Located just a few minutes west of Highway 2 between Calgary and Red Deer, Olds College Botanic Garden is easy to walk, well-designed, with beautiful plants.

To see what some of Alberta's best gardeners and students can do, the Olds College Botanic Garden is worth stopping for.

Where is Olds College?

Olds College, established in 1913, is in the town of Olds, Alberta, Canada, population 7,248. It is about 60 miles (96 kilometres) north of Calgary.

Olds is in Plant Hardiness Zone 3a

In Canada, Zone 1 is the most difficult hardiness zone, where only the toughest plants live year-round. Zone 3 is a little more forgiving, but still challenging. In addition to a short growing period (180 frost-free days is the average for Alberta), Olds gardeners face temperature extremes, hail, and low rainfall. Olds is close enough to the Rocky Mountains to experience the sudden drying wind known as the Chinook. And these are just the climatic constraints - growers also have the usual pests eating their beautiful greens.

Horticultural Centre of Excellence

Because of its long tradition of horticultural education and research, the Olds College community has many skilled growers. The students, faculty, alumni, staff, and community partners all contribute to the Botanic Garden's success. That wealth of knowledge shows in the abundance and variety of vigorous, beautiful plants found here.

See a Variety of Gardens in One Place

As at September 2007, there are 16 gardens:

• Rose Garden
• Iris Dell
• Arthur Kemp Memorial Garden
• Natural Area
• Conifers
• Water Garden
• Alpine Garden
• Annual Trials
• Rescue Crabs
• Shade Garden
• Perennial Trials
• Asiatic Lilies
• Alumni Peony Garden
• Herb Garden
• Day Lilies
• Alberta Bred Lilies

The visitor will see an encouraging variety of trees, including pears (with fruit), apples, including espalier form, and the bur oak (Quercus robur). The garden demonstrates that even in Zone 3a, a skillful grower can produce surprisingly successful results. It is a fantastic place to learn plant identification, and to appreciate the beauty of flowers, foliage and form in all seasons.

Easy Walking or Rolling

The Botanic Garden is almost flat. For the visitor who uses a wheelchair or has mobility limitations, these gardens are as easy as it gets.

For Those With No Energy

The garden is about 600 metres (approximately) from end to end. On weekends, the parking lots at either end are free and generally not busy. The visitor can park very close to the garden walkway and enter the garden immediately. On the Olds College website there are downloadable maps and photos .

Finding Toilets and Shelter

Although Olds College has 1,300 full-time students, the campus can be surprisingly quiet on Sundays. On the one hand this makes free parking easy to find, but unfortunately, most buildings are locked and there are very limited visitor facilities.

There is a security guard inside the student residence hall (Frank Grisdale Hall) at the south end of the garden, and there are toilets fairly close to his post inside the building.

Take a Break from Highway 2

When travelling between Calgary and Edmonton via Highway 2 (the Queen Elizabeth II Highway), take the Olds exit and head to the town. The College is prominent.

From Olds, Highway 2A runs to the north and south, and Highway 27 goes west to Sundre and the Rockies, and east to Drumheller, home of the dinosaur museum - the world-famous Royal Tyrrell Museum.

Here's this site's blog entry on Breaking the Highway Habit, inspired by a visit to Olds.