One of the delights of Norval on the Credit River, northwest of Toronto, is the community garden dedicated to Lucy Maud Montgomery, the village’s most illustrious former citizen who spent from 1926 to 1935 living in the Presbyterian manse with her minister husband Ewan Macdonald and their sons Stuart and Chester.

It was in an upstairs bedroom of the manse looking out on Russell’s Hill of Pines, one of her favourite places, that Montgomery wrote five novels and completed two and a half volumes of her personal journals.

From spring to late fall the Lucy Maud Montgomery Heritage Garden blooms with various popular flowers introduced to Canada by nineteenth century settlers. Flowers, shrubs and trees from many of the village’s gardens provide a profusion of non-stop colour. Marion Webb Laird’s white iris and Mary Coupland Maxwell’s lilacs take pride of place along with tansy, bouncing bette, mauve wisteria, violets, English lavender, Shasta daisies, hollyhocks, coneflowers. Solomon’s seal and columbines, to name only a few varieties. Many of Montgomery’s own favourites are there as recorded in her journals from her memories of her grandparents’ P.E.I. homestead and her former home in Leaskdale, Ontario.

Visitors to the garden can learn much about its heritage plants and the fascinating history of one of its roses, a rare specimen of great age sometimes called the Steeple Rose which was found by the late Ruth Thompson in the garden of the former United Church manse.

Although it was obviously an old rose, identification was difficult, taking several years.
The deep pink flowers are quite double and intensely fragrant. In about one sixth of the roses the eye in the centre develops into a cluster of perfect little rosebuds.

Eventually the rose was identified as Prolifera de Redoute. From it’s French name it is almost certain that the rose was once grown in the famous rose garden created by Napoleon’s wife, the Empress Josephine. Josephine collected all the then-known roses in the world at her country house Malmaison and commissioned the artist Pierre-Joseph Redoute in 1804 to paint portraits of her roses and lilies, a task that continued until her death in 1814.

Another remarkable feature of the garden is the working analemmatic sundial. One of only seven in North America it was dedicated in 1997 to honour Norval’s men and women who served Canada in times of war. Its inscription reads: United-in-time-parted-in-time-to-be-reunited-when-time-shall-be-no-more. Two beautiful flower beds surround the sundial with peonies, sweet Cicely, blue corn flowers, lupins and mother of thyme.

Like all gardens, Lucy Maud Montgomery’s is a work in progress. In 2006, through a Trillium grant, the citizens of Norval celebrated the 100th Anniversary of the Norval Women’s Institute with the opening of the garden’s interpretive gazebo. Here visitors can sit and relax, perhaps reading Montgomery’s poetry, surrounded by many of the flowers she loved so well.


Today, the LMM garden and its information kiosk are carefully maintained through the volunteer efforts of the Norval Community Association Garden Club.  For more information contact, Kathy Gastle. Tel: 905-877-7059.