

view down the length of Gage Park Tropical GreenhouseThis greenhouse looks so full for a relatively newly built space.

view down the center of a plant with spiky foliageThe foliage on this Zuzuland cycad (Encephalartos ferox) is just beautiful.

large vine with orange flowers climbing up a greenhouse beamI believe this vine scrambling up the greenhouse structure is some species of monkey brush (Combretum).

close up of bright orange monkey brush flowerMonkey brush flowers have such a brilliant color!

close up of bright pink and white flowersThe bright red flowers of Clerodendron thomsoniae, aka the bleeding heart vine, are set off so beautifully by the crisp white calyxes.

plants hanging off greenhouse beamsA basket full of ferns hangs from the support that the Clerodendron is scrambling up.

giant greenhouse ventLook at this enormous vent! I imagine they can grow anything under the greenhouse and keep it healthy with a ventilation system this large.

silvery blue Cuban wax palmI went gaga over this Cuban wax palm (Copernicia hospita) too!

close up of Cuban wax palm foliageCuban wax palm is native to Cuba and looks stunning with this striking blue foliage.

 

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Originally posted 2023-04-28 16:29:03.