Garden Routes of Canada South is an organization which has joined together with fellow gardeners, to promote and offer recognition to nurseries and garden associate businesses, with a strong focus to those located throughout the rural communities, within Chatham & Essex counties.  

Specialized nurseries and unique garden accessories can be found, making your gardening experience exciting, enjoyable and full of inspiration, to assist in creating your own personal garden or garden retreat.

With such a diversity of nursery products and accessories available, we are proud to set ourselves outside the larger box stores as being truly original, with special attention to personalized service and a commitment to ensure your visit is positive, memorable and most importantly, with a desire to come back again.  

Our signature daisy sign is displayed at the roadside, allowing you to recognize our members at a glance.  Members also have display gardens on their property, designed for your viewing, all to be incorporated as part of your Garden Routes experience.

We hope you allow us the opportunity to enhance, grow and nurture your gardens this season!

The Carolinian Zone

Garden Routes of Canada South is located throughout the Carolinian Zone, within Chatham-Kent and Essex counties. This distinctive zone is quite small compared to other Canadian vegetation zones, making up only 1% of Canada’s total land area.  To our advantage, the climate of this region is the main reason we have such a unique ecosystem.

Affectionately termed  ‘the banana belt’ of Canada, our zone boasts the warmest average annual temperatures, the longest frost free seasons and the mildest winters in Ontario. This warmer climate, provides us with a greater number of both flora and fauna species, than any other ecosystem in Canada.

It has been estimated that some 2200 species of herbaceous plants are found here, many of them quite rare.  In fact, statistics have proven 65% of Ontario’s rare plants are found within this region.  Trees such as Pawpaw, Blue Ash and Tulip are familiar. Shrub favourites, Burning Bush, Sand Cherry and Climbing Prairie Rose are also grown. Lastly, perennials such as Swamp Rose Mallow and even our own cactus ‘The Eastern Prickly Pear’ are grown within this astonishing zone.

In much the same way and similar in nature, this special ecosystem also attracts numerous species of birds. Close to 400 different species, representing over half of the species in all of Canada, reptiles and amphibians, make their home here. Rondeau Provincial Park and Pointe Peele National Park are truly testaments to this wonder, as they attract hundreds of bird watchers annually.

The Carolinian zone habitats and ecosystems include forests, tallgrass prairies, savannas, wetlands, streams and shorelines. Each of these ecosystems has a distinctive set of species.

To create and nurture a network of gardeners to share in the diversity of our gardens and thereby not only offering knowledge, but a pleasant experience exploring Essex and Chatham-Kent counties in what is better known as “Canada’s most Southern Garden Route”.