Royal Botanical Gardens, Ontario

Royal Botanical Gardens

Abbreviation	RBG
Type	Organizations based in Canada with royal patronage
Legal status	active
Purpose	advocate and public voice, educator and network
Headquarters	Burlington, Ontario, Canada
Region served	Burlington and Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Official language	English, French

Royal Botanical Gardens (RBG) is headquartered in Burlington and also owns extensive natural areas and gardens lands in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. It is one of the major tourist attractions between Niagara Falls and Toronto, as well as a significant local and regional horticultural, education, conservation, and scientific resource. On 31 July 2006, Royal Botanical Gardens was selected as the National Focal Point for the Global strategy for plant conservation (GSPC) by Environment Canada.

The 980 hectares (2,422 acres) of nature sanctuary owned by the Royal Botanical Gardens is considered an important plant biodiversity hotspot for Canada, with a very high proportion of the wild plants of Canada in one area; is an Important Bird Area according to Bird Studies Canada;, and is part of the Niagara Escarpment World Biosphere Reserve. More than 1,100 species of plants grow within its boundaries including the Bashful Bulrush (Trichophorum planifolium) which is found nowhere else in Canada, and the largest remaining population of Canada's most endangered tree, the Red Mulberry (Morus rubra). Both of these plants are listed as Endangered in Canada under the Species at Risk Act. In 2008, the RBG was designated as an Important Amphibian and Reptile Area by CARCNET, the Canadian Amphibian and Reptile Conservation Network.

Royal Botanical Gardens developed as a concept in the 1920s under the City of Hamilton Board of Park Management, led by Thomas McQuesten. Initially the proposed botanical garden was to be located along the south shore of Cootes Paradise Marsh surrounding the Hamilton campus of McMaster University. The proposed botanical garden would also protect extensive natural areas along the marsh.

Formal permission was obtained in 1930 from King George V to call the gardens the "Royal Botanical Gardens". At the same time as the proposal for the botanical gardens was under consideration, the City of Hamilton was undertaking an ambitious program of beautification on the nearby Burlington Heights. The North-Western Entrance to Hamilton project included an extensive set of gardens designed by the Toronto firm of Wilson, Bunnell and Borgstrom. Among these was the Rock Garden created by lining a 5.5 acre abandoned gravel pit with limestone from the Niagara Escarpment. In 1932 the Board of Park Management brought together the Burlington Heights gardens and the south shore of Cootes Paradise as Royal Botanical Gardens.