Guide to Powwow Country: Jardins de Métis National Historic Site of Canada - Grand-Métis, Québec

Jardins de Métis National Historic Site of Canada
Grand-Métis, Québec

The Jardins de Métis national historic site is an English-inspired garden created by Elsie Reford from about 1926 to 1958. The property, which covers approximately 18 hectares, is located on the banks of the St. Lawrence and Métis Rivers between the towns of Mont-Joli and Matane, near Sainte-Flavie, Quebec. The site includes one villa and six distinct garden areas and more than 500 horticultural varieties. Official recognition refers to the gardens as well as the built elements within the property boundary at the time of designation. Jardins de Métis was designated a national historic site of Canada in 1995 because  the gardens, planned and developed over a 30-year period, provide an excellent Canadian example of an English-inspired garden, with specialized gardens, winding paths, allée royale, and a variety of flower beds arranged in an informal manner; and the Jardins de Métis benefit from an exceptional microclimate, favourable to the growth of plants, flowers, bushes and trees, certain varieties of which are to be found nowhere else in the country. The gardens are on the grounds of Reford’s summer home which was given to her by her uncle, George Stephen, founder of the Canadian Pacific Railway and Canada’s leading entrepreneur of the 19th century. Originally a fishing lodge, Reford created the gardens from a rough landscape, taking full advantage of the site’s favourable microclimate and its sublime views.