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Greenhouses to visit in Canada

The Verrière atlas lists 25 greenhouses in Canada, built between 1910 and 2022.

With some of the harshest winters in the inhabited world, Canada has made the greenhouse a place of city life as much as a botanical tool: Toronto's Edwardian dome at Allan Gardens, Vancouver's triodetic dome, Edmonton's pyramids and, since 2022, Winnipeg's The Leaf, one of the most ambitious greenhouses of its generation.

25Greenhouses
1910Oldest — Allan Gardens Conservatory (Palm House)
2022Newest — Great Vivarium (Grand Vivarium), Montréal Insectarium
22Cities
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All 25 greenhouses, oldest to newest

Allan Gardens Conservatory (Palm House), Toronto, Ontario
1910

Allan Gardens Conservatory (Palm House)

🇨🇦 Toronto, Ontario
Rebuilt as a glass dome after fire reduced the original pavilion to ashes in 1902.
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Parkwood Estate Greenhouses (National Historic Site), Oshawa, Ontario
1915–1917

Parkwood Estate Greenhouses (National Historic Site)

🇨🇦 Oshawa, Ontario
Six of motor magnate Sam McLaughlin's eleven greenhouses survive, taken apart, repaired and reglazed in glass as first built.
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Westmount Conservatory and Greenhouses, Westmount (Montreal), Quebec
1927

Westmount Conservatory and Greenhouses

🇨🇦 Westmount (Montreal), Quebec
A 1927 Lord & Burnham conservatory, closed in 2015 after glass panes fell and reopened in 2022 after a complete restoration.
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Tropical Greenhouse, Central Experimental Farm, Ottawa, Ontario
1938

Tropical Greenhouse, Central Experimental Farm

🇨🇦 Ottawa, Ontario
An octagonal Lord & Burnham glasshouse that stood in Major's Hill Park, downtown Ottawa, before its move to the Experimental Farm in 1938.
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Niagara Parks Floral Showhouse, Niagara Falls, Ontario
1946

Niagara Parks Floral Showhouse

🇨🇦 Niagara Falls, Ontario
Opened in 1946 a few minutes' walk from the Horseshoe Falls, it has staged a chrysanthemum show every autumn since then.
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Exhibition Greenhouses of the Montreal Botanical Garden, Montreal, Quebec
1956

Exhibition Greenhouses of the Montreal Botanical Garden

🇨🇦 Montreal, Quebec
Ten themed greenhouses tell the botanical story of the planet under one continuous ribbon of glass.
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1967

Centennial Botanical Conservatory

🇨🇦 Thunder Bay, Ontario
A 1967 centennial project, this free conservatory, recommended for closure in 2020, was almost entirely rebuilt in 2024–2025.
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Bloedel Conservatory, Vancouver, British Columbia
1969

Bloedel Conservatory

🇨🇦 Vancouver, British Columbia
A triodetic dome perched atop Vancouver, where more than 200 tropical birds fly free.
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Centennial Park Conservatory, Toronto (Etobicoke), Ontario
1969–1970

Centennial Park Conservatory

🇨🇦 Toronto (Etobicoke), Ontario
A free municipal glasshouse from 1970 combining palms, orchids, banana trees, cacti and seasonal flower shows.
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African Rainforest Pavilion (Toronto Zoo), Toronto (Scarborough), Ontario
1974

African Rainforest Pavilion (Toronto Zoo)

🇨🇦 Toronto (Scarborough), Ontario
Its steel-and-glass roofs, designed by Ron Thom in 1974, have sheltered the world's largest indoor habitat for lowland gorillas since 2001.
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Muttart Conservatory, Edmonton
1976

Muttart Conservatory

🇨🇦 Edmonton
Four tropical pyramids planted in a winter that reaches -30°C.
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Devonian Gardens, Calgary, Alberta
1977

Devonian Gardens

🇨🇦 Calgary, Alberta
Opened in 1977, this one-hectare glass-enclosed park fills a whole city block on the top floor of a downtown Calgary shopping centre.
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1986

Mediterranean Garden (RBG Centre, Royal Botanical Gardens)

🇨🇦 Burlington, Ontario
The only conservatory of the Royal Botanical Gardens, a two-storey glasshouse opened in 1986 for plants of the five Mediterranean-climate regions.
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Oakville Municipal Greenhouse and Conservatory, Oakville, Ontario
1990

Oakville Municipal Greenhouse and Conservatory

🇨🇦 Oakville, Ontario
A free tropical conservatory with a pond and waterfall, inside the municipal greenhouse that grows the flowers for Oakville's parks.
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1996

Bowring Park Conservatory

🇨🇦 St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador
A park greenhouse of 1947 rebuilt as a conservatory in 1996: a central fountain, bromeliads and birds of paradise in Newfoundland.
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Niagara Parks Butterfly Conservatory, Niagara Falls, Ontario
1996

Niagara Parks Butterfly Conservatory

🇨🇦 Niagara Falls, Ontario
More than 2,000 tropical butterflies fly freely beneath its glasshouse, replenished at a rate of 3,000 imported chrysalises each month.
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2001

Cambridge Butterfly Conservatory

🇨🇦 Cambridge, Ontario
A privately run tropical greenhouse where more than 2,000 free-flying butterflies of some 40 species live beside the Kossuth Bog.
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2009

ENMAX Conservatory (Calgary Zoo)

🇨🇦 Calgary, Alberta
Two 1960s greenhouses turned in 2009 into a tropical conservatory and butterfly garden, with LEED certification.
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2010 · 2024

Parc Marie-Victorin greenhouse (2010 tropical greenhouse, Mysterious Carnivores garden)

🇨🇦 Kingsey Falls, Quebec
Refitted in 2024, the park's greenhouse, until then called tropical, holds more than 1,000 carnivorous plants, including 15 Quebec species.
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2022

Great Vivarium (Grand Vivarium), Montréal Insectarium

🇨🇦 Montreal, Quebec
A sawtooth-roofed greenhouse where butterflies and leafcutter ants roam freely among some 150 species of plants.
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The Leaf, Winnipeg, Manitoba
2022

The Leaf

🇨🇦 Winnipeg, Manitoba
An ETFE greenhouse-sculpture whose unfurled roof draws on the spiral of a nautilus shell.
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Gage Park Tropical Greenhouse

🇨🇦 Hamilton, Ontario
A recent tropical glasshouse on a glulam timber frame, oriented towards the escarpment, where free-flying birds help control pests.
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Greenhouse & Tropical Gardens, Chinguacousy Park, Brampton, Ontario

Greenhouse & Tropical Gardens, Chinguacousy Park

🇨🇦 Brampton, Ontario
A municipal glasshouse with a glazed pyramid roof, planted with tropical foliage and succulents, in the middle of Brampton's large Chinguacousy Park.
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Indoor Showhouses, University of Alberta Botanic Garden, Near Devon (Parkland County), Alberta

Indoor Showhouses, University of Alberta Botanic Garden

🇨🇦 Near Devon (Parkland County), Alberta
Three display glasshouses (tropical, arid, temperate) in Alberta's largest botanic garden, west of Edmonton.
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Victoria Butterfly Gardens (indoor tropical greenhouse)

🇨🇦 Brentwood Bay (Central Saanich), British Columbia
A 12,000-sq-ft indoor jungle whose roof of glass panes on timber beams gave way to translucent polycarbonate in 2013.
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Architecture in Canada

Place Ville Marie, Montreal (Quebec)
1962

Place Ville Marie

🇨🇦 Montreal (Quebec)
A 188 m cruciform tower built over a railway trench, at the foot of which an esplanade covers an underground shopping gallery.
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Commerce Court West, Toronto (Ontario)
1972

Commerce Court West

🇨🇦 Toronto (Ontario)
A 57-storey tower clad in stainless steel, carried on pillars that tie it to a square plaza with a pool and jetted fountains.
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