Article contentWe walked on to a 200-year-old weeping beech, one of the gardens’ star attractions, which is insured for $250,000 if it dies. From the looks of it, it would not be any time soon. Article content “It may leaf out for 10 years and then suddenly give up the ghost,” said Cabrita. “But we are very hopeful.” Article contentAs they are for the rest of the recovering trees, which they hope will outlive us all. Article content A carpet bed commemorating the 2025 American Rhododendron Society Spring Convention, which took place in June in Wolfville, is seen at the Halifax Public Gardens on Wednesday, July 30, 2025.Ryan Taplin – The Chronicle Herald Photo by Ryan TaplinArticle contentThe outpouring of concern about their fate has been touching, said Cabrita. Article contentArborists from all over — like the Avengers assembling to battle Thanos — put their heads together to treat the wounded. Financial contributions came in from across the continent to help with tree care and rehabilitation. Article contentThis past winter, Cabrita picked up the phone and there was someone with a Tennessee drawl saying, “We’d love to know how the trees are doing.” Article contentThis should have been no surprise. People care deeply about the gardens, from the folks who live in the nearby apartment buildings and think of it is their backyard, to the tai chi practitioners who train under a canopy of trees there, the concertgoers who listen and dance there, and the chess aficionados who ponder the next move seated at a part of the gardens that was once home to Canada’s first public lawn tennis court. Article contentArticle contentCabrita told me that people with a loved one being treated in the nearby hospitals routinely head for the gardens. Article content“It gives them a respite,” she said. “Even if their husband or wife is cured, they come back again because they found so much peace here.” Article contentThe birders arrive for a different reason. The eBird global database shows that 119 wild bird species have been identified in the gardens. Article content Visitors to the Halifax Public Gardens check out the tropical display bed on Wednesday, July 30, 2025.Ryan Taplin – The Chronicle Herald Photo by Ryan TaplinArticle content“It’s a regular migratory stopover and nesting location,” said Cabrita’s grandson, Wesley Petite, who leads birding tours of the gardens, where just last week a rare ruby-throated hummingbird was glimpsed high in the treetops. Article contentJust how strongly the people of Halifax feel about the gardens was apparent after hurricane Juan, which felled 80 mature trees inside its gates. Donations poured in to rebuild and repair. In the aftermath, members of the Mi’kmaq community held a smudging ceremony to help with the gardens’ healing. Article contentArticle contentA lot of Juan’s damage was to trees around Griffin’s Pond, where replicas of the Titanic and the corvette HMCS Sackville sometimes float. Article contentRivers told me something I didn’t know about the pond: that it was named after Lawrence Griffin, a young Irish labourer who was publicly hanged after being wrongfully convicted of murder in 1822. Article contentAs we walked, the former physical education teacher told me other things I didn’t know about this place that I’ve been visiting my entire life. Article contentThat, for example, the centre panels of the ornate gates into the gardens are only opened to allow royalty to enter, which has happened many times over the years. Article contentThat a mayor of Halifax has never had an official residence. But the first superintendent of the gardens — Irish-born Richard Power, who gained experience in New York’s Central Park before being hired in 1872 to oversee the formal Victorian garden that resulted from the merger of two existing Halifax gardens — did. And that his former brick residence, designed by the esteemed Halifax architect James Dumaresq, still stands just outside the gardens’ northeast corner.
John DeMont: Checking in on the vandalized trees, and other secrets of Halifax’s Public Gardens
